Patience and a love for music are pre-requisites for watching this documentary.
"If, when you hear a tango that is played well, you don't feel your chest tremble, find something else to do with your time," pianist Carlos García says in introducing this insightful piece on the art of tango and its origins.
Producer and Argentinian musician Gustavo Santaolalla pays tribute to veterans such as Nelly Omar, Horacio Salgán and Mariano Mores and other legendary musicians famous in Buenos Aires as the great masters of tango from the 1940s and 1950s.
The film heads straight into interviews and rehearsals with these musicians, most of them well over 80. They discuss their musical styles, while we are given a brief history of what it was like when they started out. As the musicians talk with nostalgia about the days of girls, clubs, football and the races, the film takes tango beyond the dance.
The problem is that no real historical context is given and the documentary starts off shakily, presenting these interviews exhaustively without saying why. The real joy is when the music finally comes together with the formation of the Orquesta de los Maestros (Band of the Masters), with all the musicians featured performing in a one-off concert at the Buenos Aires Colón Theatre in 2007.
It is a rare treat to witness the invaluable wisdom of those who were purveyors of the scene and from whom the music seems to flow as a life source.
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