Habana Blues (2005)

Two cuban friends play in a blues band in La Habana. When a spanish music producer offers them a contract to record an album and to build a career in Europe, they will have to decide ... See full summary »

Director:

Benito Zambrano

Writers:

Peter Andermatt, Ernesto Chao (as Ernesto Chao Galván)

Stars:

Alberto Yoel, Roberto San Martín, Yailene Sierra

9 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alberto Yoel	...	Ruy (as Alberto Yoel García)
Roberto San Martín	...	Tito
Yailene Sierra	...	Caridad
Mayra Rodríguez	...	Lucía
Ernesto Escalona	...	Carlitos
Marta Calvó	...	Marta
Roger Pera	...	Lorenzo
Osvaldo Doimeadiós	...	Roger
Zenia Marabal	...	Luz María
Laris Vega	...	Betty
Jorge Alí	...	Nelson (as Jorge Ali Pérez)
Félix Pérez	...	René
Aurora Basnuevo	...	Estrellita
Tomás Cao	...	Álex (as Tomás A. Cao)
Giordano Serrano	...	Giordano

Storyline

Two cuban friends play in a blues band in La Habana. When a spanish music producer offers them a contract to record an album and to build a career in Europe, they will have to decide between stay in their birthplace with their loved ones or grab the chance of leaving Cuba.

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Plot Keywords:

place name in title | city name in title | singer | havana cuba | cuba | 

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Genres:

Drama | Music

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Did You Know?

Soundtracks

Proposiciones
Written by Pablo Milanés
Performed by Pablo Milanés and Los Van Van

User Reviews

Cuban Blues Brothers

No, there is more to it than that! This recent film does compare similarities with John Landis's classic in the plot, but the competent acting and general mood of the piece sets it apart in its own league.

The contemporary mood of troubles people coping in a troubled Havana is well caught by its director Benito Zambrano. I very much admire the originality of this piece, and also its attempts to make the film accessible to many audiences by using several traits which one may call 'stereotypical'.

Albeit the plot of two down on their luck desperate musicians is a familiar one but the genre of music struggles to make original in its own right.

One of the main problems is, its a situation many audiences have met before and there is not much Zambrano and his cast can do to avoid this. Personally, some of the music performed initially is quite weak but maybe this is to show Tito and Ruy's development in their music. I am not sure...

Some of the songs have real flavour- as personally I find a lot of Latin American produced Music does. Some try to heighten the films' messages- others seem just to be there to fill the running time.

The ensemble performances are very good, almost every character makes an impression- in particular Yaridad Sierra who plays Ruy's wife, Caridad is very very convincing.

I also really liked the straight talking grandmother- she was excellent! It's characters like that light up the movie, when things started to become very serious overall, thats the movie works really well as an ensemble piece. The individual performances were of a similar standard, the two leads Alberto Yoel (Ruy) and Roberto Sanmartin (Tito) were well cast.

Overall, this is an enjoyable movie if you do not analyse the film too much (probably my biggest mistake), there is a lot of sentiment that some may find endearing and others repulsive. However the content of the piece is so well thought out and fairly well presented that I can't help but like in its own way...

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros. [Spain]

Country:

Spain Cuba France

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

18 March 2005 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Havanna Blues

Filming Locations:

Cienfuegos, Cuba

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,740,917

Company Credits

Production Co:

Canal+ España, Consejería de Cultura de la Junta de Andalucía, Eurimages

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1