Buena Vista Social Club

• 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 containingbiographies 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:

Cast:

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

Buena Vista Social Clubis 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 playat 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 famein their own country, some having not even played their instruments in over a decade but theyall put together an album at the city’s Egrem Studios which has sold over 1½ millioncopies 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 Cooderrefers to as “Cuba’s answer to Nat King Cole”, which would also feature allthe musicians from the Buena Vista Social Club.

The other musicians in the film, who each have their own story to tell, are 90-year-oldCompahy Segundo, who has five children and is confidently “working in the sixth”, legendarypianist Ruben Gonzalez who spent ten years without playing the piano because no-one wantedto hear him, Omara Portuondo, the only woman on these recordings and perhaps the bestbolero singer on the island and Barbarito Torres, who puts in a show-stopping performanceby 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 encodingeven on the scenes recorded on a hand-held camera, all serving to capture the spirit of thecity. 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 theband aren’t strumming their instruments, the dialogue comes across very clearly.

Overall, this film, which gained an Oscar nomination for Best DocumentaryFeature, contains some excellent music all of which is faithfully reproducedhere. I wasn’t able to warm to all of the musicians so quickly though asthey told their life stories, but anyone who’s a big fan of the film willcertainly welcome this disc.

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