The Lost City (2005)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: B-     Film: B-

 

 

He struggle over Cuba is as much an ideological one as physical one.  Though Batista was a huge dictator whose overreaching hold on power led to his overthrow, there are still romantic notions about Cuba in his time simply because it was a Cuba with a living culture that had not been ethnically cleansed by Castro and has suffered from its Socialist/Communist state ever since.  That it is still surviving in the same form long after the collapse of The Soviet Union is amazing.  At the risk of not being able to separate Batista from the great culture around him, actor Andy Garcia is the latest director to take on the subject with his ambitious The Lost City.

 

Released in 2005 and running 144 minutes, the intent is an epic, to make an epic statement and recapture the best of the time in cinematically epic form.  Like past attempts like the awkward Sean Connery film Cuba, I still do not think the big statement is made here, especially since Garcia is rightly so proud and in love with the art and high culture of the time, but it seems the Guillermo Cabrera Infante book is a rich enough source to give this film its moments.

 

Garcia plays the owner of the swankiest club around, with the best entertainment and it can only remind one of Coppola’s vivid sequences in Godfather II, a film this one echoes more than a few times.  Unfortunately, it is not as memorable in the same instances, like Coppola and Puzo’s grasp of the implications of the revolution upon the country and this film eventually is in more of a fantasy/romance direction since its project is to celebrate a Cuba that was and Cuban-Americans would like to restore (hopefully minus dictatorial Batista Fascism) once the hoped-for Castro collapse might happen when he passes on.

 

Dustin Hoffman and Bill Murray make pleasant appearances and Inez Sastre is not bad as the love interest of Garcia’s Fico Fellove.  Of course, Garcia was a big new character in Coppola’s 1990 Godfather III, but that never stuck and he never reprised his role.  This film is at least as good and even when it does not work, its ambitions are always fun to watch since Garcia really put him heart and soul noticeably into this.  It is a mature film about something important, important to him and another disturbing chapter in how easy it is to destroy a heart and soul culture that is still the pride of a past Cuba long gone but far from dead.

 

The 1.78 X 1 image is colorful, but has some detail issues in this transfer.  Emmanuel Kadosh’s cinematography is more in the Classical Hollywood mode than what you would find in Godfather II, which has its advantages and disadvantages.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is not bad, though nothing extraordinary, with gunshots sounding a bit off throughout of all things.  Music is highlighted and an integral part of the narrative in building the past.  Extras include an audio commentary by Garcia, co-star Nestor Carbonelli and Production Designer Waldemar Kalinowski, a making of featurette, behind-the-scenes stills, deleted scenes with optional commentary and text on the cast and crew.  Along with the film, this is very interesting material and a DVD definitely worth your time.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo