1964 ‘Soy Cuba’ Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov
An unabashed exercise in cinema stylistics, I Am Cuba is pro-Castro/anti-Batista rhetoric dressed up in the finest clothes. The film's four dramatic stories take place in the final days of the Batista regime; the first two illustrate the ills that led to the revolution, the third and fourth the call to arms which cut across social and economic lines.
TFW you're an authoritarian tyrant who, during your life time, imprisoned and executed thousands of your citizens, put homosexuals, religious people, conscientious objectors and other "dissidents" in labour camps, fucked over freedom of speech by seizing control of the media and mysteriously making your political opponents "disappear", suppressed labour unions, thought starting a nuclear war was a good idea and all in all was a deplorable dictator of finest quality and yet, after your death, you're still hailed as a true symbol of freedom and anti oppression by a big chunk of the left
Tomorrow I am going to celebrate the memory of Adolf Hitler – I mean, the man DID, after all, build the Autobanh! #Communism4lyfe
just yesterday i repeated that joke—you know, ‘we need to take care of the world we’re leaving to fidel castro’—and desperately prayed he’d hold out at least ’til the end of the year. a great number of 2016’s deaths have hit me hard, but none have made me sob so openly as his.
so i chose to remember him with this, the purest and most extravagant expression of emotion i’ve ever seen committed to film, and thus it came to pass that i completely broke down at ‘you’re not old, papa. you’re not old!’, and then again at ‘they killed fidel castro’, and then all over again at ‘fidel? i am fidel!’
la historia te absolverá, lovely. la historia te ha absuelto.
One day, they might tell stories like this about us. If we keep fighting, one day, they will look back and see only the distortions of us and our struggle, only the broad strokes, and they will be so enamored with our victories that they make something as alive and wondrous as this to celebrate us. The story will not be exactly the same. The tourists who steal treasures and callously dismiss the women they use would be us as well, not some foreigners on our soil, partying and unleashing their unabashed, clawing, taking ids. Those of us descended of European settlers are the invaders here. No revolution here can realize true communism unless that legacy is addressed.
But the…
This is a fascinating, beautiful treasure. The kind of film that reminds you how amazing it is we can capture sound and images on film, and then years later travel back through time watching these films. Unreal filmmaking.
I Am Cuba is a propaganda piece, and it shows, but it transcends that and becomes genuine cinematic art with strong humanism by its poetic storytelling. Its rather straight-forward in terms of plot, as it shows 4 different vignettes of everyday life, portraying the human struggle of living under harsh circumstances despite of the beautiful surroundings of Cuba. Its however, a technical, audiovisual marvel. Unsurprisingly, one of the most visually breathtaking films i've seen, some of these shots are just unbelievable. It has to be seen in order to be believed. Regardless of political standpoints, and as a filmlover, its pure joy watching these inventive and impressive shots unfold. The opening. The nightclub scenes. The scenes in the fields. The funeral scene. The ending. So much stuff to Wow at. Mikhail Kalatozov and Sergei Urusevsky must be one of the best duo's in the history of film. Beautiful, beautiful stuff, a new favorite.
The masterpiece of Cuban cinema, which deals in story-lines playing out across the final days of the Batista regime and the rise of the Communist party on the island heralded by Castro, and backed by the Soviets. The film tactfully tackles issues regarding class, obviously, as any film which deals in the fall of the Batista regime must; but it also deals in gender and femininity, with the same grace and beauty it handles all other aspects of the film, both narrative and technical. To call Soy Cuba a masterwork is a disservice; it's the indisputable, irreproachable crown jewel of a national cinema.
This is a fascinating, beautiful treasure. The kind of film that reminds you how amazing it is we can capture sound and images on film, and then years later travel back through time watching these films. Unreal filmmaking.
I remember that I read in a book by Jodorowsky something among the lines of "art shouldn't become politics, but it's politics that should become art". I don't wanna say much more, but just remember that there is so much love and passion and soul in this movie that the camera grows wings and flies away
O problema do mundo é a acumulação do capital nas mãos dos donos das propriedades. O filme explana isto de forma até didática mostrando a vida de um povo oprimido que vive numa situação “primitiva”.
Porém, longe do primitivismo, a situação precária da população cubana deve-se à uma situação pós-capitalista, chegando a ser bastante similar a vida do trabalhador sertanejo retratada por Glauber Rocha em "Deus e o Diabo na terra do Sol"(1964)
Contando histórias diversas sobre uma Cuba ainda aprisionada, o filme, assim como "Cinco vezes favela"(1962) explora diversos eixos temáticos dentro de um universo que se aproxima das memórias do sub-desenvolvimento de seu país, aqui, apesar do comum olhar estrangeiro,o filme carrega com si uma temática presente comumente…
(4K restoration at NYFF)
while it doesn’t 100% earn its place as a through and through masterpiece, this is still a staggering and unignorable piece of radical cinema.
¡Viva la Revolución!
DCP (4K restoration) at Lincoln Center
It’s more in support of revolution than of communism/Castro’s actions. Still propaganda, but its content doesn’t completely push me away.
A wonderful mix of loud/showy and poetic moments. How they shot the part where the camera moves through the cigar factory is an absolute mystery to me.
P.S. When I get to watch this at home, I’m turning the volume down a notch.
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