An unfortunate old man, a soldier and a journalist, settled in Paris after many years. His wife committed suicide after cheating, pinning her grief in an outdated room to be rented. In this house, he and a girl much younger than him followed the rule of not asking questions, that is, everyone was just there Have fun, be engrossed, but don't allow any real-world information to be brought into the house.
Juxtaposed with it are the rules of the dance of tango. Tango is a dance about the emotional secrets of men and women. Men and women are required not to smile, and their expressions are serious. Joy and unrestrainedness need to be expressed through the body. Exploration on the left and right sides is for fear that the joy at the moment will be discovered by the outside world, and it is also the behavior of the lover to supervise the loyalty of his other partner in dance legends. Bertolucci incorporated the language of tango dance into the language of the film, comparing the rules of men and women in tango with the rules of men and women in Paris at this time. This comparison brings additional interest to the interpretation of the film itself.
Just like the New Wave films of the year, while discussing the boundaries of morality, the subject matter is often anti-moral. When she was young, it could be said that she succumbed to the violent sex of men, but she developed an emotional dependence on this kind of sex, like a combination of helplessness, addiction, pain and pleasure. The old man is mysterious and attractive to her, and although her fiancé has designed all kinds of rituals for the love that is about to enter marriage, he has given this love enough romantic conditions. But this ritual moment that was exposed to so many eyes and could be recorded lost any vitality, like a love that died on film.
As a viewer, witnessing the deformed sexual forms of the two protagonists, and being curious about their respective histories, this immoral love is an emotional instinct and an escape. The expression of the film is not lyrical, but more based on humanism, depicting a kind of predicament, depicting the loss and catharsis in the predicament.
The space in the rental house is actually a refuge for people in predicament. Their morality moves from heteronomy to self-discipline, and outside dogmas and moral constraints cannot enter it. People themselves, as moral legislators, establish in the new space. a new set of guidelines.
And this kind of "liberation" can only lead to destruction in the end, and the principles established by individual people are difficult to be exposed to the public, just as the two people mixed into the tango competition and were stopped by the judges, stating that they were like " "Dance" is not love.
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