Sunday, March 19, 2006

The Tango Lesson

Semi-autobiographical film by the director/writer Sally Potter, in which she plays herself.

The first thing that struck me was the visual patterns - cool, spare, and smooth, but then suddenly a burst of rhythm, echoing the visual impact of the tango. Most of the film is black and white (in brightly-coloured contrast are the passages from Sally's imagination about the film she didn't make). Each shot is perfectly composed, and several of them are based on paintings - overtly in one scene where the characters meet in front of a painting which echoes their situation, and consciously take up the pose. In many scenes, movement, and particularly dance, expresses the thoughts and feelings of the protagonists.

Every hint in the plot or dialogue of the mental and emotional state of the main character was reinforced by the images (for example, the shot down onto the precisely aligned blank white paper on the blank white table, in the most vivid portrayal of writer's block I've ever seen).

Emotionally it was very satisfying: uplifting with nothing sickly or cloying, especially the resolution in a surge of music and dance which went onwards forever into the future.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Bach cantatas

Eastern Early Music Forum is organising workshop on Bach cantatas on 9 April.
It's also the date of a family party, so I shall only get to half the workshop. This is half a workshop more than usual!