Rashevski's Tango (2003) Poster

(2003)

User Reviews

Review this title
4 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
9/10
A beautiful movie about love, family and religion
strobo_barnold3 August 2004
This movie is about a Jewish family in Europe (they live in Belgium, but that is not important for the movie). At the beginning of the movie the grand-mother dies. She was the strong pillar that kept the family together. Her death forces all the members of this family to think about their lives, and the choices they have made. Now all the family members have to find their own way.

It is a very realistic movie, and it points out all the important facets of human lives: love, family, religion, prejudice...but most of all the picture shows that everybody is imperfect...and that isn't a bad thing when we realize it.

The deaths of the grand-mother and the great-uncle symbolize the disappearing of the last generation that consciously witnessed the Second World War.
18 out of 19 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
9/10
Delightful film about the diaspora experience
myfavoriteartform31 December 2004
This is a delightful film, but in order to appreciate it fully one would need some knowledge about Jewish life in the diaspora.

It tells the story about a family of assimilated Belgian Jews, how they struggle with defining their Judaism, their family, and themselves.

There are three generations of the Rashevsky family, each of which has experienced the major forces of its era. For the oldest generation, the defining event was the Holocaust; for the middle generation, growing up in wartorn Europe and being 2nd generation after the Holocaust; finally, for the 3rd generation, dealing with assimilation and modern life in a Western culture.

The performances are nuanced, the director wisely chose the "less is more" route in the actors' interpretations of their roles. The film begins with a gripping scene that can only be gradually understood as the film tells its tale. (And the final scene has a very nice, slightly ironic, way of coming full circle).

As the film progresses, the thread of the family's story slowly unwinds. Each character comes to grips with his or her angst about Judaism, family, and what he or she wants, ending in poignance and redemption. While things don't end neatly tied together so that everyone finds the same answers - a feature of modern American TV and movies, unfortunately - it does realistically portray choices made, their rationale, and how we live with those choices.

Overall, a sensitive, lovely portrait of modern Jewish life in the diaspora, and the issues we face. I hope I have done it justice. 9 out of 10.
18 out of 20 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
the roots
Kirpianuscus9 August 2018
It is easy to define it as a Jewish film. The death of grandmother changing everything . In fact, it is a story about us. Simple, profound, moving. As a sort of cathasis. Because it is a film about family roots. About the meanings of past and memories. And about the fundamental choices. And, sure, about the fears, clash between generations, future. One of useful films.
3 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Jews: what's the fuzz about those guys ?
sanderfridman21 October 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Maybe it won't be totally easy for everyone to understand every single word expression in this film - I doubt however whether it will make any difference. Not more then 60 years ago Jews were still very much unpopular among occidental societies, and although it was still so hard for them to enter the best universities as students, teachers and researchers, they made major contributions to human knowledge and culture all over the 20th century and became a myth wide beyond their merely historical role in the Old Testament. With all their money, organizations, intellectuals, scientists and absurd amount of Nobel prizes, Jews have become a most fairly interesting ethnic case, which asks for being understood by none-Jews as well as by Jews themselves. Why is that so? That one must be admitted as a mostly valid question. I doubt very much whether there is anybody out there with any proper answer - Jewish or not. Well, this movie seems to make an honest try to apprehend the questions "who are those guys?", "what makes them different from everyone else?" It shows however what Jews are mostly sure not indeed: they aren't a solidly definable hermetic society, they don't have a common creed, they don't have the same genetic constitution, one can become a Jew just like any other Jew, they aren't flawless at all, and they themselves cannot get into an agreement about who is and who is not a Jew. In the end the question of course still persists: who the hell are those guys at last? How do they get to be so noisy, being so few? Could there be anything in common among them? If so, what might that be? A tentative answer however seems equally evoked all over the movie. A permanent experience of each and every character of a very inner tension regarding answers to question such as: what am I? what am I here for? what is expected from me? what am I to stand for? And that occurs to none-Jews trapped in the Jewish-becoming issues as well. Being part of a collectivity of people who permanently charges each other for answers like those - is that all the fuzz about being a post-20th century Jew? That seems to be the answer the film's got for us. Of course, an answer by means of a question - or many.
4 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Clear your history

Recently Viewed