I hosted a film festival at my local cinema, showcasing the wonderful cinema (and music) of Cuba. The selection of films exploring different aspects of society after the triumph of the revolution, to celebrate 70 years since the assault on Moncada.
The films I showed were Santiago Alvarez’s Cyclone (1963), Now! (1965), Cerro Pelado (1966), 79 Springs (1969) and ending with Octavio Cortazar’s For the First Time (1967).
Proceeds from the event will go towards material aid, in which we will send…
My favourite video game has a really interesting backstory on how it was made and the ideas it represented from its creator. A film could be made about it, as a parallel to the USSR.
This movie decided instead to focus on a capitalist businessman from the US, trying to buy the rights of the game. He enters the USSR, rendered in such cartoonish fashion as some sort of sci-fi dystopia.
You know, that place where capitalists aren’t thriving from…
A lot of strange out there shot choices, apart from when it really needed them… the dialogue scenes.
Close-up shallow focus, shot reverse-shot. The entire film cut between shots so fast, rather than let one take in the scene to feel its atmosphere and understand its geography.
Throughout the runtime, all the characters talked of soul. This movie had none, empty.
For a movie centred around Oppenheimer’s left wing politics, it never once points out that his friend Einstein featured in the film, was a socialist who wrote many papers on why socialism is the answer and publicly defended Lenin:
“I honour Lenin as a man who completely sacrificed himself and devoted all his energy to the realisation of social justice. Men of his type are the guardians and restorers of humanity." - Albert Einstein, 1929.
I’m not sure if audiences…
The one trans musician featured (Wendy Carlos) has by far the least amount of screen time, limited to one Bach inspired piece. Suzanne Ciani interrupts to say this isn’t how electronic music should be, then Ciani gets another entire section to herself. It really dampened my enjoyment for the rest of the film.
(I am excited to hear the live music performances about to happen, following the break after the movie. Might cheer me up a bit)
