Je ne suis pas la pour etre aime

I saw this movie in Montreal with friends in July, 2006. It had an appeal on both a dramatic and psychological level, as well as an appeal to me as a tanguero. There were different plots going on at the same time: (1) We had Jean-Claude, the divorced middle-aged man who evicts delinquent tenants who was searching for something to give meaning to his life; (2) We had Jean-Claude's son who was beginning in his father's business and hated it; (3) We had the tension between Jean-Claude and his own father, a resident of a home for the elderly; (4) We had the relationship between a young woman, Francoise, and her fiance; and (5) We have the idea of unrequited love between Francoise and Jean-Claude.

I had noted that there are some "heavy" psychological themes with which most of us will identify. You might possibly say that certain of the characters are represent archetypes we see daily.

I was impressed with the tango dancing in the movie -- no, it was not the flashy dancing like you would see in "Tango Lesson" or "Assassination Tango" -- quite the contrary. It was the kind of dancing you would see in a milonga. It was interesting to notice the difference in the closeness of the embrace between Jean-Claude and Francoise as the movie progressed and as their interest in each other progressed.

A friend commented to me that the music used in the tango class scenes was that of Carlos di Sarli's "Bahia Blanca." According to his recounting of history, this piece of music was written by Di Sarli as a result of the unrequited love he felt with a much younger woman.

I liked the movie so much that I was considering purchasing the Zone 2 [European] version from France with the hopes of fixing my DVD player so it would play DVDs from Zone 2. I was delighted that I am able to purchase the DVD in a format that I can play with my existing equipment without having to "hack" the DVD settings. I am pleased to have my name on the list to purchase this DVD as soon as it is available. One more thing, I intend to recommend this film to all of my tanguero friends AND to people in my French class, including my French professor.

› Go to Amazon U.S. to see the review  5.0 out of 5 stars