Screening Prints: Fifty Years of Cuban Cinema Posters, 1959 - 2009

Some of the most influential Cuban films were made during the first decade of the ICAIC, usually referred to as the Golden Period of Cuban Film. Feature films included the co-production Soy Cuba (I Am Cuba, 1964) by Mijaíl Kalatazov, Memorias del subdesarrollo (Memories of Underdevelopment, 1968) by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (aka Titón), and Lucía (1968) by Humberto Solás. These are considered among the most important titles in Latin American film history.

Although the seventies was a difficult time both politically and artistically in Cuba, some movies such as Los días del agua (Days of Water, 1971) and Retrato de Teresa (Portrait of Teresa, 1979) received critical acclaim. By the end of the decade the International Film Festival in Havana was introduced, bringing new life to the struggling Cuban film industry.

The following decade Humberto Solás’s Un hombre de éxito (A Successful Man, 1986) became the second Cuban film submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a candidate for Best Foreign Film. Other noteworthy movies of the 1980s included Papeles secundarios (Supporting Roles, 1989) and La bella del Alhambra (The Beauty of the Alhambra, 1989), the latter of which won a Goya Award in Spain.

Important titles in the 90s include María Antonia (1990), El siglo de las luces (Century of Light, 1992), El elefante y la bicicleta (The Elephant and the Bicycle, 1994) and Fresa y chocolate (Strawberry and Chocolate, 1993). The latter two films are advertised along this wall in posters by Eduardo Marin and Manuel Marzel (Elefante) and Hubert Delestre (Fresa y chocolate).

Portocarrero, René, 1912–1985
1964

I Am Cuba, directed by Mikhail Kalatozov (1964)

Synopsis: Four vignettes in Batista’s Cuba dramatize the need for revolution; long, mobile shots tell almost wordless stories.

Martínez, Raúl, 1927 – 1995
1968

Directed by Humberto Solás (1968)

Synopsis: The film is divided into three episodes that describe the lives of three Cuban women, each of whom is named Lucía (played by Raquel Revuelta, Eslinda Núñez, and Adela Legrá). The three Lucías also depict three historical periods: the struggle for Cuba’s independence from Spain in 1895; the so-called revolution of the 1930s, and the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Lucía was the ICAIC’s most expensive production to date, and represented a total success. Original, exuberant, and innovative, it was an experimental film which soon became a classic and now is considered a milestone not only in Cuban cinematography but also in Latin American Film History.

Saura, Antonio, 1930–1998
1968

Memories of Underdevelopment, directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío (1968)

Synopsis: An intellectual leaves the Cuban revolution and “underdevelopment” behind, only to find himself at odds with the ambiguities of his new life in the “developed” world. Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (also known as “Titón,” 1928 – 1996) wrote and directed more than 20 feature films, documentaries, and short films. Some of Gutiérrez Alea’s most relevant work is part of the cinematic movement of the 1960s and 70s known as the New Latin American Cinema or Third Cinema, also represented by directors such as Brazilian Glauber Rocha and films such as La hora de los hornos (Hour of the Furnaces, 1968). These films were concerned largely with the problems of neo-colonialism and cultural identity. In his last years, Titón co-directed with Juan Carlos Tabío internationally acclaimed films such Fresa y Chocolate (see below).

Reboiro, Antonio Fernandez, b. 1935
1984

Directed by Humberto Solás (1982)

Synopsis: In 1830s Havana, amidst the Cuban independence movement, social climber Cecilia uses Santería to conquer the son of a rich colonialist family. Now a classic, Cecilia by Humberto Solás generated great controversy when it was released due to its free adaptation of Cirilo Villaverde’s 19th century novel Cecilia Valdés.

Ponce, Nelson, b. 1976
1999

Vampires in Havana, directed by Juan Padrón (1985)

Synopsis: A vampire family in Cuba prepares for a showdown between vampire cartels in the USA and Eastern Europe. They want control of a vaccination that enables them to live in daylight. Animation has been a popular genre of Cuban cinema in the past decades. Two of its greatest successes were created by Juan Padrón. In 1974 he created Elpido Valdés (see below) and he also directed the full-length Vampiros en la Habana in 1985.

Mesa, Julio Eloy, 1943–2004
1989

The Beauty of the Alhambra, directed by Enrique Pineda Barnet (1989)

Synopsis: An allegory of the Cuban republic is told through the story of a musical theatre star in Havana of the 1920s and 30s.

Delestre, Hubert
1999

Strawberry and Chocolate, directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío (1993)

Synopsis: Diego, a cultivated, skeptical young gay man, falls in love with a heterosexual communist full of prejudices and doctrinaire ideas. A great friendship eventually develops between the two men, overcoming incomprehension and intolerance. Fresa y Chocolate broke box office attendance records in Cuba and achieved world-wide recognition, winning important awards and also becoming the first Cuban movie nominated for a Best Foreign Film award at the Oscars. Directors Alea and Tabío also worked together on Guantanamera (1995), Titón’s last film.

Marín, Eduardo, b. 1965; Marzel, Manuel
1995

The Elephant and the Bicycle, directed by Juan Carlos Tabío (1994)

Synopsis: After two years in jail, in 1925 a man returns to the island of La Fe, ruled by the dictator Francisco Gavilán. He arrives with a movie projector and shows Robin Hood to the people. The next day the bridge that communicates La Fe to the mainland is destroyed, and the people plan to overthrow Gavilán. The title refers to a scene in which children argue over the shape of a cloud in the sky: is it an elephant or a bicycle?