We Are The Music! (1964/First Run Features/Cuban Masterworks Collection DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C Film: B-
Music
films are a mixed bag, sometimes working, and sometimes falling on their face,
like Wim Wender’s overrated Buena Vista Social
Club. A pretentious piece like that
looks even more so once you see a real Cuban Music film like Rogelio Paris’
We Are The Music! (1964) which mixes the style of
several films to make this one. In one
way, this is emulating the low-budget black & white Rock films often
independently produced with the latest Rock acts big and small. Then it has some shots that look similar to I Am Cuba (reviewed elsewhere on this
site) and then there are a few moments of Eisenstein-type montage to further a
socialist/communist agenda.
Aside
from that, though, this is a short (66 minutes) but impactful film with all the
artists and music that can be fit, including some great archive footage from
some of the acts at an earlier age and interviews that go beyond music. It becomes an overall time capsule of music
that may have reached a wider audience to be more influential if not for
Castro, The Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis.
Like Los Zafiros, the talent is there, but not heard enough outside of its
country of origin. For serious film and
music fans, this is a must-see.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 black and white image is soft, flat, from what
looks like an analog video master and has both poor depth and Video Black/Gray
Scale is a bit off. Detail is a problem
too and hopefully, this is not what the best print looks like. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is compressed and
with the picture proves this is an old source a few generations down. Extras include the short film Omara about the famed Cuban Music club
locale and trailers for other films in this series.
- Nicholas Sheffo
