Video of the Week 5- Sally Potter et al, from "The Tango Lesson"
This video has nothing revolutionary, nothing astounding, nothing particularly beautiful; I just love watching this video because it looks like what a milonga should look like. Solid social dancing, no one jamming up the floor, teeny-tiny boleos against the floor. Plus, I think this is Confiteria Ideal in Buenos Aires, which is a really pretty place. (Clearly.)
The only thing that surprises me about this clip when I watch it is that so little attention is paid to the feet; when I watch people at a milonga, a do a cursory glance at the frame and then it's laser-vision on the feet, and if the feet look good I never look back up at the frame, because in my experience if the feet are good, the frame is good. Your mileage may vary.
3 comments:
Yes it is ConfiterÃa Ideal. Which must have been amazing in it´s day. Sadly she is a little worn out and needs some reconstructive enhancements. The ladies washroom is really scary too, not as in scary germy, but haunting scary. Last time I was there, they only had a candle going, the lights didn´t work!
I've worked on quite a few film sets - the close-ups are probably to hide the cables on the floor that were hooked up to the lights, the cameras and the microphones - you will notice the zoom outs are behind the chairs or just right on the edge of the floor. the zoom-ups where the camera is right on the floor, it's pretty hard to hide the wires if you want to move the camera arund the dancing couple and show their feet as well. Furthermore, this was filmed at an actual location, not a set so they have to film in such a way so as to work with the set up of the cafe as well as contending with all the people behind the scenes, lighting, cameras, sounds, props, makeup, director, assistants, and literally dozens of wires and cables everywhere.
miss tango - I can totally see how this place would be haunting. It's top on my list to visit. (As soon as I get there...which is as soon as I can dance...so, like, five years.)
tangospeak - This is true; my aunt works on movie sets and I've been her tagalog a lot of times, and they're mostly wires and lights and two teeny actors in the middle. Movies are rad! I'm a dork!
However, given that she's got Omar Vega and Olga Besio in the scene, I would have really loved her to at least edit in more of the wide shot and less of the close; a Fred Astaire one-shot. I understand she's trying to show how the tango is changing her, but the dance is 80% feet, and this movie has the potential to be a slice-of-life documentary of tango in the late 90s...just wish there was a little more footwork, is all.
Post a Comment