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 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.
Film #6 of Florin's Recommendations
“No, it’s not interesting senior.”
Camera enters the room, it moves around then exits through the window and goes floating over a crowded street. In another scene it moves around a room then moves out of the window, moves vertically to get to the bottom floor and then again moves around and finally follows a woman into the pool and goes under the water. How is that possible? I have no idea. The camera work is amazing, it moves in all possible ways and captures some bizarre images. A visually stunning movie and one that should be watched by anyone who seeks new experiences, one of the best cinematographies ever. Period.
But is that enough?…
Never before has a propaganda film charged to the top of the mantel, since Sergei Eisenstein helmed the great Battleship Potemkin, setting the bar for the medium. Mikhail Kalatozov, employed by the Russian government to make a propaganda film in Cuba in order to promote socialism on an international scale is then given carte blanche in doing so. The result becomes the masterpiece of world cinema that stands before you in Soy Cuba. A labor of aesthetic beauty, a mastering of skills, and a culmination of cinema identifying on a universal base of human struggle against the many injustices of corrupt political systems.
Even though this film did serve a specific political purpose in promoting Fidel Castro and the communist…
I HAVE NO MOUTH BUT I MUST SCREAM: THE MOVIE as filtered through expressionist excess executed with full aptitude and cadence, a total regard for the intelligence of the audience but propaganda and direct communication and enforcement of Ideas will never be as beautiful as this: directly emotional, almost whimsical, images that literally rhyme when played together.... worth noting also that I believe propaganda films are essentially begging to be great, as, like genre and experimental films, they often provoke an audience in order to create engagement (which sometimes leads to disinterest from the more jaded audience members) which is the exact mission statement that leads to the non-stop experimentation of works like it...... we haven't had something quite like this since.... the basis of creating great propaganda is that you do not just need people to think like you do, you need them to feel like you do. Cinema resurrected from the blood of Eisenstein.
I'm back at writing these weekly, going to try keeping these to a schedule, might do one every Friday or something like that. Ultimately I write these so people have a place to go and see movie recommendations as well as get better myself at writing my thoughts on films. I encourage other people in this group to do the same if they can, a great way to learn about films is to reflect on the ones you watch. Anyways back to why I'm recommending this movie.
Soy Cuba, is a propaganda film that's pro Castro and anti Batista, it's funded by the former Soviet Union and features four stories. The first two looks at Cuba's status quo. It starts…
A really difficult film to rate as the propaganda is so apparent and impossible to ignore but the atmosphere and imagery are jaw-droppingly incredible.
Όποιος είπε ότι η στρατευμένη τέχνη δεν γεννάει αριστουργήματα να του δείξετε αυτή την ταινία.
Και να του διαβάσετε ποίηση του Ρίτσου.
Most of Jonathan Rosenbaums review of Soy Cuba drones on about films that are no Soy Cuba. However, he makes one interesting observation: this is a film not of an author, but of a group of people: Cubans, Russians and most importantly the director and cameraman who found each other during a particular, crucial moment in time.
Whatever one thinks of Cuba under Castro, during the early 1960s it was sure the country was going to be different. And without a doubt, many people were hopeful - after all, they fought for it. This film might not be Cuba, as the Cubans say, but to me as an outsider it captures the spirit of hope and change despite despair brilliantly.…
The visuals are worth 7 stars, but the film itself is fairly plodding. My fave Kalatozov movie will always be Letter Never Sent.
In the same way you or I can admire the beauty of the roof of the of the sistine chapel, whilst still recognising the fact it's very clearly propaganda for the Roman Catholic Church, I don't think you have to agree with I am Cuba's intent to be in awe of its film making. This is a political statement of flooring beauty .
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