|
Latin beat, Wenders style >>The German auteur documents Cuban culture in Buena Vista Social Club
by MATTHEW HAYS Photo by Gunther Gamper
But here it is: Buena Vista Social Club is a fascinating glimpse into the lives of some serious Cuban talent, including Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer and Eliades Ochoa, among others. Wenders was drawn to the project after longtime collaborator Ry Cooder (who scored both Paris and Violence) sent Wenders a copy of the musician's latest album, the Grammy-winning, best-selling Buena Vista Social Club. As Wenders tells it, the modest Cooder told him all about the Cuban adventure, saying, "I felt like I've prepared my whole life for this album. I don't think I'll ever do anything better." "At that point," recalls Wenders, "I felt I must go to Cuba, just to see if even half of the tall tales Ry was telling me were true." Wenders, Cooder and company headed off to Havana, with Wenders' equipment of choice. "I decided to go with a steadicam. A tripod would have made it too academic and stiff, which wouldn't match the tone of the music, but hand held wouldn't be such a good idea either, as that would make the footage too rough for music so elegant and suave." Wenders says he was simply bowled over by the characters Cooder had led him to. "My initial impression was like coming into a film studio and there was Cagney, Bogart and Cary Grant. They were bigger than life characters--and this was before they started playing." The logistics of shooting concert footage were rather daunting for Wenders. "When shooting in Amsterdam and Carnegie Hall we often used four different cameras. Things had to be coordinated very carefully." But the biggest challenges came while shooting in Cuba, due to shortages there as a result of the long-standing U.S. trade embargo. "Finding food is a constant struggle there. It became a full-time job for one of the crew to locate food for us. We didn't want to go to tourist places. Really, the only people suffering under the embargo are the Cuban people themselves. It should have been lifted long ago." Since finishing Buena Vista, Wenders has shot another dramatic film, The Million Dollar Hotel, which will be released in early 2000. Based on a concept by U2's Bono and penned by Montreal writer Nicholas Klein, the film stars Amanda Plummer, Bud Cort, Jimmy Smits and Mel Gibson. Wenders casting Gibson?? "Oh, he's actually an amazing actor. We made him work very hard, in fact. He said during the shoot, 'It suddenly dawns on me that this is harder than Hamlet.' Really though, I'd always wanted to work with him. The Mad Max movies were my favorite when they came out."
Buena Vista Social Club opens Friday, June 25 at Ex-Centris |
What with the rather cool and alienated protagonists found in such Wim Wenders films as Paris, Texas and The End of Violence, one wouldn't necessarily expect the director to be helming a documentary about Latino musicians.