Herald rating: * * *
Running time: 101 mins
Rental: Now
Review: Ewan McDonald
Disclosure: The writer is a Ry Cooder aficionado and has all his albums since 1970-mumble (though sadly not the guest appearances on Paul Revere and the Raiders' LPs).
The great guitar stylist planned the Buena Vista Social Club sessions and
concert tours to capture the music of a group of legendary performers before they disappeared, so it's poignant that the video of Wim Wenders' film, which chronicles the event, is released in the week that Manuel "Puntillita" Licea died. Another of the Afro-Cuban All-Stars is playing the Salon of Dreams.
For those who haven't caught up with one of the biggest-selling records of the past decade, Cooder rediscovered an almost vanished generation of Cuban musicians in Havana in 1997.
Some of the players were over 90; Ibrahim Ferrer, the "Cuban Nat King Cole," was shining shoes.
Sadly, one great craftsman and his artists are not well served by Wenders, usually a great craftsman himself, and his cameramen.
From the decaying glories of Havana to the concert halls of Europe and America there are endless shots from a camera circling a musician on a chair, juxtaposed with shaky, hand-held close-ups.
Don't expect, either, to hear songs all the way through. Wenders cuts into the chords with the musicians telling their stories or wandering New York before their Carnegie Hall triumph.
Frustrating, really: just put the album on one more time.
