Is the movie any good? (If anyone wants to know about the other tango movies available on video, write me offlist.)
The (Argentine) tango itself is divine -- I dance it a couple of times a week and don't know what would happen if I didn't get to. I don't know about Tango and expat marxists, but I do know that it is THE music of exiles par excellence. It was created in the late nineteenth century by exiles from Africa, Spain, Turkey, Germany, Italy, and the Argentine pampas who were thrown together in the slums of Buenos Aires. It has the most amazing and infinite palette of moods, tempos, orchestration. Here in the bay area it seems to attract a lot of immigrants: most of the Latins go for salsa, but the Russians, Turks, and Iranians seem to wind up on the Tango floor.
My favorite tango anecdote is about Osvaldo Pugliese, one of the greatest tango composers of all time. He was a communist, so he was often arrested. As a result, when he went to conduct his Tango orchestra in the evening, he would wear his pyjamas under his tuxedo; that way, he would be comfortable in jail. They did sometimes come and take him away. While he was gone, the band would lay a red carnation on the piano to mark his absence.
Joanna