I am Cuba

[Dan Salzmann]

This is absolutely amazing in terms of black and white cinematography. There are camera moves that have got me absolutely stumped as to how they were done. This was before steadicam!

I'd like to know what people on this forum think about this film.

[DavidSloan]

Hey Dan: Soy Cuba is pretty remarkable in terms of its camera movements. Many of the hand held long takes were achieved by operators passing the camera to each other. This is a typical technique done in older Russian cinema. If you've ever had to pleasure to watch some of the long takes in the Russian: 'War and Peace,' you'll see that, a lot. Especially during the war sequences, where some mind blowing hand held stuff was done by passing the camera around from one operator to another, to someone on a dolly, to someone on a crane, etc...it's insane.

[Brad Grimmett]

I continually hear great things about the camera movement in this film, but I still haven't seen it. I had previously been unable to find it anywhere. But I just checked Netflix and there it is! They must have added it recently. I'm looking forward to watching it. Thanks for the reminder.

[David Mullen ASC]

They also did a shot where the handheld camera was passed off and attached with a magnet to a wire, hoisted several floors in the air, and then floated between rooftops of buildings for over a block.

[Wendell_Greene]

Great film. I love the sequence of the old farmer with his machete in the sugar cane field. Sergi Urusevsky the Russian cinematographer created extreme contrast in this scene by shooting with infrared film so that the sugar cane is white against the black sky. He did the same with the palm trees making them go white against the black sky, a shot I recently paid tribute to in a music video.

 

This film and Urusevky's work was covered in American Cinematographer, it was the same issue that had an article on Gabriel Figueroa and mentioned his use of infrared film and filters on films like Maria Candelaria. I think it was in the early '90's perhaps 1992? David Mullen, do you remember the issue?

[David Mullen ASC]

"I Am Cuba": July 1995 AC issue.

 

Gabriel Figueroa: March 1992 AC issue.

[steve hyde]

I saw a new (and beautiful) 35mm print of this film last night at the NWFF.

 

http://nwfilmforum.org/

 

 

Apparently Mikheil Kalatozishvili and company began shooting the remarkable film "Soy Cuba" on location just after "the BAy of Pigs". According to IMDB, this was the director's twentieth film in a twenty one film carrer that began in the silent-era 1920s. The director died in 1973 and the film was not released for distribution until the 1990s. (Cineaste v22, n2 (Spring, 1996):52.)

 

This film has some of the most remarkable cinematography I have ever seen - The entire film is shot with, what appears to be, one wide angle lens. The tracking shots are some of the most visually stunning that I have ever seen - lots of really long takes. The landscape photography was recorded on infrared film so the tabacco fields, suger cane and palm trees are all bright white.

 

If you are in the Seattle area - check out the new print at NWFF.

 

 

You can learn more about the film here:

 

http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue09/revie...amcuba/text.htm

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/IAmCuba.html

http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/23/iamcuba.html

 

Also available from Milestone Collections on DVD:

http://www.milestonefilms.com/movie.php/iamcuba/

 

[Bill Totolo]

The cinematography is stunning but it's direction is poetic. I've never seen more visual metaphors in any single movie.

 

A businessman picks up a local girl in a hotel bar, they go to her hovel. To get to her ramshackle hut they have to cross over a small body of water.

In the morning he throws money on the bed. He asks for the woman's crucifix. He tells her he collects such articles. She refuses so he throws more money on the mattress and takes it anyway. Just as she is feeling most vulnerable the village boy who's in love with her, who thinks she's a virgin, walks in, sees the money on the bed...powerful stuff.

 

Would love to see a print of this in a theater.

 

bt

[Robert Edge]

Has anyone seen the 2004 film Soy Cuba, O Mamute Siberiano (I am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth)? It is a documentary by a Brazillian named Vicente Ferraz about the people who made I am Cuba, how they made it and why the film had a very short run before being shelved for 30 years. Doesn't appear to be available on DVD, although presumably it will be packaged at some point with I Am Cuba.

[Steven C. Boone]

Saw it in a gorgeous print at MOMA around 1999(?). Standing room only. Could not believe my eyes.

 

But it is on DVD.

http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=IMA005925

[Ger Leonard]

without doubt one of the greatest achievements in cinema history. I was extremely blessed to be able to see this on the big screen at the recent Dublin Film Festival, an early saturday, packed house.

Utterly breathtaking.

Automatic entry into top ten all time films.. and a very strong contender for the greatest.(along with The Good , the bad, and the ugly)

Technical achievements aside it is a profoundly moving film.. A perfect synthesis of form and function

[andrewbuchanan]

I shot a doc in Cuba a couple of years ago. It's funny but many, many of the ideas and themes of this movie are still present. Though it is technically incredible, it felt dated in a way when I watched it. Then, when I traveled to Santiago de Cuba - I couldn't excape the movie. I realized that the players are different(the Americans have been replaced by other nationalities now), but life, as it exist in the begining if the film, is very much the same. There is a lot to behold in Soy Cuba about the developed world's treatment of the undeveloped world.

 

Hope that new print makes its wa to the East Coast sometime. It has been too long since I saw Soy Cuba.

[Olex Kalynychenko]

The some information.

The Russian-Cuban film " Soy Cuba/Ya Kuba /i'm Cuba"

The last team-work of Mikheil Kalatozishvili and Sergey Urusevsky.

Writing credits, Enrique Pineda Barnet, Yevgeni Yevtushenko.

 

 

http://imdb.com/title/tt0058604/

Mikhail Kalatozov's 1964 I Am Cuba spectacularly showcases its fervent political ideology through a series of fascinating vignettes set all around the nation. Made shortly following the collapse of the Batista regime, the picture takes up a fervently pro-Castro stance, painting the leader as a heroic defender of the poor, exploited people who struggle to make a living on the "weeping" island. ....

 

....One cannot watch I Am Cuba without noticing the stunning camerawork, which often seems free of the bounds of gravity, floating and gliding with a delicate ease through the lush scenery.

 

If you see " Soy Cuba" you see camera on hand of Sergey Urusevsky.

Segey use wide ange lens and russian hand held camera Konvas-1.

Sergey not use any stedicam, this hand held camera only.

[David W Scott]

I saw the film in '95 or '96 with my fiancee. It was at the Princess Court (arthouse) in Kingston, Ontario. It made such an impression that we decided to honeymoon in Havana in 1997.

 

On the taxi ride in to the old Hotel Nacional, my new wife and I kept pointing out parts of the city that reminded us of "I Am Cuba". Overhearing us, a white-haired gentleman introduced himself. It was Harry Tanner, the A.D. on "I Am Cuba". He talked about the film and gave us tips on where to eat and how best to enjoy our time in Havana. It was truly an honour, and a striking bit of synchronicity.

 

Harry was originally from Canada, and moved to Cuba. When we met him, he had moved back to Toronto, but had come to Cuba to visit with his kids (who stayed in Cuba.) He was saddened by the experience with "I Am Cuba" because the film was banned for so many years.

[Chad Stockfleth]

Such a beautiful movie. Cuba, like so much of central and south america is amazingly picturesque and yet so sadly poverty stricken. Buena Visita Social Club was another great film.

[Scott Larson]

Another thing that struck me was how Maria's shanty village looked like a real life version of a set from a creepy German expressionist film like "Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari". The buildings and even the telephone poles were leaning in every direction and looked like they were ready to collapse on someone. The distortion of the super wide angle lens made it even more disorienting. I've always thought the weird angles of the expressionist sets were too clean and exaggerated to be taken seriously but I guess places like that do exist (but not by design!).