Tanghi Argentini is a 2006 short film (13 minutes) from Belgium directed by Guido Thys.
Andre is an office worker in Ghent. He has struck up an internet romance with a lady named Suzanne. The only problem is, Andre met Suzanne in an internet chatroom for tango enthusiasts, and he has made himself out to be a top-notch tango dancer, when in fact he's never danced.
Faced with the urgent need to master the tango in two weeks, Andre turns to Franz, a coworker who actually is a tango enthusiast. Franz and Andre spend two weeks in intensive tango lessons. Finally the big night comes, as Andre meets Suzanne for tango night at a club, with Franz coming along for moral support. However, events take a series of surprising turns.
Tropes:
- And the Adventure Continues: Having crossed Franz's name off his list, Andre goes to the last name, a guy named Patrick, who apparently is something of a writer. Andre starts telling him about this girl that Andre met on the internet, who likes poetry...
- Christmas Episode: It's Christmas holidays, with a tree in the office and everything.
- Contrived Coincidence: Subverted. It seems like an awfully handy coincidence when Andre, in urgent need of tango lessons, happens to have a skilled tango dancer as a coworker. It isn't.
- Dancing Is Serious Business: Franz takes the tango very seriously, saying that to dance the tango you have to have passion and fire and Andre doesn't have it. After Andre insists that his fire is not out, Franz consents to give him tango lessons.
- Foreshadowing:
- The fact that it's Christmastime, and Andre claims that he's shopping for presents for his coworkers, actually foreshadows the ending. Andre's playing matchmaker for the holidays.
- Franz scornfully refers to another of the office drones, Patrick, as a "failed poet". The ending shows Andre, having successfully matched up Franz, approaching Patrick and telling Patrick that he needs help with this woman in a chat room who writes poetry.
- The Matchmaker: The ending reveals that Andre didn't really want to go out with Suzanne; he deliberately set Franz up with Suzanne. He has a whole list of people that he's fixed up this way, and he moves on to the next single guy after crossing Franz off the list.
- The Reveal: Andre actually set up the whole thing from the start, meeting Suzanne in a tango chat room, asking Franz for lessons, and bringing Franz with him to the club, because he wanted to fix Franz and Suzanne up together.
- Romantic Wingman: Subverted. Andre takes Franz with him to the date with Suzanne, seemingly for moral support—but he really wanted to get Franz and Suzanne together from the start.
- Shout-Out: The title is a shout-out to a famous musical
about the Argentine tango. - Stairs Are Faster: Andre and Franz are on an elevator together after Franz has rejected Andre's request for tango lessons. Andre gets off on his floor. Franz goes a couple of floors down, only to be very surprised when the doors open again and he sees Andre outside, demanding lessons.
- Sucks at Dancing: Subverted. After his crash course on dancing the tango, Andre finally takes the dance floor with Suzanne. He is terrible, dancing badly and awkwardly before actually dropping her. Of course, the ending reveals that he had a plan.
- Tango: Franz takes it very seriously. Andre is no good at it.
- Training Montage: A montage shows Andre and Franz going through a series of tango lessons. Sometimes they spin around together when they pass each other in the halls of the office.
