-
Title
-
Tango - a Dance of Universal Alienation / Polska Sztuka Ludowa - Konteksty 2014 Special Issue
-
Description
-
Polska Sztuka Ludowa - Konteksty 2014 Special Issue s.370-377
-
Creator
-
Benedyktowicz, Zbigniew
-
Date
-
2014
-
Format
-
application/pdf
-
Identifier
-
oai:cyfrowaetnografia.pl:6143
-
Language
-
ang
-
Publisher
-
Instytut Sztuki PAN
-
Relation
-
oai:cyfrowaetnografia.pl:publication:6572
-
Rights
-
Licencja PIA
-
Subject
-
anthropology of film
-
Type
-
czas.
-
Text
-
ZBIGNIEW
BENEDYKTOWICZ
Tango - a Dance of
Universal Alienation
T
hese comments and reflections (preceded by a
screening of two short films by Zbigniew Ryb
czyński: Wdech-wydech /Inhale-Exhale/ reali
sed jointly with Bogdan Dziworski1 and Tango, the
Oscar-winner from 19832) originated upon the mar
gin of a book on Rybczyński’s oeuvre prepared by the
Film Workshop in the Institute of Art at the Polish
Academy of Sciences3. I would like to present them as
a contribution to the theme: “Ethnology and contem
poraneity”. Today, the very fact that contemporary
ethnology deals with film as a cultural text is no longer
exceptional, rare, strange or isolated as testified by the
development of a separate domain, namely, the an
thropology of film perceived either as a sub-discipline
of ethnology or as a specific interpretation approach
intent on analysis. Emphasis is placed on joint expe
riences shared by photography, film, ethnography, and
anthropology4. A new type of “writing” or rather cre
ating anthropology is progressing with the assistance
of photography, the film camera, and video; this socalled visual anthropology contains anthropological
reflection on contemporary and past phenomena of
visual culture. My remarks, therefore, can be a con
tribution or justification of the legitimacy, need, and
purposefulness of the application of such an anthro
pological perception of film, its examination from an
anthropological perspective, and the discovery of the
anthropological coefficient contained therein. Briefly
and simply, such a contribution could be entitled: On
the Need and Sensibility of Writing an Anthropological
Commentary on a Film that No One Will Write Apart
from an Anthropologist.
A direct reason for my comments is the review
by Charles Solomon published in “The Los Angeles
Times“ soon after the titular film received an Oscar,
and titled (in a way captivating not only the anthro
pologist): Tango —A Polish Dance of Alienation. Solo
mon wrote: Tango is an almost hypnotically complex
work that requires several viewings to grasp completely.
To the accompaniment of an old and rusty tango the
viewers see an empty anonymous room. A ball falls inside
followed by a boy climbing through the window. The film
seems to be based on live action, but its structure remains
curious - the motions performed by the boy are repeated
with astonishing precision. When he appears in the room
once again, there enters woman holding a baby, to de
part a moment later. The action develops to the moment
when there are 26 actors and actresses present and the
room becomes more crowded than the ship cabin in the
Marx Brothers movie: A Night at the Opera. The crowd
slowly disperses and the room empties. Importantly,
these people do not cooperate, each continues his activ
ity isolated, totally indifferent, and without reacting to
the surrounding chaos - a comment on cramped flats in
Polish towns and the painful alienation produced by this
state of things, Solomon concluded.5
In contrast to the highly promising title this unam
biguous and authoritative, seriously sounding hous
ing-cultural interpretation features startling simplicity
and is the reason why it becomes so difficult to refrain
from smiling. But an equal feeling of dissatisfaction is
produced by other explanations proposed in studies
consistently developing the motif of the Polish hous
ing problem. Characteristically, they all concentrate
on workshop and strictly technical issues, as a rule
stressing the banal nature and insignificance of the
story. More, they caution against seeking in the film
deeper philosophical contents. This primacy of tech
nical questions is accompanied predominantly by re
flections stressing that Rybczyński made the transition
from the cinema to a new formula while abandoning
the film for for the sake of another. Such deliberations
focus on the fact that he had discovered a novel form
of depiction made possible by the video technique.
Here are some samples.
In the article Comme un Polonais Jean Paul Fargier
wrote: Zbigniew Rybczyński fait de la Vidéo depuis tou
jours. Même quand il tournait en Pologne des films expé
rimentaux, il faisait de la Vidéo. Tango, (...) c’est indis
cutablement de la Vidéo, même si son support est du film
et que tous ses trucages sont de classiques caches/contrecaches cinématographiques.
The time and spatial strategy, Fargier went on to
say, which organises this ingenious work is part of a
video approach. Its intention was to create the possi
bility of simultaneously watching about thirty actions
taking place at the same time in a very small room
(with a window, three doors, a wardrobe, a table, and
a bed). Initially, the room is empty, but then a ball
drops in through the window, followed by a boy climb
ing into the interior to throw the ball out and leave.
The ball, however immediately, returns and so does
the child. Note: this is a loop, followed by another,
with a man entering and taking (stealing?) a suitcase
lying on the wardrobe. Another twenty or even thirty
actions will occur in the cramped space. A man sit
ting at the table eats soup brought by a woman and
370
Zbigniew Benedyktowicz • T A N G O - A DANCE OF UNIVERSAL ALIENATION
departs once he finishes. The moment he leaves the
table, another man enters the room, stands on the ta
ble to change a light bulb and, departing, leaves space
for a woman, already appearing with a plate of soup
... Each particle of space is put to maximum use. The
bed is used for changing a baby’s diaper, for waiting for
death, for making love. The overall effect is nine and
half of Nowa książka (New Book, Rybczyński’s previ
ous experimental film - Z.B.) multiplied by three or
four6.
Further on the French critic posed a symptomatic
question, asking whether we are dealing with a hous
ing crisis or a crisis of the cinema? When he first
watched Tango he thought about the housing crisis in
Poland and other socialist countries. Watching it for a
second time he noticed a crisis of film (in a country of
widely disseminated TV). Tango is cinema itself (with
its doors and windows, entries and exits, banal and
well-used scenarios), revealed at a time of the direct.
Everything is visible in the foreground: tragedy and
burlesque are expressed with finesse but gain density.
There is no reason to mourn. Film represented a cer
tain dramatic and comic force and, at times, enormous
emotions. Video, on the other hand, opens up to a
new world of emotion, laughter, and drama.7
Time to turn to analyses conducted from the inside
and let the Polish authors speak. Marcin Giżycki: A
ball falls through a window into an empty ensuite room. A
boy enters in the same way. He takes the ball and jumps
out of the window. The ball immediately falls inside. The
cycle is repeated, like a stuck gramophone record. Other
figures enter from different directions. They behave as if
they were alone in the room. All perform strictly defined
activities and depart, to immediately reappear and repeat
exactly the same motions. Despite the fact that the number
of people continues to grow their paths miraculously cross
in such a way that they never collide. This is Rybczynski’s
sui generis masterpiece, capable of coordinating all those
activities in time with the precision of a fraction of a second, so that they overlap in the manner of a clockwork
mechanism. An ordinary enactment by actors would be
simply impossible, and even if they were to succeed to a
certain extent they would still not attain that mechanical
character of the plot, which, after all, comprises the very
essence of the film. During the culmination, the room con
tains more than thirty persons, a number that we simply
have to accept since we got lost counting already much
earlier. Subsequently, the interior starts to gradually empty
in the same way as it became full of people —now, after
his/her successive departure a given character no longer
returns and does not renew the cycle. The contents of the
film, therefore, are motion and variable spatial relations
between the protagonists —motion increases up to a certain
moment and then is followed by an utmost complication of
all the gathered figures and a decline of motion, until all
371
action ceases. The dramaturgy of Tango is constructed
by means of a densification, in the literal meaning of the
word, of the situation. Each entry of a new resident inten
sifies the tension: “How will he manage to cross the room"?
People keep arriving. Every surprising ending would topple
the logic of the premise, although the author took the liberty
of a slight deviation by allowing himself in the finale to
slightly change the activity of the departing persons, which
we could disapprove if it were to point the message of the
film to a completely new direction. Since nothing of the sort
takes place, the accepted solution is treated as a natural
musical cadenza justified also in the title.
Familiarity with Rybczyński almost guarantees that
Tango interested him predominantly as a technical prob
lem. He simply had an idea and knew how to realise it.
Hence the need to be rather careful while seeking some
sort of more profound philosophical intentions (and such
attempts have been made). Nonetheless, while differenti
ating the characters as regards their makeup and costume
(on the margin, the man in a red coat from Nowa książka
resurfaces) and designing the sets the author created a
specifically Polish panopticon. Everything takes place in a
cramped ensuite room, that symbol of Polish housing dif
ficulties but also of the democratisation of Polish society
(after all, it is in such a room that the Polish post-war
intelligentsia queued up to the bathroom together with
members of the working class, as documented by Leonard
Buczkowski in his celebrated comedy Skarb / Treasure/).
A gallery of average Poles appearing in the apartment rep
resents a full range of fulfilled functions —from intercourse
to death. Copulation, eating, dressing, cleaning, and even
(presumably, since they take place beyond the frame, be
hind the bathroom door) washing and defecation. These
may be secondary contents but they still produce numerous
and various associations 8.
Finally, the opinion of Daniel Szczechura: The re
alisation of Nowa książka, Tango and other films is based
on a mammoth music score containing the movements of
particular characters. This is the reason for the absence
of photos in Rybczyński’s films. It was impossible to ob
tain a photo from Nowa książka, since the final effect was
but a product of the author’s imagination and laboratory
processing. (...) Assorted figures appear in an empty room
as if on stage and perform simple daily activities. In time,
their number grows, new people arrive, and each does the
same. A boy leans through a window and picks up a ball
that had fallen into the room, a woman changes a baby’s
nappies, a girl does her homework, a granny dies, etc. The
culmination scene resembles a ballet or a pantomime of
sorts, in which 26 characters take part. The action then
slows down and once again we are left with an empty
room. Everything takes place to the accompaniment of a
tango. This film, simple and applying limited means, makes
a great impression. After the screening there invariably
emerges the question: how was this done? True, something
like this has never been seen before 9.
Zbigniew Benedyktowicz • T A N G O - A DANCE OF UNIVERSAL ALIENATION
Daniel Szczechura, himself an accomplished au
thor and craftsman in this particular cinematic do
main, reveals the secrets of filmmaking. His extremely
meticulous and professional technical description re
constructs the production of Tango step by step. Why
then do the analyses, as I have mentioned, seem to
be insufficient? The reason lies in the fact that even
when concentrated on the film and attempt to provide
a detailed and thorough description they remain as if
imprisoned within it and are doomed to repetition. In
a manner of speaking, they evade attempts at answer
ing the question: ’’What does Tango mean?” and even
the much less penetrating: "Can Tango actually mean
something?”. It is here that I perceive the place and
role of an anthropologist who could propose a com
mentary. Initially, it might appear that such an ap
proach of an expert on the cinema to the dilemma in
question: a technical (material) description or a quest
for meaning, appears to be closer to the intentions of
the author, who himself voices his opinion (I cite only
a fragment of his statement, to which I shall return at
the end of the text): The most important is technology.
One can speak about the beauty of the pyramid, but the
way in which it was built is more essential. The same holds
true for the Eiffel Tower. The construction of this enor
mous steel structure gave rise to protests. It was claimed
that it was ugly. Now it has become the sentimental symbol
of Paris. First there comes construction and technology,
and only later do they become surrounded with meanings
and produce an ambiance10.
There exists, however, another extreme and dif
ferent point of view declaring that we should not trust
artists all the way. Or else, we may trust them but nev
er believe what they say nor succumb to them.
In an interview published in “Konteksty” Janusz
Bogucki drew attention to this issue by declaring: An
artist concentrates on that, which emerges in his mind and
gradually changes into an object. Later, he works on this
object and becomes totally immersed in its inner world.
But then the object starts to pursue a life of its own, just as
genuine as its original life in the artist’s head and studio.
Acting in this way the author does not really know what
he is doing and is only partly aware of his conduct. A true
artist is unaware of what he is doing and remains an in
strument, a source of energy that becomes transferred into
some sort of matter somewhat according to the principle
of intentions but, predominantly, premonitions —true, the
intellect wields control, professional skills are available, but
how is all this possible considering that it is not a question
of planning and execution? If the later is the case then the
aesthetic object remains empty inside, but if we are dealing
with a creative act then in a certain sense it remains inde
pendent of the author11.
Opting for such a stand and convinced that Tango
is not an empty aesthetic object (as evidenced by the
views of the afore-mentioned authors: “a hypnotic,
complex work”, “a brilliant work”, “a masterpiece”,
“the film makes an enormous impression”) let us sum
up the opinions of experts on the cinema. The number
of extra-film references is scarce. Their interpretation
takes place mainly within the range of the discussed
work (the way it was made) and in reference to a sin
gle context (that of the film), consigning us either to
local history of the film (Giżycki - Skarb) or its world
counterpart - depending on the way in which we per
ceive it (Solomon - the Marx Brothers in A Night at
the Opera; Szczechura, following the example of many
others, cites Melies as his point of reference). Mean
while, the questions: “can Tango mean something?”
and “does Tango mean something?” still remain im
portant and continue to disturb us. They recur persist
ently and call for an answer. Take the question ad
dressed to the author by a journalist conducting an
interview for Andy Warhol’s “Interview Magazine”
wondering whether after he had won an Oscar the
director can explain the meaning of Tango. Already
forewarned that artists are not to be trusted we can
calmly react to the negative response.
What can we do? What is going to happen to our
cultural commentary in the wake of the author’s dic
tum? We simply have to start at the beginning... Now is
the time to go back to Solomon. Against such a back
drop, his rather ridiculous and flat statement, which
we immediately rejected and read without the quota
tion marks: Tango —a Polish dance of alienation, still re
main captivating and appears to lead us onto a correct
course. Something does seem to be right. The tango
in Kantor’s theatre of death, the tango in Rybczynski’s
film, the tango in Mrożek’s theatre of the absurd (this
similarity of the title with Mrożek’s drama was even
keenly noted by Daniel Luliński, the official corre
spondent of the dailies “Trybuna Ludu” and “Zycie
Warszawy” as well as the Polish Press Agency, who
concentrated only describing the scandal caused by the
Oscar winner. Behaving assertively, Rybczyński tried
to shout something about “Solidarity” into the mi
crophone, thus disturbing the solemnity of the event.
Then, after he went outside and was prohibited from
re-entering by security guards, he started a fight)12.
Following the example of the interpretation pro
posed by Solomon: Tango —A Polish Dance of Aliena
tion we come to a problem central for anthropology
and anthropological-cultural questions, namely, what
are the local and universal qualities of culture and the
absorption of the universal by the local and vice versa?
Here, we are dealing with cultural translation. Are
we capable of recreating this path? Admittedly, the
rather difficult and perilous task resembles the situ
ation from the motto that Jan Kott once gave to his
analysis of Mrożek’s Tango: No one will leave until we
find an idea. Edek, don’t let anyone out 13. In the most
general outline this path could be described as follows:
372
Zbigniew Benedyktowicz • T A N G O - A DANCE OF UNIVERSAL ALIENATION
the local (an exotic Argentinian dance) becomes the
universal by turning into the European and the global,
and permeates local culture, where it is subjected to
artistic, theatrical, literary and film processing in or
der to come back to universal world culture in a new
local costume. This is the manner in which the local
and the exotic are restored to the universal. By chang
ing into a Polish speciality the tango as a Polish dance
of alienation becomes universal. How does this take
place, and how is it possible?
Let us start with the local stratum while attempt
ing, at the same time, not to lose any of the traces con
tained in descriptions made by heretofore film studies.
Not by accident did we begin these comments with a
comparison of two very different dance films, i.e. Tango
and Wdech-wydech (Dziworski and Rybczyński); nota
bene, the French critic was wrong when he wrote that
Tango was the last film made in Poland - actually, it
was the documentary realised together with Dziworski
(1981). This is a register and an image of a no longer
extant world that appears to have vanished, and here
and there is becoming the object of social nostalgia. A
world of free-of-charge vacations and sanatoria.
Wdech-wydech is a documentary record of a People’s
Poland-era holiday (in contrast to the strongly accen
tuated simple daily life in Tango) or actually a training
conference carnival attended by cultural-educational
instructors of the Polish- Soviet Friendship Society re
alising a specific programme of “indoor recreation”. A
portrait of entertainment and competitions (including
a contest testing knowledge about the USSR).
Two very different films! Wdech-wydech consists of
natural interiors and natural music (a ballroom orches
tra and music from a croaking loudspeaker), “golden
oldies”, a dance competition (to the strains of the
song: Moscow Evenings - Podmoskovniye vechera) or an
exotic costume contest, an artistic performance, openair recreation, pirouettes on ice-skates, an ice-rink
surrounded by a mountain landscape; these are living
people filmed with precision, attention, and acuteness
but also tenderness. Something that does not possess a
film reference but can be situated only “between” and
“above”, something between and above homo ludens,
homo sovieticus and homo PeReLus (PRL: People’s Po
land), and something that could be rather ineptly de
scribed as “between” films and socialist documentaries
about hairdressing competitions, Rejs (The Cruise) by
Marek Piwowski and the Czech film school with Loves
of a Blonde and The Fireman’s Ball.
Not by accident did we start with two dance-music
films since they allow us to recall one more essential
component in the oeuvre of the author of Tango, to
draw attention to the ever-present stratum of visual
anthropology in Rybczyński’s films, and to mention
a brief ethnographic-anthropological treatise: Święto
(Holiday, 1975). Its recorded images come straight out
373
of a study by Roch Sulima (then recently published)
about the syrenka automobile14. Święto features the
“queen of the roadside”, the “stationary automobile”,
a determinant of social prestige, a hybrid located be
tween the “civilisation of timber” and the “civilisation
of technology”, and subjected to ceremonious wash
ing. The ritual of a festive family gathering, together
with gestures, greetings and farewells, embraces, first
name ceremonies and toasts, a visit to a cemetery, re
membrance of the deceased by “lighting lamps for All
Souls”, and a baby crying in the background - brought
to the cemetery, it grows aggravated in the baby car
riage. Finally, there is the holiday ritual of the whole
family watching TV. Hurried lovemaking (in the
bushes of an allotment) - Eros and Thanatos (as in
other films by Rybczyński) are close by. This is the way
a foreign critic sees it: a petite woman in a suburban
yard chops off the head of a chicken - a symbolic ritual
of blood and the sacrifice of life inaugurating a calm,
orderly, traditional family ceremony. A man drives
out of a garage in a white car leaving behind a trail of
green exhaust fumes. There now begins the ceremony
of washing the car with yellowish water. A family of
eight, together with a baby in a carriage, arrives at the
home of an elderly married couple and preforms a sui
generis ritual welcome dance. Next, they eat dinner the slaughtered chicken together with delectable bev
erages. Afterwards, bored and unwilling to converse,
they all watch television and their silence contrasts
with a wild chase on the TV screen. Finally, a farewell
ritual.
These cosy scenes from family liturgy are inter
rupted with takes showing a couple secretly fleeing the
dinner and making love behind the house; the awk
ward ballet performed by their arms and legs renders
them similar to insects devouring each other.
The man washing the car ends his task, immediately
drives the beloved status symbol back into the garage,
and closes the door. The elderly couple, now alone, re
mains in the room, with granddad soaking his feet and
granny in bed, watching the same TV programme 15.
Rybczyński’s camera, both in Święto and in such experi
ments as an image divided into nine fragments (Nowa
książka) or a frenzied chase in: Oj, nie mogę się zatrzymać
(Oh, I Can’t Stop!), records and “renders indelible” cus
toms, gestures, banal life, ugly townscapes and suburbs,
registering the - what would be the best way of putting
it? - ethnography of a small town, brief histories, old
crumbling architecture and old-new housing-block so
cialist architecture, ”reality neither urban nor rural” de
scribed by Piotr Szczepanik in the song: Tango for half
a zloty. Outstanding artists are supposed to be the crea
tors of a single work, revived in numerous forms; this is
the opinion about Fellini and Bergman.
Tango (and its sui generis visual anthropology, the
experience of Polish films) is a structure of impor-
Zbigniew Benedyktowicz • T A N G O - A DANCE OF UNIVERSAL ALIENATION
tance for Rybczyński’s oeuvre, continued in his other
works; sometimes, we may even find its small elements
(such as the gestures and twirling motion performed in
Wdech-Wydech by a man dancing to the accompani
ment of Podmoskovniye vechera, the energetic spins of
magnificent American girls speeding across Manhat
tan on roller skates in the music video for The Original
Wrapper by Lou Reed)
A drawing-note at the very beginning of a mono
graph about Rybczyński - probably a sketch to an
experimental H DTV film for Imagine (three ensuite
rooms, with the same figure of a man standing behind
closed doors) - features at the bottom:
- is he all alone? - like the other figures
- repetition and addition - like in Tango?
- continuum of a certain story - one - several?
- what sort of a construction of the whole?
The protagonists of Rybczynski’s film are not only
“motion and spatial relations between the protago
nists”, studies in space and time, bipacking, a repro
jector, masks, and high definition but also cultural
relations and motion.
In an excellent study about the symbols and art
that nurture this sort of creativity Małgorzata Bar
anowska, the author of “symbolic realism” - a conceit
crucial for the creativity and art pursued by Rybczyński
and a term with which she attempted to encompass
and interpret his last films - indicated also a particular
cultural stratum. Here, we once again come across the
afore-mentioned incessant game, motion, and relations
between the local and the universal: Manhattan is a vi
sion of a poetic entity composed of a huge number of sepa
rate cultures with their colours, costumes, melodies, dances,
artists, New Yorkers suffering from insomnia, somewhat
comical policemen and felons outwitting them, the home
less as well as inept politicians performing ritual gestures
and oblivious of everything else. A characteristic feature of
Rybczynski’s films is their sense of humour. Both he and
Michał Urbaniak did everything possible so that successive
sequences would startle with changes but also at times with
amusing sound and image. Probably the boldest scenes in
Manhattan involve a fiery tango danced by Argentinians;
the scenes are divided according to the popular rhythms
of particular nationalities comprising the enormous ethnic
mixture of New York. The middle parts of the bodies of the
dancing couple have been replaced by large bellows, similar
to an accordion squeezebox, stretching and folding to the
rhythm of the music and rendering the dancers either giants
or dwarfs. The overall effect is that of an image -sound play
on words. Rap music danced in the air is equally funny
—rhythm inseparably connected with stamping feet is sud
denly suspended above a street16.
The anthropological dimension is to be discovered
in both films about genius loci - as they were described
by Małgorzata Baranowska who amassed in an abbre
viated form the themes contained therein: Films about
374
genius loci amazingly link Rybczynski’s uninterrupted
studies on time and space with a vision of highly differ
ent towns. Here, the landscape retains its static character
and people performing symbolic activities in an incredible
dance of relativity define the character of the place. In great
abridgement and simplification: Manhattan represents
a great musician, a homeless artist, a child, a policeman,
a kaleidoscope of worlds and various peoples, life, youth,
love, home, and contemporaneity. Washington D. C.
embodies a civil servant, a discoverer, a hunter, an assail
ant, a disappearance of old cultures, a soldier, a carnival,
possession, money, love and betrayal, the passage of time,
history 17. Now, time to return to Poland. We are well
aware of the differences between the tango in the case
of Mrożek (1964), Kantor, and Rybczyński, and this is
not the place to delve into the subject. The tango (La
Cumparsita) in Mrożek’s play is a dance of submission
to which we are invited by a power-wielding brute (an
offer you can’t refuse); is it some sort of a vision of our
impotence or an echo and transposition of the dance
of the Straw Man from the arch-drama Wesele (The
Wedding)?18. Jan Kott derived the protagonists - the
Mrożek Family 19 - from Kurka wodna (The Water
Hen) by Witkacy. Jan Błoński wrote: In Tango suicide
is committed by the idea of rebellion; it turns into its own
opposite because freedom announced by avantgarde art is
perishing in the grotto of Edek the caveman, to which it
guided us 20.
Different features belong to the room of reminis
cences, the room of the dead mechanically repeating
elementary motions. In Kantor’s theatre the tango
appears rather late: first in a dive in: Nigdy już tu nie
powrócę (I Shall Never Return, 1988) as a sign of time
and place: The first part, an All Souls Day in a mysteri
ous dive, is conducted by the Argentinian tango Tempos
viejos (a replica of sorts of Waltz François from Umarła
klasa /The Dead Class/) 21, and then in Cicha Noc
(SiIent Night): Figures slowly begin to emerge from un
ravelled shrouds. They successively describe their comical
and tragic personal catastrophes. A whole gallery ensues.
All are already strongly enrooted in the iconography of the
Cricot 2 Theatre —a young Hassidic Jew in an overcoat
and a skullcap; a dancing priest holding a wooden cross;
a girl sleepwalking; a bigot wearing a rosary around his
neck; a demonic streetwalker; a sensually dancing woman
in mourning; a man merged with a broom, and another
with a black umbrella; a World War I soldier and the
“uninvited" in dark spectacles and a roll of paper hanging
around his neck. The stage resounds with a tango. Every
one dances in eccentrically joined couples. 22.
The anonymous room in Rybczynski’s Tango is far
from the intelligentsia-intellectual “Warsaw salon” just
as its protagonists are far from Kantor’s phantoms; from
the structural point of view they are closer to anony
mous plain people from Pieszo (On Foot) by Mrożek;
despite the video film animation technique these are
Zbigniew Benedyktowicz • T A N G O - A DANCE OF UNIVERSAL ALIENATION
living people (filmed in the live action technique). One
of the interpretations suggests that perhaps Rybczyński
shot the room’s memory of its (living? - Z. B.) resi
dents 23. Since reference had been made to the “en
suite room” then both for Kantor and Rybczyński the
background would certainly include the room-flat from
Kartoteka (The Card Index) by Różewicz (although in
Rybczyński’s case without the threnody of Romantic
protagonists or the wartime past).
Tango is situated as closely as possible to the universal/local roots of the tango due to its anonymous and
commonplace protagonists (the screenplay mentions
that they are people busy doing something: 1. Boy with
a ball, 2. Nursing mother, 3. Infant, 4. Thief, 5. Man
with a parcel, 6. Girl doing her homework, 7. Woman
carrying soup, 8. Man eating soup, 9. Young man doing
exercises, 10. Woman with shopping, 11. Man chang
ing a light bulb, 12. Woman cleaning a fish, 13. Girl
dressing herself, 14, Man taking out the litter, 15. Man
in a uniform, 16. Woman cleaning, 17. Slightly intoxi
cated man, 8, 19. Man and woman - guests, 20, 21.
Kissing couple, 22. Mother changing a baby’s nappies,
23. Crawling infant, 24. Man with a newspaper, 25.
Older man with a dog, 26. Old woman)24.
Time to finally seek the opinion of an expert, an
anthropologist of culture, and evoke cultural refer
ences. This task is made easy by the fact that such a
function can be fulfilled by a writer. I have in mind
not just any man of letters but Ernesto Sabato, au
thor of an essay about the tango. In doing so I used
two sources25 (and thus hope that certain repetitions
and reoccurrences in the text will be forgiven). I also
preceded “’information” about the tango with an ex
cerpt of Sabato’s ethnographic reflections about the
subculture of the suburbs, important also for our topic:
ethnology and contemporaneity. Here we shall find
the periphery and the centre, the eternal question
about cultural peripheries, Can anything good come out
of Nazareth? (here: from the culture and art of Poland
and Argentina, aside from the tango), a question in
which one might find echoes of Gombrowicz’s enquiry
about the merit of the cultural peripheries, immatu
rity, local qualities, and “imperfection”, which at times
can prove to be a higher value:
Subculture of the suburbs26
The rightist nationalists densely populating sterile and
pure Argentine want us to write constantly about (non
existent) gauchos. Lefist nationalists, on the other hand,
maintain that metaphysical problems are suitable for the
old European civilisation.... According to this curious
doctrine, only the residents of Paris or Prague can suffer
"metaphysical pain”, and if one is aware that the cause of
this pain is man’s finity then it should be recognised that in
the opinion of those madmen people die only in Europe but
here they live on immortal. This is not the case, because if
375
metaphysical anxiety is nourished by passage of time, then
we, being more temporary, have more reasons to experi
ence it than on the Old Continent 27.
Tango - a song of Rio de la Plata28
I HYBRIDAGE
(...) Millions of immigrants who came to this coun
try in not quite a hundred years not only installed two
attributes of the contemporary Argentinian, namely,
disillusionment and sadness, but also prepared ground
for the origin of the most original phenomenon of the
del Plata region, which is the tango. This dance has
been successively condemned and praised, satirised
and analysed. Finally, its greatest author, Enrique
Santos Discépolo, gave its most apt definition: it is a
sad thing that one dances (...)
II D ISSA T IS F A C T IO N
(...) All this is the reason why the tango is an introvertive or even introspective dance, a sad thing that one
dances, in contrast to what takes place in other folk danc
es, which are extrovertive and erotic. Only a gringo would
make a clown of himself by taking advantage of a tango for
chat or amusement.
The tango is a totally astonishing phenomenon from the
viewpoint of the genre of folk dance in general.
Some maintain that the tango is not always dra
matic and that upon occasions it displays humour. In
doing so they seem to be suggesting that the tango can
be light-hearted. This appears to me to be quite in
correct since we are actually dealing with concealed
satire. The humour of the tango has something of A r
gentinian contrariness, and its epigrams are angry and
grim.
Hard work all day
And on a Saturday evening you’re a lord.
The face of the Argentinian displays a caricature
irony of sorts. When a Neapolitan dances the taran
tella he does so for fun; when a porteño dances the
tango he ponders his plight, as a rule personified by his
partner, or tries to resolve and delve into the general
structure of human existence. A German, drunk on
beer and skipping to the rhythm of Tyrolean music,
laughs and innocently enjoys himself; a porteño does
not laugh or have fun, and if sometimes he unthink
ingly and furtively smiles his grotesque grimace differs
from the laughter of the German just like a pessimistic
hunchback differs from a gym teacher. (...)
III S E X
(...) Assorted Argentinian thinkers identified the
tango with sex or, as in the case of Juan Pablo Echagüe,
simply described it as lascivious. I believe that we are
dealing with quite the opposite. True, the tango came
into being in dives, but already this fact should pro
duce suspicion that this is a case of some sort of a re-
Zbigniew Benedyktowicz • T A N G O - A DANCE OF UNIVERSAL ALIENATION
verse, because artistic creativity is almost always an
antagonist act, an attempted escape or rebellion. The
imagination thus creates something that is absent, an
object of our longing and hope, something which will
magically make it possible for us to free ourselves from
our harsh daily reality. (...)
IV
(...) The body of another person is a mere object
and contact with its matter does not entitle to cross
the boundaries of loneliness. The sexual act is thus
doubly sad, since it not only leaves man amidst his
previous loneliness, but intensifies it and the frustra
tion of the effort. This is one of the mechanisms that
could explain the sadness of the tango, so full of de
spair, anger, threats, and sarcasm. (...)
V BA NDONEO N
(...) From the brothels and the dives the tango set
out to conquer the city centre together with a bar
rel organ and a parrot, which innocently and blatantly
proclaimed:
I would like to become a scoundrel,
So as to possess a girl.
And with invincible force, that characteristic fea
ture of authentic expression, the tango took the world.
(...)
VI METAPHYSICS
(...) In this country of oppositionists each time
when someone plans or creates something (a budget,
a symphony or a housing project) there immediately
emerge thousands of critics who with sadistic scrupu
lousness destroy everything. (...)
(...) The mentioned critics find metaphysics only
in volumes by German professors, while, as Nietzsche
said, it lies in the streets, in the entrails of the ordinary
man. (...) Inevitable frustration, nostalgia for a distant
homeland, the hostile attitude of the indigenous pop
ulation towards the invasion, uncertainty and frailness
in a rapidly changing world, the incapability to ensure
a living, and the absence of absolute hierarchies - all
this is expressed in metaphysical tango-istics.
In one swoop the concrete destroyed
The old neighbourhood - my birthplace.
Progress, forcefully introduced by the leaders of
new Argentina, did not leave a stone unturned; more,
it did not leave a brick unturned since technically that
material is less durable. A fact that is even more de
pressing.
There is nothing permanent in this ghost town.
A folk poet describes his nostalgia for the old Cafe
de los Angelitos:
I evoke you, lost in life and suffused in clouds of
smoke.
376
In turn, the humbler, suburban Manrique asks:
What dreams did they pursue?
On what stars do they wander?
Those voices that came yesterday
and passed and fell silent.
Where are they today?
Along which streets will they return?
The porteño, as no European can, experiences the
passage of time and the fact that the frustration of all
his dreams and ultimate death are an unavoidable
epilogue of all efforts. Muddied, leaning on a mar
ble table-top amidst glasses of “semillon”* * and the
smoke of “negros” cigarettes, he asks in the throes of
friendly meditation:
Brother, do you remember those beautiful times?
And concludes with cynical bitterness:
Life flows, departs, and never returns,
It is thus best to enjoy it, and may all cares
Go to the devil. (...)
The man of the tango is, therefore, a creature who
meditates about the passage of time and that which it
brings: unrelenting death.
* porteño - a resident of Buenos Aires
* * cheap popular wine.
Time for putting things in order: Wdech-wydech is
enclosed in the poetic of the extravertic tango. Tango
is by the very nature of things introvertic. We are well
aware of the differences between the phantom quali
ties of Buenos, Łódź, Warsaw...
Once we had already become acquainted with the
structure of the tango we can return to the whole of
Rybczyński’s statement (previously cut short and de
prived of the last sentence):
(...) First there comes construction and technology,
and only later do they become surrounded with meanings
and produce an ambiance. TH E C O N T E N T IS ETER
N A L A N D CO M M ON FOR A LL PEOPLE.
In one swoop the concrete destroyed
The old neighbourhood —my birthplace....
What dreams did they pursue?
On what stars do they wander?
Those voices that came yesterday
and passed and fell silent.
Where are they today?
Along which streets will they return?
The sad thought dancing in Kantor’s play, in
Mrozek’s drama, and in Rybczynski’s film is different.
The same is true for the sad thought dancing in Tango,
Wdech-wydech, Orchestra, Manhattan, and Washington.
THE CO N TEN T IS ETERNAL A N D COM M ON
FOR A LL PEOPLE.
Zbigniew B e n e d y k to w i • T A N G O - A DANCE OF UNIVERSAL ALIENATION
12
E n d n o te s
1
Wdech-wydech
B ogdan
D z iw o rsk i a n d Z b ig n ie w
13
S e M a F o r (fo r P o lish T e le v isio n ).
Tango
(1 9 8 0 ) , d ir e c tio n : Z b ig n ie w R y b czyń sk i, c o o p e r a
Ja n in a
A n d rzej
T e o d o rc z y k ,
M ie c z y sła w Ja n ik , e d itin g : B a r b a r a S a r n o c iń sk a , p r o d u
Ign acy G o n cerz,
p r o d u c tio n :
Zbigniew Rybczyński podróżnik do krainy niemożliwości,
ed.
C f., i.a . m y in tr o d u c tio n t o a n issu e o f “ K o n te k s ty ” (n o.
3 /4 1 9 9 2 i o n th e a n th r o p o lo g y o f film a n d
c o n ta in in g p e r tin en t te x ts . C f. al so:
el w h o le
21
issu e
Sztuka ng wysokos'oi
Ibid .
8
M arcF n G iż y c k i,
Ja n
B ł o ń sk i,
Wesele, “ Te a t r ”
n o . 4 /1 9 9 4 .
Drugie dąsie czyli powtórka poczwórki,
K rzysztoC P la śn ia ro w ic z ,
M a g d a le n a S m ę d / r ,
Pokói”i
23
Jak Polak,
tra n sl. T e r e sa R u tk o w sk a ,
24
25
Teesr Śmierci Tadeusza Kantora.
“Betlejem. Golyole, Bastylia i Biedny
“ K o n i / k s t y ” n o . 3 - 4 /1 9 9 1 , p. t 2 3 .
R j/ z a r d C ia r k a .
Zbigniaw Rybceyński podróżnik...,
o p . c it.,
Ib id ., g r a p h ic in se rt.
Pisare i oego amory,
E r n e s to S a b a t o ,
pwsenka r^op^a^eińika,
Wizja i kalkulacja, ib id ., p p . 2 8 -2 9 .
S z c z e c h u r a , Tango, czyli nowe spoareenie rut kiso,
c o ll., tran el. a n d
Statem en t m ad e
1 9 7 5 , p. 11. I w o u ld lik e t o t h a r k M r. R a jm u n d K a lic k i
d u r in g
a
p r e ss
c o n fe r e n c e
b u t w ith ou p p e r tin e n t b ib lio g r a p h ic d a la .
in lire
In s titu te o f A r t a t th e P o lish A c a d e m y o f S c ie n c e s , s u b
s e q u e n tly r e p e a te d in in te rv ie w s a n d th e p re ss.
Ja n u s z B o g u c k i in a c o n v e r s a tio n :
malo wolności?,
Tango
“ L iie r e t u r a ” 12, n o . 12, 2 0 M a r c h
fo r h is k in d h e lp in lo c a t in g th is essay , w h ic h I r e c a lle d
ib id ., p p . 3 4 T 5 .
11
in
J a n K o tt, of). cit.
a fte r w o rd R a jm u n d K a lic k i, K ru k ó w 1 9 8 8 ; id e m ,
7
10
Przyczynek do semiotyki śmieci, “K o n te k sty ”
p. 169.
Je a n - b a u l Fareiee,
D a n ie l
n o . 4 /1 9 6 5 , pp .
V e r b c /C h o to m ó w 1 9 9 0 , p. 114.
22
oczu. Film i antropologia W arozaw a 1 9 9 1 .
C h a r le s S o lo m o n , “Tango” - polski tygiec alienacji, tra n sl.
Teresie R u tk o w sk a , in : Zbigniew Rybczyński podróżnik...,
ib id ., p p . 4 4 - 4 5 .
9
“D ia lo g ”
“ D ia lo g ” n o . 5 / 1 6 8 , p. 7 0 e
o p . c it., p. 3 7 .
6
R o c h S u lim a ,
g r e a t im p te ssio n o n h im wae
19
20
R y sz ard C ia r k a , W a rsz a w a 1 ° 9 ° .
5
Rodzina Mrożka,
w h ic h rh e a u th o r a d m itte d th a t th e first paay t o m a k e a
Z b ig n ie w B e n e d y k to w ic z , c o o p e r a t io n T e r e sa R u tk o w sk a ,
4
K o tt,
15 Zbigniew Rybczyński - podróżnik..., o p . c it., p. 6 7 .
16 Ib id ., p p . 1 8 9 -1 9 0 .
17 Ib id ., ^ 2 0 0 .
18 C f. an in te rv i ew w ith M rożek : h e ld b y Je rzy J aro ck i,
SeM aF o r.
3
Ja n
n o . 1 /1 9 9 3 , a . 3 3 .
S t r ą k . Ja n u s z O lsz e w sk i, Z y g m u n t S m y c z e k , W ie sła w
R y sz a rd O k u ń s k i,
14
A n d rzej
N o w a k , H a lin a K ra je w sk a , m u sic : Ja n u s z H a jd u n , so u n d :
c e r:
o p . c it.,
6 8-73.
tio n :
D y c h to ,
Zbigniew Rybczyński - podróżnik...,
pp. 8 4 -8 5 .
R y b czy ń sk i, m u sic :
Ja n u s z H a jd u n , p r o d u c e r R y sz ard O k u ń s k i, p r o d u c tio n
2
C f. a n a c c o u n t o f a n in te rv ie w g iv e n in “ In te rv ie w
M a g a z in e ” , in:
(1 9 8 1 ) , s c e n a rio , p h o to g rap h y , d ire c tio n :
Emaus za dużo czy za
“ K o n tp k sty ” n o . 1/1 9 9 2 , p. 2 9 .
26
27
28
E r n e s to S a b a t o ,
Pisarz i jego zmory,
I in tr o d u c e d c a p tio n n u m b e r s d u e t o a n e w a r r a n g e m e n t
o f th e fr a g m e n ts.
Zbigniew Rybczyński, drawing to Tango
377
p. 6 8 .
Uriel.
