Cuba is roughly 1,300 miles away, but in a rehearsal space in downtown Manhattan, it doesn’t feel all that far. Cradling their percussion instruments, horns, and guitars, a ten-piece band of musicians, some from Latin America, preparing to play a sinuous piece of son Cubano, as a theater crew — director, writer, actors and choreographers — hover around.
“Nothing like this has been attempted before,” says music supervisor Dean Sharenow. “It’s important that this is the real thing, not a Broadway musical production.”
Welcome to the next iteration of the enduring...
“Nothing like this has been attempted before,” says music supervisor Dean Sharenow. “It’s important that this is the real thing, not a Broadway musical production.”
Welcome to the next iteration of the enduring...
- 11/20/2023
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
The Recording Academy received praise when it announced the most diverse list of nominees to date in November. Seven of the most-nominated artists are all people of color and for the first time since 1999, no white man was nominated in the Album of the Year category.
Coincidentally, 1999 was also the last time four Latino performers took the stage at the Grammy Awards. Nearly 20 years later, four Latino artists will again perform at this year’s historic ceremony. Chart-topper Cardi B is set to sing Bruno Mars’ remix of his 90’s-inspired track “Finesse,” while Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee plan to...
Coincidentally, 1999 was also the last time four Latino performers took the stage at the Grammy Awards. Nearly 20 years later, four Latino artists will again perform at this year’s historic ceremony. Chart-topper Cardi B is set to sing Bruno Mars’ remix of his 90’s-inspired track “Finesse,” while Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee plan to...
- 1/16/2018
- by Thatiana Diaz
- PEOPLE.com
Lucy Walker’s documentary usefully fills in gaps left by the wildly successful 1999 Wim Wenders film about the band and its few ageing survivors
This thoughtful if somewhat scattered documentary takes a last look at the hugely influential Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon, a project that started out as an album recording tracks by ageing Cuban musicians brought together by British impresario Nick Gold and produced by American musician Ry Cooder. Director Wim Wenders made a wildly successful documentary in 1999 that helped increase sales the album, while the artists it featured (most of whom had never worked with each other before) became near household names in metropolitan, world-music-curious households across the world.
Here, director Lucy Walker interweaves interviews with many of the surviving band members and archive footage to provide biographical, political and historical background. That usefully fills in gaps the first documentary left unsaid, but then part of the...
This thoughtful if somewhat scattered documentary takes a last look at the hugely influential Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon, a project that started out as an album recording tracks by ageing Cuban musicians brought together by British impresario Nick Gold and produced by American musician Ry Cooder. Director Wim Wenders made a wildly successful documentary in 1999 that helped increase sales the album, while the artists it featured (most of whom had never worked with each other before) became near household names in metropolitan, world-music-curious households across the world.
Here, director Lucy Walker interweaves interviews with many of the surviving band members and archive footage to provide biographical, political and historical background. That usefully fills in gaps the first documentary left unsaid, but then part of the...
- 10/20/2017
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This August will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.
To sign up for a free two-week trial here.
Tuesday, August 1
Tuesday’s Short + Feature: These Boots and Mystery Train
Music is at the heart of this program, which pairs a zany music video by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki with a tune-filled career highlight from American independent-film pioneer Jim Jarmusch. In the 1993 These Boots, Kaurismäki’s band of pompadoured “Finnish Elvis” rockers, the Leningrad Cowboys, cover a Nancy Sinatra classic in their signature deadpan style. It’s the perfect prelude to Jarmusch’s 1989 Mystery Train, a homage to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the musical legacy of Memphis, featuring appearances by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Joe Strummer.
To sign up for a free two-week trial here.
Tuesday, August 1
Tuesday’s Short + Feature: These Boots and Mystery Train
Music is at the heart of this program, which pairs a zany music video by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki with a tune-filled career highlight from American independent-film pioneer Jim Jarmusch. In the 1993 These Boots, Kaurismäki’s band of pompadoured “Finnish Elvis” rockers, the Leningrad Cowboys, cover a Nancy Sinatra classic in their signature deadpan style. It’s the perfect prelude to Jarmusch’s 1989 Mystery Train, a homage to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the musical legacy of Memphis, featuring appearances by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Joe Strummer.
- 7/24/2017
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
It’s been 20 years since the Buena Vista Social Club album made Cuban music a crossover sensation in the U.S. (for the first time since the ’50s), and 18 years since Wim Wenders’ documentary of the same title played in theaters. What’s become of the gifted musicians who found renewed or belated fame and fortune as a result of those projects? Buena Vista Social Club: Adios seeks to fill in the gap, but this sequel’s subtitle is all too literal. Many of the group’s most prominent figures were already quite elderly two decades ago. Sadly, the answer to the question “Where are they now?” tends to be “dead.” Nor did they pass away recently, after taking part in the new movie. Tres player Compay Segundo and pianist Rubén González, for example, both died back in 2003. Vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer died in 2005. Adios serves as ...
- 5/25/2017
- by Mike D'Angelo
- avclub.com
Cuba has just been opened up to Americans, but twenty years ago musician Ry Cooder saw to it that a vanishing music tradition was preserved for posterity. Wim Wenders followed up with this rough & ready documentary that became almost as popular as the best selling album of mambos, boleros and cha-chas.
Buena Vista Social Club
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 866
1999 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 105 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 18, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Compay Segundo, Eliades Ochoa, Ry Cooder, Joachim Cooder, Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo, Rubén González, Orlando ‘Cachaíto’ López, Amadito Valdés, Manuel ‘Guajiro’ Mirabal, Barbarito Torres, Pío Leyva, Manuel ‘Puntillita’ Licea, Juan de Marcos González.
Cinematography: Jörg Widmer
Film Editor: Brian Johnson
Written by Wim Wenders, concept Nick Gold
Produced by Deepak Nayar
Directed by Wim Wenders
Looking for something new and invigorating, in the late 1980s Paul Simon collaborated with South African vocalists for a refreshing pop hybrid album...
Buena Vista Social Club
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 866
1999 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 105 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 18, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Compay Segundo, Eliades Ochoa, Ry Cooder, Joachim Cooder, Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo, Rubén González, Orlando ‘Cachaíto’ López, Amadito Valdés, Manuel ‘Guajiro’ Mirabal, Barbarito Torres, Pío Leyva, Manuel ‘Puntillita’ Licea, Juan de Marcos González.
Cinematography: Jörg Widmer
Film Editor: Brian Johnson
Written by Wim Wenders, concept Nick Gold
Produced by Deepak Nayar
Directed by Wim Wenders
Looking for something new and invigorating, in the late 1980s Paul Simon collaborated with South African vocalists for a refreshing pop hybrid album...
- 4/18/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Four new movies are coming to the Criterion Collection this April: Juzo Itami’s “Tampopo,” Francis Ford Coppola’s “Rumble Fish,” Wim Wenders’ “Buena Vista Social Club” and George Stevens’ “Woman of the Year.” In addition, two musicals directed by Jacques Demy already in the Collection are receiving new standalone editions: “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” and “The Young Girls of Rochefort.” More information below.
Read More: The Criterion Collection’s 2017 Lineup: What Movies Are Being Added This Year?
“Tampopo”
“The tale of an eccentric band of culinary ronin who guide the widow of a noodle shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe, this rapturous “ramen western” by Japanese director Juzo Itami is an entertaining, genre-bending adventure underpinned by a deft satire of the way social conventions distort the most natural of human urges, our appetites. Interspersing the efforts of Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto) and friends to make her café...
Read More: The Criterion Collection’s 2017 Lineup: What Movies Are Being Added This Year?
“Tampopo”
“The tale of an eccentric band of culinary ronin who guide the widow of a noodle shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe, this rapturous “ramen western” by Japanese director Juzo Itami is an entertaining, genre-bending adventure underpinned by a deft satire of the way social conventions distort the most natural of human urges, our appetites. Interspersing the efforts of Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto) and friends to make her café...
- 1/17/2017
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Wim Wenders’ 1999 documentary “Buena Vista Social Club” is part travel journal, part behind-the-scenes production diary and a concert film that spans the physical and cultural distance between the United States and Cuba. For “Waste Land” director Lucy Walker, Ibrahim Ferrer and the rest of the title group’s journey is also a fairy tale of sorts, culminating with a magical final performance.
Read More: Watch: ‘Jackie’ Director Pablo Larraín Discusses ‘Movies That Inspire Me’ in New IndieWire Video Series Presented by FilmStruck
Walker, who will unveil a follow-up “Buena Vista Social Club” doc at Sundance next month, describes how the unbridled passion of the group’s members makes for a vivid picture of life for Cuban artists at the turn of the century. Buena Vista Social Club’s performances in Amsterdam and at New York’s Carnegie Hall illuminate the determination of a collection of truly talented artists.
Filmstruck has...
Read More: Watch: ‘Jackie’ Director Pablo Larraín Discusses ‘Movies That Inspire Me’ in New IndieWire Video Series Presented by FilmStruck
Walker, who will unveil a follow-up “Buena Vista Social Club” doc at Sundance next month, describes how the unbridled passion of the group’s members makes for a vivid picture of life for Cuban artists at the turn of the century. Buena Vista Social Club’s performances in Amsterdam and at New York’s Carnegie Hall illuminate the determination of a collection of truly talented artists.
Filmstruck has...
- 12/30/2016
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
I don't remember who made me sit down and watch Wim Wenders' Buena Vista Social Club, but the moment I did, I was enamored. It wasn't so much that I loved the cinema; frankly, I remember nothing about it, even if it did earn itself an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary. I was smitten with the history and subject.
Watching the film is a multi-layered experience. There's the setting -- the worn but timeless feel of Havana as classic cars drive by gorgeous, but crumbling, buildings and get hammered by the spray of ocean waves. The people -- men so very far and long from their thriving Cuban music roots. Their musical talents weren't squashed by the passage of time, nor the demands that life thrust upon them. (Ibrahim Ferrer, for example, had become a shoe shiner, yet flawlessly danced his way back into the music scene.) Ultimately...
Watching the film is a multi-layered experience. There's the setting -- the worn but timeless feel of Havana as classic cars drive by gorgeous, but crumbling, buildings and get hammered by the spray of ocean waves. The people -- men so very far and long from their thriving Cuban music roots. Their musical talents weren't squashed by the passage of time, nor the demands that life thrust upon them. (Ibrahim Ferrer, for example, had become a shoe shiner, yet flawlessly danced his way back into the music scene.) Ultimately...
- 11/9/2009
- by Monika Bartyzel
- Cinematical
South by Southwest
AUSTIN -- Once upon a time, the painted rock demons of Kiss took off their makeup. The unmasking offered in Bananaz might be less iconic, but it has its pleasures, especially for the dedicated fans of Gorillaz, a platinum-selling rock/hip-hop group whose members are cartoon characters.
Theatrical prospects are limited, but a DVD release -- ideally in a package containing all the band's videos and assorted promo ephemera -- should do very well.
Not only does the documentary show fans the faces of the real musicians who voice the cartoon hitmakers (and of the many guests who have peppered their records, from De La Soul to Buena Vista Social Club singer Ibrahim Ferrer), it charts the combo's evolution almost from the moment of conception through the arrival of their second record release.
We watch amusedly as the artists squabble, for instance, over how they should handle phone interviews with reporters -- do them entirely in character? Is that too big an acting challenge to pull off? -- and as they suffer through the publicity demands that come with the first album's surprising success.
The film's focus is on the two men most responsible for Gorillaz: Damon Albarn of the Brit pop group Blur and nonmusician Jamie Hewlett, who supplies the cartoons. Viewers who don't arrive with a built-in devotion to the band might find the duo more than a little off-putting: Their humor is juvenile, the men are narcissistic, and their occasional stabs at real-world political relevance border on the laughable.
Director Ceri Levy, seemingly a buddy of his subjects, takes a fly-on-the-wall approach and never worries about explaining things to newcomers; he's laissez faire enough to let mumbled bits of speech zip by unintelligibly. But if the behind-the-scenes component doesn't work hard to win outsiders over, the subject has its own built-in appeal.
We see enough of Hewlett's flashy animation work -- music videos with a fresh look and an entertaining grab bag of pop culture influences (from zombie movies to Japanese animation) -- to keep us from getting bored and to explain how a fictional band scaled the pop charts.
BANANAZ
Head Film
Sales agent: HanWay Films
Credits:
Director: Ceri Levy
Producers: Rachel Connors, Ceri Levy
Director of photography: Ceri Levy
Music: Gorillaz
Editor: Seb Monk
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
AUSTIN -- Once upon a time, the painted rock demons of Kiss took off their makeup. The unmasking offered in Bananaz might be less iconic, but it has its pleasures, especially for the dedicated fans of Gorillaz, a platinum-selling rock/hip-hop group whose members are cartoon characters.
Theatrical prospects are limited, but a DVD release -- ideally in a package containing all the band's videos and assorted promo ephemera -- should do very well.
Not only does the documentary show fans the faces of the real musicians who voice the cartoon hitmakers (and of the many guests who have peppered their records, from De La Soul to Buena Vista Social Club singer Ibrahim Ferrer), it charts the combo's evolution almost from the moment of conception through the arrival of their second record release.
We watch amusedly as the artists squabble, for instance, over how they should handle phone interviews with reporters -- do them entirely in character? Is that too big an acting challenge to pull off? -- and as they suffer through the publicity demands that come with the first album's surprising success.
The film's focus is on the two men most responsible for Gorillaz: Damon Albarn of the Brit pop group Blur and nonmusician Jamie Hewlett, who supplies the cartoons. Viewers who don't arrive with a built-in devotion to the band might find the duo more than a little off-putting: Their humor is juvenile, the men are narcissistic, and their occasional stabs at real-world political relevance border on the laughable.
Director Ceri Levy, seemingly a buddy of his subjects, takes a fly-on-the-wall approach and never worries about explaining things to newcomers; he's laissez faire enough to let mumbled bits of speech zip by unintelligibly. But if the behind-the-scenes component doesn't work hard to win outsiders over, the subject has its own built-in appeal.
We see enough of Hewlett's flashy animation work -- music videos with a fresh look and an entertaining grab bag of pop culture influences (from zombie movies to Japanese animation) -- to keep us from getting bored and to explain how a fictional band scaled the pop charts.
BANANAZ
Head Film
Sales agent: HanWay Films
Credits:
Director: Ceri Levy
Producers: Rachel Connors, Ceri Levy
Director of photography: Ceri Levy
Music: Gorillaz
Editor: Seb Monk
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 3/20/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ry Cooder's plaintive, sinuous guitar work has been an indispensable contribution to the films of Wim Wenders and Walter Hill. With "Buena Vista Social Club", gifted German director Wenders returns the favor via a loving, vivid documentary that not only explores Cooder's music, craftsmanship, culture and roots but becomes a meditation on creativity.
The spellbinding work, a special screening at the Berlin Film Festival, should tap an appreciative audience that will respond strongly to its soulful celebration and sense of wonder. "I've been making records for 35 years. I never know how the public is going to respond, but this was most enjoyment I ever had," Cooder says early on. In 1996, during a visit to Havana, Cooder sought out the surviving members of Cuba's vibrant pre-revolutionary music scene to collaborate on an album. "In Cuba", Cooder says, "the music flows like a river." The finished work, "Buena Vista Social Club", was a critical and commercial phenomenon.
Wenders, operating with a small, guerrilla crew (the movie was shot on digital video and Beta camcorder), showcases 1998 concerts staged in New York and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Like Jonathan Demme's "Stop Making Sense", the portrait is deeply humane, evoking detailed texture and an emotionally riveting examination of the 13 Cuban singers and musicians that complemented Cooder's usual sidemen.
Denied overt political or ideological "insights," "Social Club" exists on a deeper, direct level of camaraderie and musical kinship. One feels like an anthropologist bearing witness to a forgotten, buried world.
Wenders' excursion into the exotic, desperate streets of Havana transcends conventional documentary form, providing voice and shape to the compelling personalities. Cooder functions in the background, willingly assimilating his voice into the collective. The dominant figures are two incredible subjects: Compay Segundo ("a Cuban Nat King Cole," Cooder says), an astonishing 91-year-old guitarist and singer with an expressive face and liquid eyes, and chanteuse Omara Portuondo, daughter of a prominent Cuban baseball player, whose deep-lined face and electric voice are magical and transcendent.
In Wenders' fiction films, the road is unstable and rootless, a place from which people are constantly fleeing. However, the Havana that Wenders conjures seems trapped in space, with 1950s shark-fin convertibles and once-elegant facades of crumbling architecture illustrating the elusive, mysterious Soneros music scene.
"Social Club" puts a human voice to a world that for many existed only in the abstract. In deft visual and cinematic language, it transports us to an exciting time that the world should be privileged to experience, at least for one night.
BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB
Road Movies
A Wim Wenders film
Producer-director: Wim Wenders
Directors of photography: Jorg Widmer, Robby Muller
Editor: Peter Przygodda
Color/stereo
With: Ry Cooder, Joaquim Cooder, Compay Segundo, Ruben Gonzalez, Ibrahim Ferrer, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuondo, Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal, Orlando Lopez "Cachaito", Barbarito Torres, Manuel "Puntillita" Licea, Raul Planas, Felix Valoy, Richard Egues, Maceo Rodriguez
No MPAA rating...
The spellbinding work, a special screening at the Berlin Film Festival, should tap an appreciative audience that will respond strongly to its soulful celebration and sense of wonder. "I've been making records for 35 years. I never know how the public is going to respond, but this was most enjoyment I ever had," Cooder says early on. In 1996, during a visit to Havana, Cooder sought out the surviving members of Cuba's vibrant pre-revolutionary music scene to collaborate on an album. "In Cuba", Cooder says, "the music flows like a river." The finished work, "Buena Vista Social Club", was a critical and commercial phenomenon.
Wenders, operating with a small, guerrilla crew (the movie was shot on digital video and Beta camcorder), showcases 1998 concerts staged in New York and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Like Jonathan Demme's "Stop Making Sense", the portrait is deeply humane, evoking detailed texture and an emotionally riveting examination of the 13 Cuban singers and musicians that complemented Cooder's usual sidemen.
Denied overt political or ideological "insights," "Social Club" exists on a deeper, direct level of camaraderie and musical kinship. One feels like an anthropologist bearing witness to a forgotten, buried world.
Wenders' excursion into the exotic, desperate streets of Havana transcends conventional documentary form, providing voice and shape to the compelling personalities. Cooder functions in the background, willingly assimilating his voice into the collective. The dominant figures are two incredible subjects: Compay Segundo ("a Cuban Nat King Cole," Cooder says), an astonishing 91-year-old guitarist and singer with an expressive face and liquid eyes, and chanteuse Omara Portuondo, daughter of a prominent Cuban baseball player, whose deep-lined face and electric voice are magical and transcendent.
In Wenders' fiction films, the road is unstable and rootless, a place from which people are constantly fleeing. However, the Havana that Wenders conjures seems trapped in space, with 1950s shark-fin convertibles and once-elegant facades of crumbling architecture illustrating the elusive, mysterious Soneros music scene.
"Social Club" puts a human voice to a world that for many existed only in the abstract. In deft visual and cinematic language, it transports us to an exciting time that the world should be privileged to experience, at least for one night.
BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB
Road Movies
A Wim Wenders film
Producer-director: Wim Wenders
Directors of photography: Jorg Widmer, Robby Muller
Editor: Peter Przygodda
Color/stereo
With: Ry Cooder, Joaquim Cooder, Compay Segundo, Ruben Gonzalez, Ibrahim Ferrer, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuondo, Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal, Orlando Lopez "Cachaito", Barbarito Torres, Manuel "Puntillita" Licea, Raul Planas, Felix Valoy, Richard Egues, Maceo Rodriguez
No MPAA rating...
- 2/22/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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