I still remember the excitement when I saw this film for the first time in an arthouse in the '90s. The film had just undergone a restauration financed by Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.
Director Mikhail Kalatozov is known for "The cranes are flying" (1957). A film critical on the Soviet system and characteristic of the greater artistic freedom of the Chroesjtsjov years. In 1964 the Chroesjtsjov years are over, the Brezjnev years are begun, and Kalatozov is making a propaganda movie.
But what for a propaganda movie! The film consists of four episodes. Two episodes about Americans misbehaving themselves in Cuba, and two episodes idolizing the liberator Castro. Particularly the first two episodes on the Americans make an impression. In the beginning there is a scene where the camara moves between a partying crowd and ends underwater in a swimming pool, and that in a time long before the handheld camera!
But in 1964 Castro was no longer a liberator but the new dicatator, and the Cubans did not warm up for the story the movie told them. After circulation in Soviet cinema's "Soy Cuba" went to the attic of film history, until Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola gave the film a second life.
Director Mikhail Kalatozov is known for "The cranes are flying" (1957). A film critical on the Soviet system and characteristic of the greater artistic freedom of the Chroesjtsjov years. In 1964 the Chroesjtsjov years are over, the Brezjnev years are begun, and Kalatozov is making a propaganda movie.
But what for a propaganda movie! The film consists of four episodes. Two episodes about Americans misbehaving themselves in Cuba, and two episodes idolizing the liberator Castro. Particularly the first two episodes on the Americans make an impression. In the beginning there is a scene where the camara moves between a partying crowd and ends underwater in a swimming pool, and that in a time long before the handheld camera!
But in 1964 Castro was no longer a liberator but the new dicatator, and the Cubans did not warm up for the story the movie told them. After circulation in Soviet cinema's "Soy Cuba" went to the attic of film history, until Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola gave the film a second life.