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Cinema arrived in Cuba at the beginning of the 20th century. Before the Cuban Revolution of 1959, about 80 full-length films were produced in Cuba. Most of these films were melodramas. Following the revolution, Cuba entered what is considered the "Golden age" of Cuban cinema.
The Ten Years' War, also known as the Great War and the War of '68, was part of Cuba's fight for independence from Spain. The uprising was led by Cuban-born planters and other wealthy natives. On 10 October 1868, sugar mill owner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and his followers proclaimed independence, beginning the conflict. This was the first of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Little War (1879–1880) and the Cuban War of Independence (1895–1898). The final three months of the last conflict escalated with United States involvement, leading to the Spanish–American War.
La muerte de un burócrata is a 1966 comedy film by Cuban director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea which pokes fun at the Communist bureaucracy and red tape and how it affects the lives of the common people who have to waste time and overcome hurdles just to get on with their ordinary lives.
"It is, as the title suggests, a satire on bureaucracy and red tape, but also on a lot of other sad and mediocre things which we have to put up with at times. However, I have to say that I don’t have much faith in the efficacy of satire as a “driving force of history.” When making the film we thought: we are laughing at the bureaucrats, but then the bureaucrats will come and not only will the film make them laugh, but they will laugh at themselves."
— Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Director’s Statement, La Biennale di Venezia
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea was a Cuban film director and screenwriter. Gutiérrez Alea wrote and directed more than twenty features, documentaries, and short films, which are known for his sharp insight into post-Revolutionary Cuba, and possess a delicate balance between dedication to the revolution and criticism of the social, economic, and political conditions of the country.
Memories of Underdevelopment is a 1968 Cuban drama film directed and co-written by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. The story is based on a novel by Edmundo Desnoes entitled Inconsolable Memories. It was Gutiérrez Alea's fifth film, and probably his most famous worldwide.
Edmundo Desnoes was a Cuban writer and author of the novel Memorias del subdesarrollo, a complex story depicting the alienation of a Cuban bourgeois intellectual struggling to adapt to the process of the Revolution staying on the island after his family decides to leave the country. He originally called the work Inconsolable Memories in the first English edition. The book was adapted in 1968 into the seminal Cuban film of the same title Memorias del Subdesarrollo by the director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, the name by which it is also known in English.
La Amistad was a 19th-century two-masted schooner owned by a Spaniard living in Cuba. It became renowned in July 1839 for a slave revolt by Mende captives who had been captured and sold to European slave traders and illegally transported by a Portuguese ship from West Africa to Cuba, in violation of European treaties against the Atlantic slave trade. Spanish plantation owners Don José Ruiz and Don Pedro Montes bought 53 captives in Havana, Cuba, including four children, and were transporting them on the ship to their plantations near Puerto Príncipe. The revolt began after the schooner's cook jokingly told the slaves that they were to be "killed, salted, and cooked." Sengbe Pieh unshackled himself and the others on the third day and started the revolt. They took control of the ship, killing the captain and the cook. Two Africans were also killed in the melee.
Guantanamera is a 1995 comedy film from Cuba, directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, featuring an ensemble cast. Eliseo Alberto wrote the screenplay. The film was produced by Camilo Vives.
Juan Carlos Tabío was a Cuban film director and screenwriter. His film Strawberry and Chocolate (1994), which he co-directed with Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, won a Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival. He was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He collaborated with director and close friend Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and actors Jorge Perugorría, Vladimir Cruz and Mirta Ibarra in several films.
The Survivors is a 1979 Cuban drama film directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. It was entered into the 1979 Cannes Film Festival. Los Sobrevivientes was preserved by the Academy Film Archive, in conjunction with the Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematográfica, in 2017.
Nelson Villagra is a Chilean actor, writer and director of stage and screen. He is recognised as one of the most masterful actors in Chilean cinema and is widely known in Chile for his exceptional portrayal of a mentally retarded murderer in Miguel Littín's El Chacal de Nahueltoro (1969). He also collaborated with Raúl Ruiz on Tres tristes tigres (1968), La colonia penal (1970) and Nadie dijo nada (1971).
The Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival, held since 1975 in Huelva, Spain, is the oldest film festival in Europe dedicated to the Ibero-American cinema.
Strawberry and Chocolate is a 1993 internationally co-produced film, directed by Cuban filmmakers Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, based on the short story "The Wolf, The Forest and the New Man". Senel Paz had witten the short story in 1990, and also wrote the screenplay for the film. It was the first Cuban film to be nominated for an Academy Award.
Stories of the Revolution is a 1960 Cuban drama film directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. It was entered into the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival.
The Twelve Chairs is a 1962 Cuban comedy film directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. The plot is based on Ilf and Petrov's 1928 novel of the same name. It was entered into the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival.
Camilo Vives was a Cuban film producer. He produced more than forty Cuban films during his career, including Lucía, released in 1968, and Fresa y Chocolate in 1994.
Reynaldo Agustín Miravalles de la Luz, known as Reinaldo Miravalles, was a Cuban actor residing in Miami.
Letters from the Park is a 1988 Cuban drama film directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. The film was selected as the Cuban entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 61st Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
History of a Cuban Struggle Against The Demons is a book written by ethnologist Fernando Ortiz Fernández, published in 1959 by the university of Santa Clara city: Universidad Central de Las Villas. In this voluminous essay, the author explores the colonial history of the town of Remedios.
References
- 1 2 "The Last Supper (1976) Film: 'The Last Supper,' A Parable From Cuba:Politics and Religion, New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-05-12.
- ↑ "An analysis of Post-Revolutionary Cuba through the eyes of Tomás Gutiérrez Álea's "LA ÚLTIMA CENA" (2004)". 14 November 2012. Retrieved November 9, 2013.
- ↑ "THE LAST SUPPER (LA ULTIMA CENA), BBC Four: Film & Drama" . Retrieved 2011-05-12.
