It is interesting not only for its technical skill, but also because it betrays a certain interest in la dolce vita that is not entirely in keeping with the movie's revolutionary, agitprop stance. Don't have an account? Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for I Am Cuba at Amazon.com. If this sounds dull, then rest assured that the plot is minimal and, despite it's avowedly political purpose, hardly gets in the way of the film's main attractions today. By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy Along with the scenes of evil Yankees and brave Castroites, there are astonishing helicopter shots of Cuban landscapes, and poetry and prose are read on the soundtrack (Columbus is quoted: "This is the most beautiful land ever seen by human eyes"). I Am Cuba movie reviews and ratings - Tribute.ca rating of 3.89 out of 5 Stars. I Am Cuba Review By Norm Schrager At this writing (Novenber 2007), a just-released undercover poll of Cuban citizens reflects their unhappiness with … Mere propaganda only reinforces the status quo. Against her better judgment, a girl takes the man home to her shack, where he offends her by offering to buy her crucifix. Then we see the resistance: students agitating the change, including one who mimeographs propaganda pamphlets and then is shot dead, his body covered in a snow of the revolutionary sheets. One of the most technically impressive films of its time, and one of the most politically naive. That film featured spectacular camera techniques, but they are upstaged by his opener in "I Am Cuba" and by some of the other sequences, which owe much to Fellini's influential "La Dolce Vita" (1960). Being suppressed by those who wanted [I Am Cuba] made in the first place is a vindication of sorts. Recommended For Mature Audiences, Spike Lee Receives American Cinematheque Award, America Has to Come to a Reckoning: Director Sam Pollard on MLK/FBI, The TV Homages of WandaVision are an Amusing, Unfulfilling Distraction. There is a sequence later in the film that begins with the streets filling with demonstrators and then seemingly floats, in an unbroken take, into a high-rise cigar factory. I prefer to see this movie as a love letter to Cuba by some brilliant (but undoubtedly naive) Soviet film makers. It was directed by the veteran Russian filmmaker Mikhail Kalatozov, then 61, whose "The Cranes are Flying" (1957) had won the Palme d'Or at Cannes a few years earlier. Forgot your password? Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Answer 1 of 8: Three of us girls going April 7th - 14th, does that coincide with you? TIMES STAFF WRITER. The packaging says this is a new transfer from Russian vault elements. Mikhail Kalatozov’s Soy Cuba (I Am Cuba) is an often astonishing technical achievement that transcends its somewhat didactic origins and perhaps deserves a more prominent place in the history of cinema. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. and the Terms and Policies, Find out everything Empire knows about I Am Cuba. and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango. "I Am Cuba" is a 32-year-old propaganda film that has been recently rediscovered and is making the rounds on the art-house circuit. Mikhail Kalatozov's astonishing portrait of Cuba transcends its propaganda origins and deserves a more prominent place in cinema history. Read the latest news, features and the Empire review of the film. I Am Cuba is a cinephile's wet dream, a collage of Herculean feats of technical wizardry that would be easy to dismiss if it wasn't so humane. If you see it, try to figure out how the camera floated down that wall. The Cuba it depicts may be an imagined one, but it's one we're continuing to imagine today. 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. The recent 4K restoration by Milestone Film & Video is a revelation, nothing less than a singular, definitive cinematic experience. The camera sinuously winds its way past bathing beauties, and then moves over the edge of the deck and descends vertically, apparently floating, down three or four stories to another deck, this one with a swimming pool. Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password. Their deluxe I Am Cuba: The Ultimate Edition sports an excellent flat B&W encoding. It is one of the most visually hypnotic films ever -- and that's not hyperbole. Since the film's prediction of a brave new world under Fidel Castro has not resulted in a utopia for Cubans, who suffer under one of the world's most dismal bureaucracies, the film today seems naive and dated - but fascinating. Rated NR Mikhail Kalatozov’s 1964 “I Am Cuba” is a great poetic epic that blends the stirring visual daring of Russia’s cinema of revolution with an intoxicating Latin sensuality. His technique seems somewhat at odds with his purpose (you won't find shots like these in Italian neo-realism), but then the movie itself alternates between lyricism and propaganda. There is a shot near the beginning of "I Am Cuba" that is one of the most astonishing I have ever seen. The Soviets fielded a first-class team of advisers to help in the production. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. The film is immensely entertaining and occasionally inspiring, a delirious combination of Slavic solemnity, Latin exoticism, Communist idealism and breathtakingly beautiful images. All rights reserved. The anti- American content is handled in a nightclub scene, where gum-chewing Yankees ogle the prostitutes, and one amateur anthropologist announces, "I'd like to see where these women live." Copyright © Fandango. The camera approaches a bar, and then follows a waitress as she delivers a drink to some tourists, after which one of the tourists stands up and walks into the pool - and the camera follows her, so that the shot ends with the camera actually underwater. Find album reviews, stream songs, credits and award information for Cuba: I Am Time - Various Artists on AllMusic - 1997 - For such a small island, Cuba has had an enormous… Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! The film is not done with Americans. Considering the power of the film today, it's hard to believe it fared poorly when audiences finally saw it. Reflect that it was made in 1964, long before the days of lightweight cameras and Steadicams, and the shot is almost impossible to explain. I AM CUBA was not shown outside Cuba and the Soviet Union until the 1992 Telluride Film Festival, where it was screened--without English titles--as part of a special tribute to Mikhail Kalatozov. And white filmmaking, it shows resistance, by brave farmers and heroic students Prize for distinguished.... 'S one we 're continuing to imagine today it does about film technique vault elements rating of 3.89 of... A showcase for some of the most astonishing I have ever seen in action that with... Has been given credit best tradition of Socialist Realism down that wall done in one unbroken take but undoubtedly ). Deluxe I Am Cuba at Amazon.com and imperialist Yankee misbehavior seem quaint any of the Twenties a new from... 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