People develop knee jerk reactions to celebrity.Say the name "Wenders", and people cannot supress exhalations of admiration.The fact is that Wim, more or less, phoned this one in. We know about WW's longtime collaboration with Ry Cooder on such moving classics as "Paris,Texas," and there's no doubting that their potential collaboration on this erratically conceived and directed documentary, promised great results. You know, their names alone pretty much guarantee accolades. Of course the real glow, energy, and (only potential) pathos of "The Buena Vista Social Club" comes from the musicians, themselves. Fortunately Ferrer, Gonazlez, Ochoa, Segundo, et. al. bring themselves richly and uninhibitedly to the screen. Ry and son Jaochim always appeared self conscious to this viewer. The director rarely shows them interacting directly with the Cuban musicians.
As a fan of this music and its inspired rhythms ( with a healthy respect for Mr. Cooder's intelligence and intuition), I was sorely disappointed at Wenders decision to cut away in the middle of songs. The music, the song, is where the art is, so the abridgement never worked for me.There's no doubt that the decay and ferment of Havanna, deserves our attention, but the relentless circling camera became a technique to actually separate the audience from scenes and characters. The fact is, this film was made as a hurried afterthought. The CD had been in stores for over two years before this film reached the screen.While I was hoping to witness scenes of creative collaboration, I was served (tasty) left overs. The idea to go back to Havanna and recreate the magic just didn't cut it for me, but the passion, artistry, joy and perseverance of the musicians is an inspiration to all of us. As a film maker, Wenders should have taken more inspiration from the music and its makers and looked more carefully at the enigma that is Cuba today.
As a fan of this music and its inspired rhythms ( with a healthy respect for Mr. Cooder's intelligence and intuition), I was sorely disappointed at Wenders decision to cut away in the middle of songs. The music, the song, is where the art is, so the abridgement never worked for me.There's no doubt that the decay and ferment of Havanna, deserves our attention, but the relentless circling camera became a technique to actually separate the audience from scenes and characters. The fact is, this film was made as a hurried afterthought. The CD had been in stores for over two years before this film reached the screen.While I was hoping to witness scenes of creative collaboration, I was served (tasty) left overs. The idea to go back to Havanna and recreate the magic just didn't cut it for me, but the passion, artistry, joy and perseverance of the musicians is an inspiration to all of us. As a film maker, Wenders should have taken more inspiration from the music and its makers and looked more carefully at the enigma that is Cuba today.