Tango?s Revenge
*** (three stars)
Documentary
Directed by: Francine Pelletier
Duration: 70 min.
Parental guidance: for all.
Playing at: Cin?ma du Parc
It?s no coincidence that Francine Pelletier?s new film, Tango?s Revenge, begins at the Montreal International Jazz Festival. The Montreal journalist and documentary filmmaker opens her exploration of the renewal of Argentinian tango music with an outdoor concert by Buenos Aires group Astillero.
The jazz fest is the springboard for many world music groups from around the globe. But as we follow Astillero back home, we are taken beyond the breezy fun of a midsummer night?s free show and into the burgeoning music scene from which they have sprung.
?For many years, tango was a souvenir, not a reflection of Buenos Aires today,? says Juli?n Peralta, the band?s leader and spearhead of Argentina?s tango renaissance.
This may well be the second golden age of tango, we are told later in the film. Pelletier shows us why. The void left by the country?s banking crisis of a decade back has a lot to do with it, as does the increasing Americanization of its pop culture since the rock ?n? roll invasion of the ?60s.
Left with nothing to believe in, and faced with a material and socio-political void, Peralta and many others sought out something quintessentially Argentinian, which they didn?t have to ask permission to use, which they could call their own and modify to reflect their current reality.
They found it in tango. Not the tango of revered iconoclast Astor Piazzolla, which was indeed a reference point, but in new tango music that they began composing and playing themselves ? a dirty, vibrant and violent sound that represents life in Argentina today. Better to play badly and loud, Peralta opines, than well but softly.
He and his peers speak out against the tango performed for tourists on Buenos Aires?s commercial strips; while the older generation wonders what substance there can be in this so-called ?tango nuevo.?
In between, they find common ground as the younger musicians seek inspiration in the past while trying to bring a traditional music into the future.
We meet other groups, with names like El Afronte Orchestra, Orquesta Tipica Andariega, the Vice Versa Orchestra and the Amores Tangos Orchestra, each contributing to the bubbling movement.
Though it turns in circles and tends to repeat itself, Tango?s Revenge offers an engaging portrait of a vibrant music scene coming into its own.
tdunlevy@montrealgazette.com
Twitter: @tchadunlevy
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