Salut les cubains

The oldest of the Cinevardaphoto shorts, and the least compelling. Varda brought back hundreds of photos from a trip to Cuba soon after Castro came to power, and she presents them in a rapid-fire montage. There are a few wonderful moments, particularly when celebrating Cuban dance and culture, for the most part this is pretty dry material, Varda rushing far too quickly from one subject to another, as if aware that these aren't very interesting topics.

By isolating still images but still creating a rhytm and narrative structure she creates a feeling of "outside of the still image" in me, which becomes and area of absence filled by my thoughts and feelings which are invited by the poetics and the obviousness of the images Varda juxtaposes. A great example to emphasize that cinema shows more the more it subtracts.

All throughout Varda put in this sense of playfulness that I was hoping for, in particular there are a few scenes where she edits together photos to the beat of some music to make it look as if people are dancing.

Is this supposed to be an experiment or a documentary? Seemingly the film cannot quite decide, and fails to be especially interesting or informative according to a standard of either one.

A photo montage full of movement and groove about Cuba and its people, music, politics, revolution, dance and cinema.

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“it was anecdotal, but it seemed symbolic” —varda

portrait of cuba at the time. some nice use of still photography to create movement, but trying to watch the barrage of images whilst reading subtitles can be trying. very new waveish.

Tem algo de realmente genial um doc feito de fotos estáticas com tanto ritmo.

Although Varda is, understandably, excited by Cuba's revolution, this is not really a political film ... or rather, not JUST a political film. It's primarily about Cuban people from all walks of life, their culture and, especially, their music. It's a really astonishing technical feat ... animating thousands of photos in time to Cuban music and bringing them to life. It's a really joyous and engaging film.

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