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Visions du Réel film festival review

"Enrique y Judita"
Sunday 20 April, 11:30, Salle de la Colombière

The current film festival in Nyon lived up to its International name with the opening night screening of "Enrique y Judita." This documentary about a German tango couple, set in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was shown with audio partly in German, partly in Spanish, and with French subtitles. With such a mixed bag of languages, it could have made for difficult viewing for an Anglophone. Thankfully, dance is such a universal language that the film didn’t get lost in translation.

The smooth steps of a couple gliding across parquet or passionate in a Latin embrace needed no interpretation. Neither did the heated arguments between Enrique and Judita and, boy, could they argue. They argued in the back of taxis, in rehearsal rooms, in their apartment. They spent a considerable amount of their lives arguing, all of it about tango. Tango was their life, they lived and breathed it, they had achieved a reputation as a tango couple and nothing but perfection in their own dancing would do.

A constant vying for superiority on the dance floor creates a
magnetism on the screen which is riveting to watch. Although neither of
the couple is particularly beautiful, it is impossible not to be
entranced by the beauty they create together, by the sheer suppleness
of their bodies, the melding and molding of their long, lissom limbs.

There were times when another argument reared its head: the film was
in danger of becoming a tad monotonous, but thankfully the dances and
disputes were interspersed with other characters in their lives. The
conviviality of the Argentinians that helped them with their tango, the
patience of their dance teacher, the sharing of the maté pipe
around a table all conveyed the warmth and regard that they were held
in. The delightful tailor who made Enrique’s suits urged him, "Get used
to saying yes, don’t be so cross, don’t go through life being so
negative." Although Enrique nodded and smiled, we knew that soon his
temper and frustration would get the better of him.

It would have been good to see a bit more of the city outside the
rehearsal room. A trip to San Telmo with the tourist version of tango
would perhaps, have been a contrast to Enrique’s and Judita’s s own
purist (yet innovative) dancing in the true tango halls. The final few
minutes of the film showing the couple’s return to Germany seemed
unecessary. Nevertheless, this was a superb film to launch the
festival. Fans of Carlos Gardel the (late, great, tango singer) still
say about his music, "His singing gets better every day." If this
festival follows the same line, we are in for a treat.

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