Last night I attended the premiere of Cuban-American actor/director Andy Garcia’s The Lost City (trailer here), which opens next week. The movie is an epic about a Cuban family in the time immediately before and after the revolution. One brother is a social democrat, one a committed Fidelista and the third (Garcia) is the Bogartish owner of El Tropico, an Afro-Cuban night club where much of the action takes place. (The movie is infused with Cuban music and dance and has a sensational sound track.) The screenplay is by the recently deceased Cuban novelist Cabrera Infante who was an early on a supporter of Fidel and then decamped for Paris as the regime became more totalitarian.
Andy, a friend of mine, has been working on this film for eighteen years, so to say it is a labor of love is an understatement. The movie is in many senses the story of Garcia’s own family and is infused with a passion almost never seen in commercial filmmaking these days. When his character makes the final decision to leave Havana for New York, the scene of his departure is gut-wrenching. You feel Garcia’s own father climbing onto that DC3. This is a real “cinema from the heart.”
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13 Comments
1. John Moore ( Useful Fools ):Roger – no “spoiler warning?”
Apr 18, 2006 - 10:23 am 2. David Thomson:Andy Garcia completed “For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story” in 2000. It is well worth seeing. The music was wonderful.
Apr 18, 2006 - 11:17 am 3. Kevin Peters:Roger:
Apr 18, 2006 - 11:46 am 4. Hermie:It will be interesting to see what type of reception this film gets from the film pundits. The facts on Castro are so strong and undeniable that my fear is that the reviews will focus more on the personel heartache rather then the totalitarian nature of Castro’s regime. Garcia has always been a favorite of mine and his views on Castro have never been timid. The contrast between the reality of Garcia’s vision versus the denial of reality shown by Oliver Stone on Castro would be an interesting side by side comparison to study.
I can only hope that it will be picked up by a distributor who does not fear the pro-Castro Hollywood players, and can bring this to more screens than most ’small’ films can. — Mel Gibson, are you listening? –
Apr 18, 2006 - 12:17 pm 5. ForNow:Roger, you’ve provided them with some good quotes! This sounds like a must-see.
Apr 18, 2006 - 12:43 pm 6. ForNow:I just watched the trailer. Andy Garcia, Bill Murray, Dustin Hoffman, Ines Sastre….
Umm, I think this pic has a lot going for it. And those women dancing on stage…must watch again….
Moviecentre.net – Trailer (Quicktime) http://www.moviecentre.net/ actually has trailers in both Quicktime & Windows Media.
Apr 18, 2006 - 12:53 pm 7. ForNow:Sorry, the link to Moviecenter.net with Quicktime & Windows Media trailers for “The Lost City” is
Apr 18, 2006 - 12:55 pm 8. Das:http://www.moviecentre.net/upcomingmovies/trailer/movie_id_1279.htm
Guillermo Cabrera Infante wrote the screenplay – really? Very interesting.
Cabrera Infante was a great great novelist and witty incisive essayist. His book “Mea Cuba” is the antidote to the Stoners and Bravos and all others of the “Fidel is a Great Man” school. He knows the inner workings of Cuba’s terrorist paradise; he cuts through the high profile apologizers for Fidel like a machete through rotten papaya. A must read.
Apr 18, 2006 - 3:05 pm 9. James Ph.:For anyone interested, the movie’s official website is here:
http://www.thelostcitythemovie.com
Apr 18, 2006 - 9:11 pm 10. scott:As David said,AG’s film on Arturo Sandoval was wonderful.Andy is a true Cuban patriot,and I hope soon that he can take his offspring back to his free,democratic homeland.
Apr 18, 2006 - 9:19 pm 11. Orson2:Just wonderful, Roger.
Thanks for bringing this delight to my attention. It will be shared with my friends.
Apr 18, 2006 - 10:57 pm 12. geoffgo:My 36-year old widowed mother took me to Havana in 1957. We were guests of the Captain of a cruise ship. My mum was quite a looker. El Capitan (Cubano) took us to all the shows, and city sights, Morro Castle, etc. They looked just like the trailer of the Lost City. The shows and all the rum factories were terrific memories for a 12-year-old. B^)
Apr 19, 2006 - 3:02 pm 13. ElMondo:Yeah, I remember Andy Garcia being interviewed on the Today Show during the Elian Gonzalez event. He was pretty firm in his opinion about life in Cuba.
“it’s a fate worse than Hell to…think that my children would be growing up in that system over there.”
(Source: Click here)
Another quote, same link:
“… what you can be sure of that there is only one opinion in Cuba and that’s the state opinion. And if the father had contrary thoughts to that, those would never be voiced or be permitted to be voiced. And that is a fact.”
And last:
“You know the people who feel passionate about this are people who know the reality of life in Cuba. Those who do not know the reality of life in Cuba would obviously side with the child reuniting with his own parents. But I speak to you, not only as a friend, but, with, from the deepest sentiments in my heart, I know for a fact that this child is in my own heart, in my own opinion. This is my opinion. This child deserves the civil liberties that we so enjoy here in the United States.”
God Bless him! No prevarication, no BS, just straight “This is how it is”.
Roger: If you see Mr. Garcia anytime in the near future, please tell him there’s one immigrant here in Indiana — also the son of parents who fled a dictator (Ferdinand Marcos, in my case) — who thinks he’s one hell of a stand up guy and says “Thanks for telling it like it is”.
Apr 19, 2006 - 5:01 pm