Movie Extravaganza

So our mission for part of this week at school was to view 3 movies that were offered for our viewing pleasure!! I chose "I am Cuba", " Manufactured Landscapes" and "One Hour Photo". My first posting will be my thoughts on "I am Cuba".

"I am Cuba"
is a Soviet/Cuban propaganda film made in 1964 to dramatize the need for the Cuban revolution. The film was directed by Mikhail Kalatozov and heavily financed by both Soviet and Cuban governments. The black and white film was rediscovered after the cold war and reissued in 1995 by Milestone with the support of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. This reissuing was not due to the film's content which in my opinion is overly dramatic and somewhat simplified but due to the incredible cinematography of the film.
"I am Cuba" features four short stories each depicting a different segment of Cuban society's struggle against a specific oppressor. The first story shows the steep contrast between the fancy hotels and nightclubs inhabited by stereotypically wealthy, arrogant Americans to the stark poverty of the underprivileged Cuban workers and prostitutes who service them. The second story follows the life of a hardworking sugar cane farmer who loses his land to a large corporation. The third story depicts the struggle of idealistic university students who are trying to overthrow the oppressive government. Finally the last story shows an innocent, peaceful farm family in the mountains being bombed out of their home and joining the rebels to victory.
As I previously mentioned the actual acting and plots are somewhat cliche, sentimental and dramatized with overly poetic voice overs and narrations. However, the black and white cinematography is beautifully poetic with long sweeping tracking shots, interesting and unusual viewpoints, as well as the use of infra red film and different lens choices. Right from the first shot of the film the viewer knows they are in for a visual feast. The film starts with a long, continuous shot above white dreamy trees (due to the use of infra red film) and ends on a cross that due to the viewpoint of the camera the viewer is not sure of it's scale until people enter the frame. Although "I am Cuba" is full of amazing shots, one of my favorites' is the continuous shot in the first story line where the camera starts at the top of a building making its way through musicians, a bikini contest down to towards a crowded swimming pool and following a women right into the pool and underwater. Another favorite continuous shot that I have no idea how they managed to create is in the third story funeral scene. Here again the camera has one continuous shot that shows a view of the street with the funeral line and the murdered student being carried up the buildings across balconies and through a cigar shop where actors unravel the flag out he window as the camera view also goes out the window and back down to the street. These are just two many amazing shots.
The camera is also used to visually communicate the emotional state of the actors and or Cuban people. For example in the first story when Marie the cruxiface wearing prostitute is being passed from one American to another in a frenzied state. The camera is also being flung around in a dizzying way at a waist/shoulder height view point. They could have just shot further back and shown the girl being tossed around but instead the camera movement lets the viewer feel the confused state Maria is in. Another example of this technique is used during the second story with Peidro the sugar cane farmer. After he finds out that he is losing his crop and his home, Peidro takes his machete and furiously cuts the sugar cane before burning it. The director chose to show the sugar cane being cut from the machettes viewpoint. The camera is shoved right into the action thus the viewer feels the blunt, quick strokes of as the machete tears through the cane.
Director Mikhail Kalatozov and his cinematographers have created an amazing, visually rich film. I have only named a few of the most fantastic shots but the whole film is full of interesting sequences, framing and viewpoints that help to tell the emotional story behind the film. I would recommend anyone who is interested in photography or cinematography to see "I am Cuba" however I will warn you that is it a bit long!