I Am Cuba

Starring:Sergio Corrieri, Salvador Wood, JosÃ© Gallardo, RaÃºl GarcÃa, Luz MarÃa Collazo, Jean Bouise, Alberto Morgan, Celia Rodriguez, Fausto Mirabal, Roberto GarcÃa York, MarÃa de las Mercedes DÃez, BÃ¡rbara DomÃnguez, JesÃºs del Monte, Luisa MarÃa JimÃ©nez, Mario GonzÃ¡lez Broche, Tony LÃ³pez, HÃ©ctor CastaÃ±eda, Rosendo Lamadriz, Roberto Villar (II), Roberto Cabrera
Director: Mikheil Kalatozishvili
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Description

A most acclaimed discovery, I Am Cuba will change your view of cinema forever! Filmed by great Russian director Mikhail Kalatozov (The Cranes Are Flying), I Am Cuba is an epic poem to Communist kitsch--a whirling, feverish dance through the sensuous decadence of Battista's Havana and the grinding poverty and oppression of the Cuban people. Presented jointly by master directors Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, I Am Cuba has received universal acclaim and admiration from around the world as a true classic of world cinema. In Spanish and Russian with English subtitles. 140 minutes.

Customer Reviews:

I Am Cuba.......2007-06-27

Rescued from the dustbin of history by Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese and released in 1995, Russian director Kalatozov's sweeping, stylized "I Am Cuba" is communist agit-prop, to be sure--but also exhilarating, world-class art. Swooping over sugar fields, through dense forests and urban milieu of both the decadent and militant variety, Kalatozov portrays the beauty of Cuba and its people via a quartet of loose, dreamy, near-wordless stories--all set to the beat of pulsing Afro-Cuban music.

A Feverish, Exciting Experience!.......2007-04-03

"I Am Cuba" is one of those rare film gems that is discovered after spending years in a vault, the dust is blown off and the movie lives again as a glorious spectacle. Mikhail Kalatozov's vibrant portrait of pre-Castro Cuba is a stunning experience of sight and sound, with breathtaking vistas of the gorgeous island as the backdrop to human stories of love, suffering and revolution. Presented by Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, it's one of those special films that always feels alive and never slow. It pulsates with music and passion as we see the decadent Havana under the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship as gangsters run the clubs and American tourists show-up to enjoy the sun and girls as Cuba's people live in poverty and racism runs rampant. In the Sierra Maestra Fidel Castro and his band of rebels fight the dictatorship while in the city and towns we meet fascinating individuals: A fruit seller in love with a woman forced into prostitution, a poor farmer with two children who suffer under the yoke of an evil landowner who has sold their sugar cane crops to the United Fruit Company (which left a trail of poverty and suckled resources in Guatemala and Colombia as well). "I Am Cuba" tells these stories with furious energy and gorgeous photography. There are amazing moments of pure cinematography as the camera enters and follows, flies and dives (one famous scene follows a tourist swimmer into a lavish hotel swimming pool, a shot later copied in "Boogie Nights"). Oh sure Communist haters and anti-Castro activists will bash this as propaganda, but it is a glorious, exciting movie and the history of Cuba cannot be denied. Fans of classic films will enjoy this as well as cinematography students looking for interesting, vibrant work to check out. "I Am Cuba" is special because it also vibrates with the human spirit, with pure passionate energy, it is cinema of the highest quality.

a better DVD edition is available from the UK.......2007-01-23

I'll echo the other reviewers here in stating this is a strange and wonderful film, with cinematography that startles. Very original, well worth experiencing.

Having read the complaints about the Milestone DVD edition sold here, I instead purchased a restored version, licensed from ICAIC, with a Spanish/English soundtrack, without the distracting Russian voiceover. This edition is produced by and available from MR BONGO in the UK, just Google it. The picture quality is excellent, this DVD appears to be based on the French release, in fact the French company MK2 is credited on the cover. There are English subtitles which can be turned off if desired.

The MR BONGO release is a region free PAL edition. If your television set or DVD player can handle the PAL signal, you're in luck. Otherwise you'll have to view this DVD on your computer, which can sync to the PAL format without a problem.

Restored version available in France only for now.......2006-12-11

This is a brilliant film, but I'll confine this to writing about the DVD. The existing DVD is terrible. It was made from an inferior quality Soviet print, so there is Russian dubbing on top of the Spanish and English audio, and the subtitles are translated from the Russian, which is already a translation from the Spanish.

A restored version was released in theaters last year. It was made from the original negative, found recently in Cuba, and has the original Spanish and English audio, and it obviously looks a great deal better.

Sadly, it has only been released on DVD in France so far. You can find it by searching "Soy Cuba" at amazon.fr . This DVD has only French subtitles, so unless you speak Spanish, it may be of no use, and it's obviously Region 2 as well.

Hopefully there will be a proper re-release of this film on DVD in the US soon.

Wonderful film, distracting copy. .......2006-09-02

This is easily one of my favorite films but the DVD has its problems. The biggest complaint I have is the Russian dubbing: 1) There are times when an actor speaks in English but what is said is inaudible because the lines are overlapped by Russian and left without subtitles 2) It's distracting and sometimes obscures the inflection of the actor's voice 3) If you happen to understand Spanish you can't watch it in its original language. Unfortunately, I can't find a non-dubbed version yet, though it is rumoured to exist.

On the propaganda note: what does it matter if this is or is not propoganda? I agree, it does show one side, a favourable view of Castro and the revolution, but so what? Don't many films do that? Are all films a fair and balanced depiction of anything? Does this affect the quality of the direction, cinematography, acting? Besides, we all have heard the anti-Castro story but here is the other side of the argument which obviously had to exist or else the revolution would never have come to pass in the first place. These stories highlight some of the reasons why most of the citizens of Cuba wanted a change and how, in contrast to the government at the time, Castro seemed like a good idea -something that people today may not understand. One more thing, I am from one of those "white elitist Cuban" families referred to by another poster and I have I heard a ton of glorious "old Cuba" stories, and through them I have surmised that Cuba was wonderful only to a select few while being indescribably oppressive to a vast majority. All in all, issues are rarely ever black and white, propagandists want you to think they are so I suppose the best advice I can offer is go through life with your thinking cap on and you'll form your own opinions ;0)

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