| | | The Definitive Collector's Edition of One of the Greatest Achievements in Cinema History in a 3-Disc Deluxe Box Set Including Two Feature Documentary Films!
Features: DVD, English, Subtitled
The most acclaimed discovery of the decade! 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 Batista's Havana and the grinding poverty and oppression of the Cuban people. In four main stories showing the rise of the revolution, Kalatozov's astonishingly acrobatic camera takes the viewer on a rapturous roller-coaster ride of bathing beauties, landless peasants and student revolutionaries. The first movie ever jointly presented by master directors Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, I Am Cuba will change your view of cinema forever!
"A Sensuously Beautiful Movie. A hymnito theiliberation of appetiteÉIRRESISTIBLE!" David Denby, New York Magazine
"One of the most stylistically vigorous films of all time." Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle
"...one of the most visually hypnotic films ever..." G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle
"...a vibrant, joyous piece of technical accomplishment that's probably one of the most relentlessly innovative films you'll ever see." Jamie Russell, BBC Online
"Audacious, thrilling, erotic...a lost masterpiece of filmmaking finally seeing the light of day..." Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle
"Spectacular! Visually stunning." Stephen Holden, The New York Times
"...immensely entertaining...a delirious combination of Slavic solemnity, Latin exoticism, Communist idealism and breathtakingly beautiful images." TV Guide
Editor's Note
This Russian-made study of Cuba, partially written by renowned poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, captures the island just before it made the transition to a post-revolutionary society. Moving from city to country and back again, I AM CUBA examines the various problems caused by political oppression as well as by great discrepancies in wealth and power.Beginning in Havana in the pre-Castro era, we see how foreigners contributed to the city's prostitution and poverty; this sequence features dreamy, hallucinogenic camera work that creates a feeling of unease and dislocation. Then, in glorious images of palm tress and fertile land, the film looks at the sugar cane fields in the countryside, and the difficulties faced by peasants working the land. Finally, back in the city again, leftist students battle the police and a corrupt government--and pay a high price for their rebellion.
Plot Summary
Unearthed from the vaults of the old Soviet Union, this surreal Russian masterpiece presents four stories of the Cuban revolution in a whirling, sensuous style. Presented by Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.
| Features | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Two Feature-Length Documentaries! |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
| | Studio: New Yorker Films |
| Release Date: 9/15/2009 |
| Original Release Date: 1964 | | Catalog ID: 00106 | | UPC: 00784148010649 | | Number of Discs: 3 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: Spanish | | Available Audio Tracks: Russian, Spanish | | Video: B&W |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Nominee (1996) | | | Independent Spirit, Mikheil Kalatozishvili, Best Foreign Film |
|
| | Professional Reviews | Sight and Sound
"...A memorably eccentric and lyrical hymn to the transformatory powers of cinema..." 08/??/1999 p.45-6USA Today
"...Black-and-white visuals that rank with the finest..." 03/01/1996 p.3D Variety
"...I AM CUBA is fascinating enough as a time piece...But its textural brilliance would be astounding in any context..." 05/17/1993 New York Times
"...Visionary cinematography....[The photography] illustrates the revolution's explosive polarities and burning passions..." 03/08/1995 p.C15 Los Angeles Times
"...A great poetic epic that blends the stirring visual daring of Russia's cinema of revolution with an intoxicating Latin sensuality..." 07/21/1995 p.F8 Chicago Sun-Times
"...Fascinating....As an example of lyrical black and white filmmaking, it is still stunning..." 12/08/1995 p.27 Uncut
"[T]he film features sequences of breathtaking visual impact....Never has revolution looked so good." 02/01/2006 p.99 Total Film
5 stars out of 5 -- "[A] visually ravishing piece of Communist propaganda." 10/01/2007 p.132 Entertainment Weekly
"Viewed today, the Cuban-Soviet collaboration seems bitterly ironic....[An] overlooked gem..." -- Grade: A- 11/23/2007 p.63 Raging Bull 9 of 10
If there's a director that delivers more impossibly brilliant shots than Mikheil Kalatozishvili please let me know who they are so I can gaze in awe at the beauty of their compositions...The main characteristic of Kalatozishvili's shots is that they constantly move. He loves the tracking shot, and as much as I love and respect the work of Stanley Kubrick, Kalatozishvili is the one that should come to mind when speaking of it...Most of the film is incredibly fluid, which is still hard to believe given Kalatozishvili's constant array of extreme high and low angles...I Am Cuba is the most extraordinary visual film I've ever seen, but I don't know if that makes it a successful film. It was a Cuban-Soviet co-production made during the height of the cold war after the revolution it depicts as being in progress had been won. It is clearly a propaganda film, but it's hard to say quite whom it is for or what it's supposed to accomplish. It looks like a film that was made to get people to join Castro in the revolution, but I guess the point is to convince people how necessary the revolution was. - Mike Lorefice
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
"I Am Cuba" is an anti-American propaganda film, made as a Cuban-Soviet co-production, that has been snatched from oblivion, restored, and released in the United States as a presentation of Martin Scorsese and Francis Coppola. Since the film's prediction of a brave new world under Fidel Castro has not resulted in a utopia for Cubans, who suffer under one of the world's most dismal bureaucracies, the film today seems naive and dated - but fascinating...Kalatozov's fancy shots are not limited to the opening extravaganza. There is a sequence later in the film that begins with the streets filling with demonstrators and then seemingly floats, in an unbroken take, into a high-rise cigar factory. His technique seems somewhat at odds with his purpose (you won't find shots like these in Italian neo-realism), but then the movie itself alternates between lyricism and propaganda...The movie, now in limited distribution before a video release, is of course dated in its politics. Even its depravities and imperialist Yankee misbehavior seem quaint. But as an example of lyrical black and white filmmaking, it is still stunning. If you see it, try to figure out how the camera floated down that wall. - Roger Ebert
|
| |
|
|
|
