When the forerunner to the Queens World Film Festival asked me to introduce the feature Mango Tango I jumped on it. I knew very little about this new filmmaker who had such a vast experience as an actress and dancer on both sides of the Atlantic.
The film starts out in a linear fashion and before you know it an array of curve balls plays on our senses. And sensibilities. There is a scene in which our protagonist hesitates about making love as it is the 'wrong' time of the month. Well, it becomes a glorious tribute to the body, both male and female. To some this may be startling but I found it refreshing. And the humor!
All along, as this movie becomes less linear and more and more quirky, we find ourselves not certain about what is real and what is not. Until all the pieces of wild imagination become an overwhelming mass of other people's opinions on our heroine.
Are there some frames and lines that could be edited? Yes, but that doesn't take away from the entirety of this mosaic.
After the screening I had the pleasure of 'interviewing' several audience members who were extremely inspired. To many women, and also men, it was an inspiration that someone of Marianne Hettinger's beauty, would tell this kind of story as she is a long limbed European blonde with an exquisite silhouette and heck of a talent for dancing! It is assumed that she has the world by its balls. But no. Not until the end when she is free and so frees us.
I can't wait to see what this artist is cooking up next!
