I think that above all it is a love
story in which the protagonists live for and by music. But it isn't
a tango if by that is meant, as I understand it, a story of
exaggerated feelings. Right from the beginning I thought that in
the film "Sus ojos se cerraron" sincerity should rule [...]
I tried to make it as light as
possible because tangos, even when they are high quality, are
always understood to be a somber and melancholic music, even in the
good sense. Like flamenco. But I didn't want there to be in it too
much sentimentality. Above anything else, I was seeking sobriety.
Genuine tangos are sober. They have nothing to do with the typical
lady with a cut in her skirt performing acrobatics. A tango is a
gentleman dressed in black who sings. The other stuff is something
that was invented in Paris. I wanted to make a musical in which the
showiness was there; in the faces of the actors... The real beauty
is in the sensuality of the story, not in the complex dance steps
[...]
In the original script there were
only well-known tangos. I changed that: my choice of dances had to
make it clear that tangos continue to evolve. By contrast with la
copla, which stagnated sixty years ago, tangos are still alive and
I wanted to make a film about tangos which in real life change and
evolve.
JAIME CHÁVARRI.