Soy Cuba / I Am Cuba / Я - Куба (1964)
December 2, 2023 4:10 PM - Subscribe
A study in contrasts set in and around Havana that explores Cuba's 1959 revolution. A young woman's fascination with the excess of an American-owned casino leads to her downfall in the eyes of her street vendor boyfriend. A tenant farmer revolts the only way he knows how. University students gain first-hand knowledge of political upheaval. And, in the hills outside the city, the members of a poor peasant family get swept up into the burgeoning revolt.
That funeral procession shot baffled me almost as much as the pool one: the camera goes in the window of a building where people are rolling cigars, tracks along the workspace and to the other side, where people are hanging a Cuban flag; then it floats out over the streets following the funeral procession. I couldn't see any wires overhead following the path of the crowd, so I was baffled about how they achieved the shot. Presumably while people onscreen were hanging the Cuban flag, there were members of the film crew frantically attaching the camera to some sort of rigging.
Narratively, the film's a bit of a dud, with one-dimensional characters and a clumsy political message. In terms of technique, though, it is--as Ideefixe's link says--a marvel.
posted by johnofjack at 8:29 AM on December 3, 2023
Narratively, the film's a bit of a dud, with one-dimensional characters and a clumsy political message. In terms of technique, though, it is--as Ideefixe's link says--a marvel.
posted by johnofjack at 8:29 AM on December 3, 2023
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posted by thatwhichfalls at 4:49 PM on December 2, 2023