More Details

Studio:Axiom Films International Ltd

Director:Wim Wenders

Product Description

Cuba's rich and colourful past comes vividly to life in this legendary, Oscar-nominated documentary from director Wim Wenders (PARIS, TEXAS, WINGS OF DESIRE). The Grammy Award-winning Buena Vista Social Club album produced by Ry Cooder, remains the biggest-selling world music album ever. It showcases the talents of a dream team of veterans from Cuban music's golden age and it introduced the rhythms of Son, Bolero and Danzon to a whole new audience, making instant international stars of Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben Gonzalez, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuondo and Compay Segundo. Never a regular band, The Buena Vista Social Club had gone their separate ways after that sensational album but in this extraordinary film Wenders intimately documents Ry Cooder's return to Havana, encountering these musical legends again as they look back to the halcyon days of Cuba's music scene, when the rich and famous travelled from all over the world to listen to them. In the climax their music comes alive once again, as they rehearse for their first and only performance in America, at New York's Carnegie Hall. More than a musical occasion that historic sell-out show is the uplifting finale to this documentary, which remains one of the greatest musical films ever made. DVD bonus features include a feature-length commentary with Wim Wenders, interview with Juan de Marcos Gonzales, deleted scenes and reversible "Wenders Classics" DVD sleeve for collectors.

Amazon.co.uk Review

In 1996, composer, producer, and guitar legend Ry Cooder entered Egrem Studios in Havana with the forgotten greats of Cuban music, many of them in their 60s and 70s, some of them long since retired. The resulting album, Buena Vista Social Club, became a Grammy-winning international bestseller. When Cooder returned to Havana in 1998 to record a solo album by 72-year-old vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer, filmmaker Wim Wenders was on hand to document the occasion. Wenders splits the film between portraits of the performers, who tell their stories directly to the camera as they wander the streets and neighbourhoods of Havana, and a celebration of the music heard in performance scenes in the studio, in their first concert in Amsterdam, and in their second and final concert at Carnegie Hall. The songs are too often cut short in this fashion, but Buena Vista Social Club is not a concert film. Wenders weaves the artist biographies with a glimpse of modern Cuba remembering its past, capturing a lost culture in music that is suddenly, unexpectedly revived for audiences in Havana and around the world. Wenders makes his presence practically invisible, as if his directorial flourishes or off-screen narration might deflect attention from the artists, who do a fine job of telling their own stories through interviews and music. It's a loving portrait of a master class in Cuban music, with a vital cast of ageing performers whose energy and passion belie their years. --Sean Axmaker

Find out more on Amazon

Reviews