Edinburgh International Film Festival

In the documentary Café de los Maestros, directed by Miguel Kohan, some of the original first generation innovators of the tango come back together in Buenos Aires, the city of their youth, to play a magnificent concert celebrating the tango.  Many artists are interviewed and recorded playing their music, thus preserving it for history.  This is a Spanish language film, with English subtitles.
The music in the documentary is beautifully written and magnificently performed.  However, the documentary itself is very poorly made.  Little is explored deeply, the personal histories left unexplained, and the documentary just doesn’t move from one point to the next with ease.  The music continues for five to ten minutes, uninterrupted, as if one was watching a concert. Then, suddenly and for no reason, spoken word returns to talk about something rather unimportant, and then a new five-minute long section of music begins.  It is a confusing and irritating film to watch.  I give it two and a half stars, simply because it has excellent music.