cubanmiamiboy

Yes, there's an important film industry, basically of experimental-independent low budget movies, primary made after 1959 and strongly influenced by the italian neo-realism cinema If you want to see a great cuban movie try to get Tomas Gutierrez Alea's 1968 masterpiece "Memories of Underdevelopment", which is based on Edmundo Desnoe's novel Inconsolable Memories and was selected among the best 100 films of all times by the International Federation of Film-Clubs. The story takes place during a transitory period in Cuba, between the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, events to which the film makes direct reference by using fragments of newsreels, recording of speeches and filming with a hidden camera . Alea made full use of the handheld camera technique in addition to voiceover, which, despite the protagonist's moral ambiguity, give the film a remarkable level of unity and completeness. Shortly, it tells the story of Sergio, a well-off apolitical intellectual guy, who becomes increasingly self-absorbed and alienated from the world around him when, at the onset of the revolution, his wife and friends leave Havana. Walking the streets of the city at this “time of departure”, Sergio, while considering his countrymen “underdeveloped” in order to satisfy his intellectual quest to become a writer, is confronted with his own inability in self-realisation. Aesthetically, i find that "Memories" resembles the early-'60s work of Antonioni. Its mood, conveying the characters' labyrinth of moral ambiguity and detachment and the use of long, isolating camera takes gazing at deserted streets and characters' faces, are some of the Alea's key elements remainders of those of the Italian director. Also from Alea i would highly recommend the following movies: 1962 The Twelve Chairs. Great comedy 1966 Death of a Bureaucrat. Hilarious view of cuban bureaucracy. 1972 A Cuban Fight Against Demons. Surrealistic and experimental. 1976 The Last Supper. Surreal and plenty of simbolic images. 1979 The Survivors. Excelent film telling the story of an upper class bourgeois cuban family's reaction to Castro's revolution, as they decide to lock themselves in their Havana mansion in January 1959 "for a couple of months until the new Castro's government falls off". Reminiscence of Bunuel's "The Exterminating angel" 1994 Strawberry and Chocolate. Oscar nominated for best foreign film and a brave take on gay/political issues. Also, try this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_Cuba

... i jut can't stand the two fistings up gesture...Can something be done about it...?

No, here i am too!!!

Great news. I've heard great things about this company. This is what "the Palm Beach Post" has to say about their production... "The Nutcracker as choreographed by Marie Hale and produced by Ballet Florida is acclaimed as one of South Florida's most spectacular holiday family traditions." The Palm Beach Post http://www.palmbeachpost.com/events/events...;eventid=102464

2006 "Volver" wasn't my favorite Almodovar's movie...I've followed his filmography with loyalty for years, and this is the list of the movies that i've seen of the spanish director,(if m. serve). I'll make a few recomendations on those that i particulary like. 2004 Bad Education 2002 Talk to Her 1999 All About My Mother. Intense and beautiful. Highly recomended. Oscar winner. 1997 Live Flesh 1995 The Flower of My Secret 1993 Kika 1991 High Heels A cult to kitsh as a genuine way of making art. Glamorous Marissa Paredes on it. Don't miss it. 1990 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! . A very sensual and suggestive movie. 1988 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown .One of the best comedies i've ever seen in my whole life. 1987 Law of Desire . Again, great made kitsh on a gay story of love and madness. 1986 The Bullfighter. Very tasteful and elegant. 1984 What Have I Done to Deserve This? Neurosis at its best. 1983 Dark Hideout . Bizarre. 1982 Labyrinth of Passion 1980 Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap . Just perfectly delightful as a way to see the introduction of the 80's in Spain.

keeping my list rolling... Luis Bunuel's irreverent 1961 "Viridiana", surrealistic 1962 "The Exterminating Angel"-(my favorite ) and the great satiric 1972 "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie". Talk about being subversive!

Oh well, so let's keep this going: My all time favorite movie, (which i saw for the first time when i was a kid, and just couldn't get away from its magic ever since): the tasteful french 1964 Jacques Demy's "Les parapluies de Cherbourg". (Can we live without the young and beautiful Catherine Deneuve and her blonde 'do ? What about Michel Legrand's enchanting score...?

Maurice Bejart (RIP) on Mme. Alonso: "She is extraordinary.Alicia is passionate, ironic, willful and tireless, possessed entirely by dance and, somehow, simply enebriated by Cuba, by her homeland. She is romantic but lucid, instinctive and intelligent, almost blind but clairvoyant. One of these days, I must make a ballet about this extraordinary being.'' Maurice Bejart.

A controversial figure, with no doubt, and dearest friend of Mme. Alonso. This is what she had to say about him: Alicia Alonso, the prima ballerina assoluta of Cuba, on Thursday lamented the death of French choreographer Maurice Béjart, "a very dear friend and admirer." : "With the death of Maurice Béjart art loses an immense creator, one of the greatest choreographers of all time. He was an artist of inmense imagination , and also a philosopher of art," said Alonso in a note to the press e-mailed. "A significant detail is that despite his innovative aesthetics, he had the intelligence to understand the sensitivity and love of the classical tradition," said octogenaria director of the National Ballet of Cuba. In 1972, Alonso served as guest artist of "Ballet of the Twentieth Century", directed by Béjart, at the Teatro de la Moneda in Brussels, where she performed "The Swan Lake" exceptionally mounted for her. "In Béjart I had a very dear friend and admirer, and the National Ballet of Cuba an enthusiastic support," said Alonso, stressing that "it is remarkable that a vanguardist like him had this sensitivity, this culture." She recalled the visits by the choreographer to Cuba in the 70's and said that "our company danced some of his ballets and we never missed their messages, their breath." "The footprints of this creator remain forever in the art of dance," Mme. Alicia Alonso. http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=e...en%26ie%3DUTF-8 RIP Maurice Bejart.

A little bit of all of the above, and yes, bart, i would even add the "self-satisfaction" issue on the list...why not. At the end, everybody seems to agree that in Nureyev's case, for instance, his art was a product of an inner urge, a vital need, something in which HE was involved with himself, (even during PDD's, and oftenly very obvious). Don't we breath to supply OUR OWN body's needs of O2...?, don't we eat to satisfy our PERSONAL hunger...?, hence, artistic creation goes on the same boat sometimes...

Marie is my favorite...You go ,girl!!!

I just love to read or hear of Balanchivadze being addressed by his real name...But back to the Imperial School topic...

Grrrr...i want to go to Europe!! (to visit, IMO)

Expanding Cristian's inquiry -- does this sort of Nutcracker exist anywhere anymore? I mean, a production close to the feel of the original version, intended for the original kind of of audience. I assume this is how The Nutcracker is done in Cuba -- but where else? I think that the 1978 Bolshoi/Maximova/Vasiliev production intended to be "adult-oriented". They didn't use children, but it seems like Grigorovitch,wanting to create a more "balletic" feeling, put a lot more of dance for Maximova and her multi-role performance, making it so only one ballerina would do the leading dance the whole night-(something that i particulary don't like, as i prefer to have a second ballerina, the actual "star of the night", doing the SPF, as it was originally intended ). This version also lacks the Snow Queen PDD, ( a later Fokine addition, i know, for Pavlova, but still beautiful). Overall, i would take this production right away if it was a matter of choosing...

Of course i do, but i'll better wait for another comment to be posted, so i don't sound too obviously partial-(which i am, i know, for the purpose of this subject ). Meanwhile, i'll quote Mme. Ulanova when, after watching this performance, said in tears... "Her Giselle is a miracle" ( I know, i wrote it already on the "Quotable quotes" Forum )

Thanks for the advice, printscess. I'll certainly check it out. Nothing wrong with Balanchine, if i may say, on the Nutcracker issue, but the thing is that that's the version MCB shows, and i know it by heart already. Also, i miss the ballet as an "adult" ballet itself separated from its american traditional Christmas feeling- (wonderful, i agree, but sometimes a little distracting from its inner complex quintessential choreographic/musical values). Thank you also for the advise on the NYCB production. I'll checl it out also and report back.

uuh, yes...?

Hi everyone !: As i'm going to be in NYC during the holidays on vacation, i thought about where am i going to see the Nutcracker. Now, this is the thing. I would love to see a production with, at least, one this two requirements: 1- One in which kids, as cute as they are, are not involved. or 2- One that is not Balanchine or Mc Kenzie based. My ideal thing would be to see the Fokine choreography, which i know is danced by the Irine Fokine Ballet Company in NJ and i adore, but i was wondering if a could have some more options in Manhattan. Newyorkers out there...advices, please..!

Those are always very interesting views, like in the "Ballet Russes" film, when Mme. Baronova's friend -(Tamara Tchinara?)-talks about the use of the batteries back then, and how neglected these steps are being treated nowadays.

...just from the XX Century...?

While sunbathing at the beach today i heard Carl Maria von Weber's "Invitation to the Dance" on the radio and it made me think of your performance. Congratulations, dancerboy, and don't get discouraged at all for the "little applause" thing...everybody has had their "little applause" nights, even our sacred balled idols...Here, this is the BT audience applauding you for your "Spectre"...

Do you have anhy other story to share...?...I must confess i LOVE to hear and read stories from those who, like you, were right there during all those wonderful years. I actually have some bibliographic material in where Mme. Alonso recollects many interesting stories from the ABT on the 40's.

Ms. Leigh...that was a moving and beautiful recollection. While reading it i kept thinking how great would it be to have a movie like the "Ballet Russes" one made on the ABT history, with so many dancers from its very begginings still alive and eager to share their wonderful memories, just as you did with us...THANK YOU!...BTW, may i add that you look very beautiful on that pic...?

From Kavanagh's "Nureyev", on Nureyev's words to friend Patrick Thevenon: "I will never return to my country, but i truly believe that i will never be happy in yours". Rudolf Nureyev

I know...I always get so frustrated when watching the truncated Black Swan Coda sequence with Toumanova , just after her fouetees and her partner's pirouettes a la second, when she kinds of gets into a position to do a backwards step,(and that's when the clip abruptally gets cut off) and it always leaves me wondering if she was going to do the controversial sequence of sautees sul le pointe en arabesque penchee that Mme. Alonso incorporated for NBC (giving the fact that her Ballet Russes experience is a major influence on her teaching and choreographic style).