The humor of Doctor Tangalanga, that character with a fake beard and mustache, cap and glasses, who made telephone jokes a cornerstone of Argentine comedy, has a new guise in cinema. The Tangalanga methodwith Martin Piroyanskydoes not capture the character at its peak, but prefers to face it in its beginnings, telling how it was born.
For those who don’t know who Tangalanga was and what his humor consisted of, Julio Victorio De Rissio picked up a (landline) phone, dialed a number and when he answered it he showed interest in something in particular, he seemed like a serious person, but gradually shortly the speech – which would have become almost a monologue – turned into a prank call. Tangalanga has improvised and could go as far as eschatology.
As we said, the film by Mateo Bendesky, director of hereOh family membersplaces his stock in a distant Buenos Aires, around 1962. Instead of Julio, the character is called Jorge and is an extremely shy boy who works in a company that sells soaps.
He has a close friend, Sixto (Alan Sabbagh), who is his colleague, and he has some issues with his lack of decisiveness. If something isn’t Jorge he’s a bold guy. First, he has stage fright and can’t speak in public. For this reason, approaching to start a conversation with a woman is another impossible feat.
But when Sixto ends up hospitalized, Jorge has to conduct a meeting with potential soap buyers. Of course it all goes wrong.
And because of those coincidences in life, Jorge ends up in a speech by a Spanish mentalist (played by Silvio Soldán, another of the film’s castings), who gets the unexpected. Through a sort of hypnosis, with the clinking of a glass, Jorge transforms into another. He is talkative, impertinent, outgoing.
And it will not happen that, going to see Sixto in the sanatorium, you meet the receptionist (Juliet Zylberberg), with whom he falls completely in love. The fact that Clara has an affair with one of the club’s managers (Rafael Ferro) creates complications in the protagonist’s life.
Like it’s Jekyll & Hyde
So Jorge transforms into Tangalanga, as if he were Jekyll & Hyde. No one knows that he’s the one making those practical jokes, which allow the film to sometimes distance itself from the romantic comedy and focus on misunderstandings and multiple plot situations.
The director, focusing on the 60s, also appeals to an aesthetic that contrasts with the insolent and nonchalant humor of Jorge/Tangalanga.
The Tangalanga method It is a comedy of those who manage to make people laugh, in whose cast it also stands out Luis Machinas the head of the soap company.
“The Tangalanga Method”
Very good
Comedy. Argentina, 2022. 97′, ATP R. Of: Matthew Bendsky. With: Martin Piroyansky, Luis Machin, Julieta Zylberberg, Alan Sabbagh. Rooms: Hoyts Abasto and Dot, Cinépolis Houssay, Showcase Belgrano and Quilmes.
Source: Clarin
