I was apprehensive about viewing Buena Vista Social Club having witnessed
Wim Wenders' fawning appreciation of Madredeus in Lisbon Story (1994),
knowing of his often heavy-handed use of music throughout his recent films
and after hearing rumours of his new film, The Million Dollar Hotel, being
co-scripted by Bono and starring Mel Gibson. But the groovy old timers who
comprise the band in this film are real scene-stealers, while the
seductive use of crumbling sea front Havana as a back drop provides the
perfect visual complement.
The film is essentially a feel-good story about how in 1996 Ry Cooder
banded together a group of forgotten Cuban musicians with the idea of
producing an album of lost Cuban music. Ibrahim Ferrer was shining shoes
and Compay Segundo was rolling cigars before the Buena Vista Social Club
was formed, yet their eponymous album went on to sell over one million
copies worldwide and triumph at the Grammys.
The film is a collection of interviews with the musicians who tell of
their love of music and their appreciation of life, inter-cut with concert
footage from Amsterdam and Carnegie Hall, but any remarks about life in Cuba
after the revolution of 1958 are not included, and Fidel Castro is
a notably absent main character. Some sort of social-political element
would have been welcome.
But the director pulls off a digital coup with Buena Vista Social Club.
His presence is hardly felt except in the occasional over-use of a
steadicam. He provides a luscious testament to 'age' by showing how much
these forgotten musicians, who were plucked from poverty and obscurity,
have to offer the world.
Its a fairytale ending when the band arrives in New York City for their
final concert: put some aging Cuban music heroes in a limo and set them
loose in the Big Apple and you have a recipe for obsessive viewing. Watching this
film you'll silently promise yourself that when you grow up you'll want all
the sartorial flare and lust for life shown by these funky octogenarian
geezers.
Reviewed by Iain Tibbles
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