10 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 27, 1996 Cinematography shines in reborn 'Cuba' By Michael Zilberman Daily Arts Writer "Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese present," solemnly announces the very first title of "I Am Cuba" - Mikhail Kalatozov's 1964 epic that was shelved in the Soviet Union immediate- ly after its completion, only to be resur- rected and unanimously hailed as a classic 30 years later. It took the com- bined clout of two of the best directors of our time to give this movie an initial push into American art house release; from there on, "I Am Cuba" will speak for itself. The film transcends the curio status of several recent revivals ("The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,' "Purple Noon") and claims its place on the international cinematic landscape virtu- ally from its first minute. Make that five minutes - the movie is filmed in series of jaw-droppingly choreographed, unbroken takes, and the one that opens it is also the flashiest. Sergei Urusevsky's spookily omnipresent camera transports us to a rooftop 20 stories above Havana, fol- lows several martini-sipping types as if contemplating which one to pick for the rest of the movie, crawls down a wall and winds up in a swimming pool. The goal is, of course, sketching out bour- geois excesses of Batista's Cuba, but the sheer R exhilaration with which Kalatozov stages the shot, strangely neutral- At izes the political message. The same holds true for the rest of the movie: watching "I Am Cuba," one doesn't need to spend time peeling off the political subtext (the experience that mars watching, say, a Leni Riefenstal movie). Kalatozov is too drunk on his visuals to appear even remotely sincere peddling Castro's politics. When the camera lingers on peasants working on a sugar cane plantation, there's a nag- ging suspicion he's more interested in vertical lines and diagonal cutting motions than in celebrating outdoor labor. It's easily understandable why this EVIEW I Am Cuba the Michigan Theater leisurely-paced chronicle of national upheaval, perfectly Marxist in its conception, was withheld from Soviet release: condemn- ing Havana's pre- sumed decadence, Kalatozov also man- ages to get off on it. Urusevsky's wide- angle lens stares at the world of palm trees, flowing clothes and Latin jazz in fish-eyed fascination, skewing the per- spective both visually and logistically. To prevent "I Am Cuba" from look- ing a bit too smitten with its subject matter, a rather annoying device is used: every once in a while, an offscreen woman's voice insists that she, in fact, IS Cuba, and proceeds to pretentiously sum up what had just happened. Those squirm-inducing passages, no doubt, came courtesy of co-screenwriter Yevgeny Yevtushenko, a Soviet poet READ EVERY THULRSDA Y IN THE DAILY who eventually worked his way into international limelight by dispensing diatribes of this sort. "I Am Cuba" sells you incredibly short on plot. It is loosely structured around separate stories in the manner of Rosselini's "Paisan." The first vignette concerns a vile American tourist and a prostitute with a heart of gold; the sec- ond tells a story of an exploited peasant, etc. The audience fails to make any kind of emotional connection with these peo- ple - and so does the director. Instead, "I Am Cuba" prefers to dwell on its numerous dance routines; some scenes are edited to the beat, much like music videos. Overall, the movie feels like a musical, even though it isn't. Rather, it's a cinematic equivalent of a symphony, unfolding in movements. Any political and dramatic validity "I Am Cuba" might have had, is long expired (apart from proving that the Russians had a steadicam before us). Its cinematography, however, remains mind-bending. Combine that with sev- eral extended dream sequences that are like separate experimental movies, and you've got a product that's too bizarre, too risky, too ALIVE for the time and place it was conceived. Of course, those are the same reasons why "I Am Cuba" is extremely interesting here and now. } f "I Am Cuba," now hailed as a clas- sic piece of Soviet cinema, has been resu* rected after a 30- year absence. , Modern dance explores evolution By Stephanie Glickman Daily Arts Writer Conceived in 1993 and initially per- formed in Arizona and New York City, University dance Prof. Evelyn Velez- Aguayo has reconstructed her full evening works, "Sol-A" and "Te Regalo Una Rosa," with student performers and guest musician and singer, Maria Rebecca Cartes. Based on her experiences in the "El Yunque" rain forest in her native Puerto Rico, Velez-Aguayo's solo, "Sol-A," combines animal, flora and fauna imagery within the context of a woman searching for her self-identity and posi- tion within nature. Painted green, Velez-Aguayo simultaneously conveys beauty and grotesquesness as she curi- ously discovers crackling leaves and then breaks into animalistic ritual. With breath and voice she imitates the noc- turnal singing of the coqui, a small frog, indigenous to Puerto Rico. "With civilization we forget our instinctual being. Through art, we claim it," explains Velez-Aguayo, whose ani- mal movements contain issues beyond just nature. Not only is Velez-Aguayo searching for a woman's place within herself and environment, "Sol-A" grap- ples with issues of claiming ethnicity and culture. Humans encounter life paths through which they evolve. The woman of "Sol- A;" unable to remain alone in nature - -- - PREVIEW Te Regal Una Rosa Friday and Saturday at the Betty Pease Theater. Tix are $6. forever, discovers, with mixed feelings, the reality of relationships with other women. She slips into an ensemble of females in "Te Regalo Una Rosa" which searches for a place where women can find a sisterhood, w Velez-Aguayo defines as a "hut.' Connection, separations, rivalry and tension between female relationships are equally weighed in "Te Regalo Una Rosa." As quickly as sibling rivalry develops between two women, it is just as swiftly turned into understanding and support. The pushing and pulling movements and pairs of danders entwined in bands rolling through the space characterize the tumultu struggles between women. The "Sol woman dances in and out of these struggles, always maintaining a sepa- rate identity, yet meshing with othei women in tender moments of discover and acceptance. Water imagery and the notion of ritu. al pervade "Te Regalo Una RoSa.' Previously a caregiver for a Parkinson' disease patient, Velez-Aguayo fillsathc piece with images of the daily rit" that the two shared - bath, massage talk and food. "Katherine became avi" of recollecting water images,' explained Velez-Aguayo, who had beer conceiving of creating a piece involvin water before working with Katherine Images of bathing, washing and rain ar key elements within the text of "T Regalo Una Rosa' Katherine's influence extends ever further into audio and video accounts o female ritual and rites of passage tn0 School of Music junior Lindsay Deitz a dancer in the show, elaborates that the act of bodily cleaning is deeper than a daily activity. "There is the idea o cleansing the self in a spiritual way as a woman and a human being, finding youi place within culture and community." Velez-Aguayo spreads many theme throughout her work, but ideas are care fully woven. As the coqui frogs nest the wilds of the Puerto Rican r forests, the spirit of "Sol-A"-finds he place within nature and the communit: of women. may have been "rehabilitated" by the Catholic Church, but he can't play College Bowl because he's dead. Even if he could, he would never get questions like this: "In his record two-hour inaugural address, he pledged to serve only four years as President. He fell short of keeping that pledge by three years and eleven months. For 10 points - name him." might have been able to get that one, but he's dead too, so he can't play College Bowl either. That deprives him of the opportunity to answer questions like this: "It celebrates the 1925 delivery of diphtheria serum to Nome, Alaska. For 10 points - name this annual dogsled race whose winners include four-time champion Susan Butcher." ;:.. Evelyn Velez-Aguayo's acclaimed modern dances, "Sot A" and "Te Regalo Una Rosa," will be performed this weekend at the Betty Pease Theater. can play, though. Just fill out a registration form at the UAC office-2015 Michigan Union. The fee to register a team is $24, which includes 4 players and an alternate. The fee to register as an individual is $7; we'll put you together with three other people. The deadline to register is Monday, September 30th, at 5:00pm in the UAC Office. The first round of the College Bowl IM tournament will be October 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. (Pick one.) Questions? Call the UAC office at 763-1107 and ask for the College Bowl coordinators, or send email to ac.info@umich.edu. Oh-the answers are "William Henry Harrison" and "The Iditarod." Now you ICRAOSOFT Continued from Page 9 to day, they were making all these wrong decisions ... I was constantly biting my tongue. I was 45 at the time, and most of these kids were in their 20s." Whatever effect the employees' youth had on the project, their age was definitely a factor in their work envi- ronment. Moody describes offices dec- orated with soda-can pyramids, and stereo systems blasting Soundgarden, demolishing the straight-laced comput- er-nerd stereotype. "They let the culture be defined by the people who work there. It really was like a very fancy col- lege dorm," Moody said. Of course, another unique feature of the Microsoft world is Bill Gates. Moody titles a chapter with one charac- like he was always in the room." But somehow, out of this maelstron emerged a completed product, thi "Explorapedia" CD-ROM -- and no only was it an entirely innovative pro gram, it was shipped ahead of sched As Moody realized late in the book, i also demonstrated the underlying rea son for Microsoft's apparent Aisorgani zation. "Gates and his managers ha< cunningly set goals and standards tha would prove impossible to meet ... (hi employees) would dive immediatel: into their next product hoping ty redeem themselves." And with thi strategy came Microsoft's dominat of the software market. Of course, it remains to be seen hos long Microsoft will maintain this posi tion. Moody predicted that the compa ny would next work on interactive tele vision and wireless computers, but.als noted, "The industry's changing at a