Barnett's  suggestions for Cuban Films

in chronological order

Unless otherwise noted, all films are in Leyburn and are subtitled in English

SPAN 396-C:
Barnett's Cuban 
Lit Page

LIT 295:
Barnett's 
Cuban Lit in 
Translation 

Prof Barnett's Page

W&L Faculty
Development Seminar:
 "Contemporary Cuba"

Washington and Lee

Important links for Cuban Film, Festivals, and Review Sites

 

"Lista de Espera"
(The Waiting List)

Director: Juan Carlos Tabío
 2000
 ...105mins

 

This social comedy takes place in a bus station from which no-one can leave because there are no longer any buses running: an allegory, perhaps, of Cuba’s recent history.

 

"La Vida es Silbar"
(Life is a Whistle) 

Director: Fernando Perez
1999
...110 mins

A portrait of contemporary Cuba that weaves together three comic stories about Julia, a social worker, Elpido who lives by his wits and Mariana, a ballet dancer. An affirmative film which sighs over rather than attacks Cuba’s unfinished Revolution.

Currently not in Leyburn Library 

 


"Guantanamera"

 

Director: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
and Juan Carlos Tabío
1995
...101 mins.

 

Not available yet in Leyburn

 

 
In this romantic comedy, Yoyita, a world-famous diva, returns to her home town of Guantanamo for an elegant reception and a surprise reunion with her once beloved, Candido. Overjoyed with the rekindled memories of her first love, Yoyita's elated heart fizzles while in Candido's embrace. Joining Yoyita's funeral procession back to Havana are her sexy niece Gina, a former professor blacklisted for political nonconformity, and her husband Adolfo, a tasteless government official in charge of the funeral proceedings. As the cortege wends westward across Cuba, its path keeps crossing that of Mariano, a gallant truck driver who once had a crush on Gina and whose recurring presence crystallizes her doubts about her marriage

 

"Fresa y Chocolate"
(Strawberry and Chocolate)

 

Director: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
 and Juan Carlos Tabío
1993
...104 minutes

 

Diego--a cultured and marginalized homosexual, who loves his country and its traditions--meets and falls in love with David, a young university student full of prejudices and communist doctrinary ideas.

 

"El bohío"
(The Hut)

 

Director: Mario Rivas
1985
...10 mins.


Not available in Leyburn

Through the image of a "bohio" (small hut) the animation makes reference to crucial moments in the history of Cuba, such as colonization, independence war, American intervention, false Republic and Revolution.

 

"Se permuta"
(House for Swap)


Director: Juan Carlos Tabío
1984
...105 mins.

Not available in Leyburn

Gloria, Yolanda's mother, exchanges their old house in Guanabacoa for a modern apartment in Vedado to keep Yolanda away from her boyfriend, but her plans soon backfire.

 

"Hasta cierto punto"
(Up to a Certain Point)


Director: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
1983
...70 mins.

This clever self-reflexive satire about the battle of the sexes in contemporary Cuba tells the story of an educated, liberal filmmaker who, in doing research for a film about the social problem of machismo in Cuban society, finds himself falling in love with the sexy, liberated Lina, a pioneering female dockworker

 

"Vampiros en la Habana"
(Vampires in Havana) 


Director: Juan Peron
1983
... 75mins

Not available in Leyburn

When Count Dracula arrives in Havana to carry out his experiments he is threatened by the Mafia Vampires from Chicago. This satiric cartoon is set in Revolutionary Havana.

 

"Retrato de Teresa"
(Portrait of Teresa)


Director: Pastor Vega
1979
...103 mins b/w
Havana housewife and mother, textile worker and social organizer attempts to balance these demands despite a marked lack of co-operation from her Cuban male comrades.

 

"La última cena"
(The Last Supper)


Director: Tomas Gutierrez Alea
1976
...112 mins.

A slaveowner in the late 18th century decides to instruct his slaves in the tenets of Christianity by inviting twelve of them to a reenactment of the Last Supper

 

 

The love stories of three women called Lucia, in 1985, 1932 and sometime in the 60’s, illustrates what happens when sexual and political oppression are challenged. One of Cuba’s finest films depicting three stages in Cuba’s struggle for liberation. With brilliant camera work by Jorge Herrara


"Lucia"

Director: Humberto Solas
1969
...106mins b/w

 
.

 

 

"Memorias  del subdesarrollo"
  (Inconsolable Memories)


Director: Tomas Gutierrez Alea
1968
...97 mins. b/w

 
A study of Cuban society before and after the revolution as seen through the eyes of a man who is a landlord and self-styled writer.  Based on the award-winning novel by Eduardo Desnoes.

 

"Muerte de un burócrata"
  (Death of a Bureaucrat)


Director: Tomas Gutierrez Alea
1966
...85 mins. b/w

 

 The widow of a heroic factory worker fails to obtain her pension because her husband’s union card is buried in his coffin. A black comedy about institutionalised bureaucracy in which the laughs come from a sense of absurdity rather than outright criticism of Castro’s regime.

 

Last Updated on 01/02/04
By Jeffrey C. Barnett
Washington and Lee University