This astonishing and underrated film is blessed with some of the most extraordinary camerawork in film history. Ostensibly this is Communist propaganda, celebrating the progress achieved by the Cuban Revolution and dramatizing four examples of injustice to the common man in pre-Revolutionary Cuba.
Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola plucked this film from obscurity and campaigned to restore it in the early 1990s.
The link that holds the film together is a spoken monologue beginning each sequence with the words ‘Soy Cuba’ (‘I am Cuba’). It’s still pushing the boundaries of pure cinema, a stirring and unforgettable experience.
Soviet filmmaker Mikhail Kalatozov made numerous films, but is best remembered for three important dramas. The first Salt of Svanetia(1930) was a seminal work in early Soviet cinema, noted for its beautiful cinematography, and sensitive look at life in a remote Caucasian village. Though greatly appreciated today, authorities originally considered it too antagonistic. The second, The Nail in the Boot (1932) was banned for the same reason. Kalatozov first gained international recognition for the third film the Cranes Are Flying (1957). In 1958, it won the Golden Palm award at Cannes. Born Mikhail Kalatozishvili in Tiflis, Russia, Kalatozov originally studied to be an economist. In 1925 though, he began working as an actor in the Georgian studios. He then began cutting and shooting films. He made his first short documentary, -Their Kingdom in 1928 and two years later made his feature film debut. Salt of Svanetia was his second film. After his third film A Nail in the Boot was banned, Kalatozov… read more
A camera restlessly prowls, runs, rises on tiptoes, swims, cowers, flies...A fantasia not really concerning politics, or communism, or repression, but on the possibilities of cinema itself. And isn't that freedom of a sort...?
Makes me wonder how long after you first experience a film do you have to wait before you start calling it one of your all time favorites...
One of the most astonishing camera works in the history of cinema. This is just gorgeus!
UP, UP AND AWAY At the beginning of 1969's The Red Tent, a Soviet-Italian co-production (perhaps the Soviet-Italian co-production?), a film
Soy Cuba s’inscrit parfaitement dans la logique de son temps, à savoir un soviétique faisant un film propagandiste. Ce qui est malheureux, c’est que l’oeuvre demeure beaucoup trop manichéenne que pour… read review
la fotografía de urusevsky es, al igual que en el vuelo de las grullas, impresionante. esta película tiene una historia trágico-cómica donde scorsese pone la más reciente nota al rescatarla y restaurarla… read review
i am not into posting my view on blogs, but the above review from allmovieguide is based on complete political bias and has nothing to do with this film. the biography of kalatozov is also terrible… read review
