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Category:    Home > Reviews > Comedy > Drama > Propaganda > Cuba > The Cuban Masterworks Collection (First Run; The Twelve Chairs/The Adventures Of Juan Quin Quin/Cecilia/Amada/A Successful Man)

The Cuban Masterworks Collection (First Run; The Twelve Chairs/The Adventures Of Juan Quin Quin/Celia/Amada/A Successful Man)

 

Picture: C (C+ for Successful Man & Amada)     Sound: C+     Extras: C+     Films:

 

The Twelve Chairs (1962) C+

The Adventures Of Juan Quin Quin (1967) B-

Celia (1981) C+

Amada (1982) C+

A Successful Man (1986) C+

 

 

Cuba’s revolution crated a distinct cinema that was still propagated and predictable as far as its pro-Soviet, revolutionary and Communist/Socialist leanings were concerned, but some aspects of the cinema do hold up and remind us of how effective their Soviet-backed state-run studio was.  Especially after The Cuban Missile Crisis, they turned to cinematic propaganda to assert a kind of identity.  These five films show the rise and fall of that spirit.

 

An earlier version of The Twelve Chairs (1962, or eight years before the Mel Brooks version and nine before a Soviet version of the Ilya Ilf/Yevgeni Petrov novel) directed by Tomas Gutierrez Alea (Strawberries & Chocolate) transplants the tale set in 1920s Russia to then-current Cuba.  A one-time aristocrat whose wealth was confiscated after the Cuban revolution has hope about his future when his dying mother tells him of some expensive jewels sewn into one of twelve chairs; he sets out on a madcap cross-country journey in hopes of finding the treasure.  He joins forces with a handsome con artist, while a priest also pursues the chairs.  The difference here is all the propaganda inserted from actual newsreels of how Castro’s people took back wealth for “the people” and why wealth is bad within the narrative.  It makes for an amusing comparison to the Brooks film and has enough energy to be entertaining as it is dated.  Wait until you see the diamond the film ends on.  The 1.66 X 1 black and white image is detail challenged, but has some amusing animated credits.  Extras on Chairs include Alea biography, stills, Triada -excerpts from Cuban films with commentaries by their young filmmakers and Unknowns Of The ICAIC.

 

Julio Garcia Espinosa’s The Adventures Of Juan Quin Quin (1967) opens with a Hollywood Western/Spaghetti Western credits sequence, but the film is far from that.  Instead, it is about how the title character has to go from menial job to goofy job until the revolution happens.  It too is a comedy, but the kind that might terrify Wal-Mart.  The letterboxed 2.35 X 1 black and white image is detail challenged, but the use of scope composition by cinematographer Jorge Haydu makes it more watchable beyond any ideology and produces some unintended hoots.  Extras for Quin include stills, text bio/filmography for Espinosa and the vintage featurette Por Primera Vez showing Cubans experiencing film for the first time.  They even get to see Chaplin’s Modern Times!

 

Celia (1981 aka Cecilia Valdéz) is about the mixed-race, financially disadvantaged title character in 1830s Cuba and how the son of one of the wealthiest colonial families falls for her.  It is the same tale we have heard of before, but the underpinning is that they could live and love without hate and prejudice if the revolution made them “equal” since they are so “tolerant” since Castro arrived.  He result is a melodrama with a propagandic twist.  The letterboxed 1.85 X 1 color image can be faded and detail challenged, but is not bad otherwise despite constant limits like this.  Extras include stills, Solas text bio/filmography info and Cualquier Muher (aka Any Kind Of Woman) short featuring interviews with top Cuban actresses.

 

Amada (1982) only goes back to 1914 Havana, but here Solas is back with a wacky melodrama about the title character falling for her cousin while her husband cheats on her.  Another crazy melodrama not so cleverly disguising its propagandic intents, it runs on a bit.  The letterboxed 1.85 X 1 color image is stylized, but one of the better in this set.  Extras include stills, repeats the Solas text bio/filmography info and offers a vintage featurette on composer Leo Brouwer.

 

A Successful Man (1986, aka A Man Of Success) has Solas covering the years just before Revolution arrives, starts in 1932 and tells the tale of two brothers and the different paths they take leading up to the big change.  One tries playing both sides, the other is a Revolutionary.  Guess who does better?  The 1.66 X 1 image is shot to look like an older film and the opening credits combine stock footage with old Hollywood Art Deco-styled credits.  Scorsese’s New York, New York it’s not, but its attempt to do all the years to Castro’s 1959 takeover is almost unintentionally funny, especially since it only runs 103 minutes.  Extras the Solas text bio/filmography info, offers new stills and the dance featurette Nostalgia Del Cha Cha Cha about the famous dance in the 1950s.

 

I should add that Solas’ use of religion as part of the propaganda would be considered against the people if it were not integrated into the propaganda so well, but the 1980s Cuban Cinema is not as dynamic or challenging as the earlier works, almost an admission of Castro’s betrayals of his people and the ideas that made their revolution seem “possible” at first before its failure.  All they could do was hold on, proven by their existence long after the fall of the U.S.S.R. and the melodrama is just distraction from that.

 

The audio on each is Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono and though it gets a little better as the films become newer, the older films do not sound bad for their age and have character in their mixes the newer ones lack.  All in all, this is an interesting set of films from a cinema that is little discusses.  Hope we see more of the 1960s and early 1970s films soon.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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