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declared that starting from its title, Tango was the film that gave music a prime role in his
work. Unlike his previous films in which he considered the music to be independent from the
images and in which pre-existing music was used, here he asked the composers to create
music that would follow, precede, or accompany the camera movements to achieve a synergy
or a contrast (Ungari, 1982: 87-89). In Tango music carries 'representational meaning', in
Claudia Gorbman's words, as it consists almost of a single theme (based on a saxophone
piece by Gato Barbieri) played in different nuances connected to specific 'representational
elements' in the film; the theme signals 'the same character, locale, or situation each time it
appears', acting therefore as a marker and creating continuity, and it is also instrumental 'in
the film's dynamic evolution' (Gorbman, 1987: 27). The evocative saxophone sound shapes
the film's mood every time it reintroduces a liaison between Paul and Jeanne, and ultimately
evolves into a grandiose orchestral theme towards the end of the film. Music, as had been the
case in The Conformist, therefore begins to occupy a more pivotal role in the emotional
ambience of Bertolucci's films from this point in his career.
By contrast the simple mise-en-scene that acts as a backdrop to Jeanne and Tom's
relationship appears to emphasize the relatively monotonous emotional mood of the
sequences, which are only occasionally diversified by different shooting locations. Tom, with
his monothematic personality, essentially views his relationship with Jeanne in terms of its
use in his films. Consequently, their relationship receives no narrative stimulus to develop,
remaining repetitive and one-dimensional. This perception is accentuated by a recurring
framing technique; regardless of whether scenes take place in interiors or on location, the first
shot is usually a close-up of Jeanne, or a medium shot of her running somewhere; then Tom
materializes, followed by his troupe who are filming that very scene. Eventually the frame
enlarges to show the whole set. The colours are also uniform and continuous, since the cold
green and grey hues adopted for the interiors merge with those of the Paris landscape, which
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