Product Description

A most acclaimed discovery, I Am Cuba will change your view of cinema forever! Filmed by great Russian director Mikhail Kalatozov (The Cranes Are Flying), I Am Cuba is an epic poem to Communist kitsch--a whirling, feverish dance through the sensuous decadence of Battista's Havana and the grinding poverty and oppression of the Cuban people. Presented jointly by master directors Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, I Am Cuba has received universal acclaim and admiration from around the world as a true classic of world cinema. In Spanish and Russian with English subtitles. 140 minutes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24012 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-01-18
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: Russian, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 140 minutes

Customer Reviews

I am Cuba: 'an avante-garde freakout.'
This beautiful film reveals the poetic possibilities of cinema. I am Cuba is a 1964 Cuban/Soviet film produced by director Mikhail Kalatozov (The Cranes are Flying). The Soviet government commissioned Kalatozov to create a film promoting international socialism; what it got instead was "an avante-garde freakout that continues to cast a spell over filmmakers" (New York Times, 11/20/2007, p. B8) including Martin Scorsese, who has been campaigning to restore the movie since the 1990s. Kalatozov was given almost total freedom to complete the film, and the resulting work continues to amaze cinephiles with its long, breathtaking camera shots (using a wide angle lens). In one scene, Kalatozov's camera moves among the contestants of a beauty contest, exits the building, makes a two story descent into a smoky club, circles around several bartenders, and then actually enters a swimming pool. (Paul Thomas Anderson used this same shot in his film, Boogie Nights.) In another famous scene, the camera follows a coffin along a crowded street, and then ascends upwards for at least four stories until it is filming the coffin from above a building, where it enters the building through a window into a cigar factory, where workers are watching the coffin in the street below. A highly recommended artistic film experience revealing the power of cinema.

This new special edition of I am Cuba includes Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0; optional English subtitles; a new high-definition transfer of the feature film from original Russian 35mm; a video interview with Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese; language tracks in both Spanish and Russian with new English subtitles; Cuban version of opening credits; original Milestone trailer; "THE SIBERIAN MAMMOTH," Vicente Ferraz's award-winning documentary on the making of I AM CUBA; City Cinematheque's Jerry Carlson interviews screenwriter Yevgeny Yevtushenko; "A FILM ABOUT MIKHAIL KALATOZOV," and I AM CUBA: THE TRUE STORY, a booklet on the making of the film and its history since then.

G. Merritt

Don't forget that USSR banned this film!
I had the pleasure to view this film on wide-screen at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts cinema venue back around 1996 or so. It was utterly breathtaking...and a special treat for me since I also speak Spanish and Russian as foreign languages (I for one, didn't mind the subtle Russian dubbing following the sentences in Spanish & English). I notice most of the reviewers comment on it's role as a "communist propoganda film". Yes, well, the film tries hard to follow the "Socialist Realist" of 'official' Soviet Art, but it (thankfully utterly) fails to do so and slides breathlessly into a "Magical Realist" mode with elements that Soviet critics would have disdained as "metaphysical". Indeed, the remarkable thing is that this film was BANNED in the USSR *and* CUBA shortly after its release. Didn't sit well with the Politburo, etc. The cinematography is wonderful. Yes, it is critical of the Norteamericanos, but the film does not demonize them. Think of the scene w/ the American sailors...I was anticipating a fight and a violent rape...but it doesn't happen. The film could have been much harsher on the US than it was. I may very well buy this film on VHS. I'm happy to see it available for rent at my local Blockbuster's.

I Am Cuba
I don't know any filmmakers who are not stunned by this visual masterpiece. The hand held shot that traverses a hotel in decadent, pre-Castro Cuba is the stuff of legend- a long moving camera shot that floats through space as if suspended by magic. And this was before the steady-cam was invented. The opening aerials shot with infrared film alone justify this film's 5 star rating. You don't have to take the politics seriously to admire the fluid camera work and unique aural-visual style of this little seen master work.