Buena Vista Social Club

Distributed by
Film Four

Cat.no: VCD 0040

Cert: E

Running time: 101 minutes

Year: 1999

Pressing: 2000

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 25 plus extras

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Languages: English and Cuban

Subtitles: English translations only

Widescreen: 1.77:1 (16:9)

16:9-enhanced: Yes

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £19.99

Extras : Scene index, Trailer, Deleted Scene, Director's Commentary, Booklet containing biographies and production notes

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Director:

Wim Wenders (Alice in the Cities, Buena Vista Social Club, The End of Violence, Faraway So Close, Million Dollar Hotel, Paris Texas, Until the End of the World, Wings of Desire)

Producers:

Ry Cooder, Ulrich Felsburg and Deepak Nayar

Cast:

Wim Wenders, Ry Cooder, Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben Gonzalez, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuondo, Compay Segundo

Buena Vista Social Club is a personal project for both director Wim Wenders and musician Ry Cooder. The latter, who provides the narration, went to Cuba in March 1996 to reassemble a group of musicians who used to play at the club in the title many moons ago - the Havana hangout now no longer what it once was - and give them this name as their billing. Many of these musicians had long since seen fame in their own country, some having not even played their instruments in over a decade but they all put together an album at the city's Egrem Studios which has sold over 1½ million copies to date and won a Grammy.

Returning to Havana in 1998, Cooder wanted to record a solo project with singer Ibrahim Ferrer, who had fallen into such obscurity that he had become a shoeshine man to survive and who Cooder refers to as "Cuba's answer to Nat King Cole", which would also feature all the musicians from the Buena Vista Social Club.

The other musicians in the film, who each have their own story to tell, are 90-year-old Compahy Segundo, who has five children and is confidently "working in the sixth", legendary pianist Ruben Gonzalez who spent ten years without playing the piano because no-one wanted to hear him, Omara Portuondo, the only woman on these recordings and perhaps the best bolero singer on the island and Barbarito Torres, who puts in a show-stopping performance by playing the guitar behind his back and is the youngster of the group at the tender age of 42.

The picture quality is first-rate. An anamorphic 16:9 ratio, no artifacts and great encoding even on the scenes recorded on a hand-held camera, all serving to capture the spirit of the city. The average bitrate is a very good 7.43Mb/s, often closing in on 9M/bs.

The sound quality is also excellent. The music is anything but in question and when the band aren't strumming their instruments, the dialogue comes across very clearly.

Extras :

Chapters and Trailer :

Languages/Subtitles :

And there's more... :

Menu :

Overall, this film, which gained an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature, contains some excellent music all of which is faithfully reproduced here. I wasn't able to warm to all of the musicians so quickly though as they told their life stories, but anyone who's a big fan of the film will certainly welcome this disc.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000