BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Artisan Entertainment/Road Movies Director: Wim Wenders Cast: Ry Cooder, Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo, Ruben Gonzalez, Pio Leyva, Manuel "Puntillita" Licea, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuondo
In the long-running musical "Sunset Boulevard," Norma Desmond, an aging, has-been actress, misinterprets a call she receives from Cecil B. DeMille's office. Thinking that her long-dormant movie career is about to take off, she heads for the great man's studio, again full of herself, only to be shot down. Nobody wants you when you're old and gray, unless your name is Gloria Stuart.
This is true even in Cuba, where a forty-year ethos of so- called communist equality does not mean celebrity status can be counted on forever. Take a marvelous group of singers and instrumentalists, mainly now in their seventies and eighties and even beyond. The group were largely forgotten until guitarist Ry Cooder--noted for composing the soundtrack for Win Wenders's unconventional movie "The End of Violence"--went to Havana to record an album with these former greats. The record, entitled "Buena Vista Social Club," sold a million copies and prompted the celebrated director to travel to Havana to join Cooder next time around. As the aging musicians, called by the film crew the Super- Abuelos," step up to the microphones to record, we get the feeling that they had not interrupted their calling for a single day--they are that much at ease with melodious instruments, both vocal and mechanical. Wenders follows the crew around the streets of Havana with side trips to towns like Santiago, recreating the youths of the musicians now given a new lease on life. As we in the United States--for the most part either discouraged or downright banned from traveling to that communist-governed island--see the dilapidated but vibrant streets of that proud nation, we become caught up in the stories that the performers tell of their greener days while admiring the joie de vivre of the ordinary people who enthusiastically mug for the camera.
Box Office Magazine may have pushed the envelope a bit when its critic, Wade Major, called this "One of the most beautiful and poetic documentaries ever made." (How many has he seen?) But the film has quite a bit going for it, principally its structure. Rather than numb the viewers by a talking-heads, Q&A with interviewers, Wenders allows each personality to speak for himself or herself, free-associating without the intrusive presence of a formal exchange. Even better, Wenders allows the music to speak for itself. This social club is not made up of now raspy-voice, halting performers that could remind you of the embarrassing moments on the Ed Sullivan show when octogenarians attempted to dance until their breaths ran out. These people are so good that they fully justify the standing ovations they received during their climactic trip to New York at a sold-out show at Carnegie Hall. Ibrahim Ferrer, the Santiago-born 70- year-old singer, knocks out silky renditions of Cuban rhythms. Close your eyes and you'll think Nat King Cole. The 90-year- old, Siboney-born Compay Segundo ("I've been a cigar smoker for 85 years") endows the film with its opening humor, as he rides around in the back seat of an aging convertible asking the local Havana folk facetiously to direct him to the Buena Vista Social Club. Compay, who was born Francisco Repilado, not only continues to strum up a storm but is credited with inventing his own instrument, the armonico, a seven-string guitar. The 80-year-old Ruben Gonzales does a remarkable job playing piano for the group, involving the audience further by reminiscing about his first piano, essentially the great love of his life. Omara Portuondo, the one female of the group, sings a heartbreaking solo with Ferrer, demonstrating a chemistry with the man that Hollywood romances would have a tough time beating.
The one song, gratefully repeated by the entire company, begins with the words "Fire! Fire! I'm burning up. Call the fireman! Tula's room is all ablaze!" Wenders, who uses footage from Amsterdam, New York, L.A., and Berlin as well as Cuba, has us believing this literally, as he conveys the bliss that each ripened entertainer feels during this musical feast.
Not Rated. Running Time: 105 minutes. (C) 1999 Harvey Karten
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