-Interview by Pablo Hadis
(SPANISH VERSION HERE)

"I want to look straight at God,
even if I'm bitten by pain,
even if it costs me my life."
   - En Tus Brazos

Emotionalism, sensuality, passion, melancholy. "En Tus Brazos" narrates a story of tragic beauty to the rhythm of well-known tangos. The film has a distinct Argentine flavor, yet it has not been produced at the margins of the Río de la Plata: three French animators have managed to stir the emotions of people around the world (and especially from Argentina) with a short film about tango. Such a film could have only been conceived in just a few countries, and in this particular case (France) it can be explained due to a long, shared history of appreciation and cultivation of this musical style. Something which ultimately also speaks of a certain cultural affinity between the two countries.

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"En Tus Brazos" stands out thanks to its skillful editing, the quality of the acting and a playful mise-en-scène, but what gives "En Tus Brazos" its true soul are the passion and feelings which are revealed through the characters in all their strength and beauty. It's the authenticity of these feelings, clearly present in the dance between the man (Jorge) and the woman (Elba), which allows one to sense that the choice of subject for the film is far from accidental, that one or more of the authors is closely acquainted with the experience of dancing tango. "En Tus Brazos" was created by François-Xavier Goby, Edouard Jouret and Matthieu Landour, as part of their studies at the French animation school Supinfocom Valenciennes, and we had the great pleasure to interview one of them, FX Goby, and ask him some questions regarding the film.

Hadis: How did the idea for the script come about?

FX Goby: I made a trip to Argentina three years ago. One night I was in Buenos Aires and I met this old tango aficionado who was 80 years old. After talking for a while, the old man suddenly said to me, "you know, I had more than 3000 women in my life".

"Well, that seems like a lot", I said. But he insisted: "Yes, yes, it's true, I had 3000 women because every time I danced tango with a woman, I fell in love…"

That's how I realized the narrative power a tango dance has, and I decided to work together with my two friends, Edouard Jouret and Matthieu Landour, on this animation project.

Hadis: Why did you choose the song "En Tus Brazos", among other possible ones?

FX Goby: We wanted a tango with vocals for the first part of the film. This one in particular had all the intensity and emotion we were looking for, and in addition to that it gave us the name for the short!

Hadis: How did you start dancing tango?

FX Goby: Four years ago I lived in a small city in the southern part of France, and I wanted to do something besides studying. The only activitywhich seemed original enough was this tango course, taught by two French aficionados... That's how I started, and I'm still dancing it.

Hadis: The amount of research you did on this film is impressive, as well as the cultural details it incorporates. How was this research done, and how long did it take?

FX Goby: Yes, we put a lot of work on those small details, we managed to obtain a good deal of documentation about tango, about the 1920s, "art nouveau" and "art déco" furniture, traditional suits, hairstyles from those years, jewels… The time we spent on research and preparation previous to production took us 4 months.

I also got help from Argentine friends, such as Lalo Rotaveria, from the cultural affairs office of the city of Buenos Aires. Thanks to him I had complete access and even permission to film the World Tango Championship, and I also received help to solve other issues such as getting the rights for the music, etc.

Hadis: Where is the apartment of Jorge and Elba located, according to the film?

FX Goby: It's in Buenos Aires, according to our imagination, but we didn't choose a particular place for it.

Hadis: Animating two tango dancers is no easy task. How did you prepare yourselves for that job? What reference material did you use?

FX Goby: First we worked with two Argentine tango dancers who live in Paris (Sebastián Misse and Andrea Reyero), thanks to whom we were able to analyze with precision the small details of the dance, each one of the movements and how they affect the body. Later on we used the references I filmed from the World Tango Championship, with the best dancers from around the world. Mixing all these data we created an original choreography for the short.