In Part 1 of this discussion, Steven Soderbergh spoke of the logistics of making and presenting his latest film, Che, starring Benicio Del Toro as revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. The full question and answer session covered a lot of ground. Here in Part 2, we conclude the discussion, as he gives us his take on the real-life Che and his ideology.
On Soderbergh's impression of Che before he took on this project: "I think like most people in this country, I first heard Che’s name in history class at school, when you would get that sort of quick sketch of the history of Cuba. One of the great things about having this job is that, more often than not, I get paid to educate myself. A lot of the details of the Cuban Revolution, obviously, were not known to me. I thought that it was basically all Fidel. I didn’t know anything about these other groups that were trying to do the same thing.
"My idea of Che was from those images of him, near the very end of the Cuban Revolution, with the beret and this cast on his arm. I had no idea about this transformation from being the medic to becoming a leader. I think the thing that I learned about him that was interesting to me was what a hard-ass he was. Talking to the people that fought alongside him, one of the doctors that he fought with also had a great quote. He said, 'You had to love him for free.' He just described how uncompromising he was. Most people wanted to be in Camilo [Cienfuegos]’s column, because he was fun. Che was just a very, very strict disciplinarian, and there was no moment where he sort of dropped the ideology, even in a certain personal one-on-one situation. A lot of people found him sort of cold and distant. So Benicio and I talked about that, a lot. That he really only reserved the warmer side of his personality for when he was in the doctor mode. When he was in the sort of leader-comandante mode, he was really, really harsh. I can understand why. The stakes are pretty high."
On research regarding Che: "If you’ve read about Che at all, if you go to the bookstore, there’s an entire wall of Che material. There’s a lot to go through. We tried to get through all of it. We spoke to everyone who’s still around, and willing to talk, that fought with him, and knew him. And research can be… I think J.G. Ballard once said, 'Research is the refuge of the unimaginative.' There were times when I thought he was absolutely right. We were just overwhelmed with information.
"As Jon Lee Anderson [author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life], who was one of our consultants, said at the press conference in Cannes, 'Look, there’s a billion Ches. He means something different to everyone.' And at a certain point, we, the core creative team, just had to decide what to use and what not to use. Frankly, a lot of it was by exclusion. I went in with more of an idea of what I didn’t want to do than what I wanted to do. At least that’s a start. I mean, you can begin to shape it a little bit.
"I was trying as much as I could to avoid scenes that I thought were too typical. I didn’t want to have the scene where somebody says, 'Hey, why do they call you Che?' Or, you know, him in battle and his hat blows off, and he runs over and picks up a beret. I didn’t want to do that, so that helped, too.
"We’d find these crazy little stories. One of our favorites we found very late in one of the memoirs written by the Acevedo brother, who we see at the end of the film driving the car to Havana. Che stops him and says, 'Turn around.' We found that story very late in the process. It’s such a perfect Che scene, a perfect expression of who he was, so I was always on the lookout for scenes like that."
On Che as a political film: "I believe that any movie that accurately presents anyone’s life, or any situation; any movie that’s not a fantasy; that isn’t just a pure entertainment; any movie that makes an attempt to show things the way they are, is to me, by definition, a political film. Whether you’ve made a cop movie or whether it’s Erin Brockovich, any movie that attempts to look at things in a straightforward fashion, and not polish it up, I think you could argue, is a political film. Obviously, these are political films, in the sense that there’s an ideology that’s being expressed. But that isn’t what drew me to it, ultimately.
"I’m obviously not a communist. As I said to someone a couple of weeks ago, there isn’t even a place for me in the society that Che was trying to build, literally. In Man and Socialism in Cuba [sic], he says, 'There is no great artist who is also a true revolutionary.' He didn’t have a lot of use for the kind of stuff that I do, and I think personally, he probably would have hated me. But again, I can still look at him, and find him one of the most compelling political figures of the last century. I do think the ideas are fascinating to debate, and to look at in the context of the world we live in now.
"One of the things that was interesting to me about the Cuban Revolution is that is the last time you’re ever going to see a revolution like that, fought. That’s what I call the last 'analog' revolution. Today, that would have been over in two weeks. Technology just makes it impossible to fight a revolution the way they did, as we see even seven or eight years later. That doesn’t mean revolutions don’t happen. I’m just saying I don’t think they’re ever going to happen that way again. That was kind of interesting, to make a period film about a type of war that can’t really be fought anymore."
On Cuba today: "As far as what’s going on in Cuba now, I think that the relations between [our] two countries… I don’t think we’ve been very smart in how we’ve played this. I think there are other moves that could have been made, on our part, to make a dialogue more inevitable. I’m still stunned that this embargo is still going on. It’s just shocking. It doesn’t seem to make much sense. It’s my personal belief that if you wanted the embargo to end, and you wanted to see some change there, you should flood them… There’s nothing like exposure to new ideas to get people thinking about new ideas. So in fact, our policy is the opposite of what I would be doing."
On Che's ideology: "I don’t think the economic policy that flows from Marxist-Leninist doctrine works. I don’t think it works. That’s a core principle of his belief system... I don’t think you can build an economy that’s going to function when you base it on this ideology. It’s an ideology that worked in a very specific place, in a very specific time, in an industrialized situation. Mostly it works on paper because as soon as you start adding human beings to it, it falls apart. Do I support his ideas when a system is in place in which profit is only possible through the exploitation of the weak and the poor? I’d say, yeah, I want to see that eradicated. But his methodology, and his economic belief system, I don’t think work."
Click here for Part 1 of Soderbergh's discussion.
Still provided courtesy of Getty Images.
Showing posts with label Che Guevara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Che Guevara. Show all posts
Monday, October 13, 2008
Director Steven Soderbergh on Che, Part 2
In Part 1 of this discussion, Steven Soderbergh spoke of the logistics of making and presenting his latest film, Che, starring Benicio Del Toro as revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. The full question and answer session covered a lot of ground. Here in Part 2, we conclude the discussion, as he gives us his take on the real-life Che and his ideology.
On Soderbergh's impression of Che before he took on this project: "I think like most people in this country, I first heard Che’s name in history class at school, when you would get that sort of quick sketch of the history of Cuba. One of the great things about having this job is that, more often than not, I get paid to educate myself. A lot of the details of the Cuban Revolution, obviously, were not known to me. I thought that it was basically all Fidel. I didn’t know anything about these other groups that were trying to do the same thing.
"My idea of Che was from those images of him, near the very end of the Cuban Revolution, with the beret and this cast on his arm. I had no idea about this transformation from being the medic to becoming a leader. I think the thing that I learned about him that was interesting to me was what a hard-ass he was. Talking to the people that fought alongside him, one of the doctors that he fought with also had a great quote. He said, 'You had to love him for free.' He just described how uncompromising he was. Most people wanted to be in Camilo [Cienfuegos]’s column, because he was fun. Che was just a very, very strict disciplinarian, and there was no moment where he sort of dropped the ideology, even in a certain personal one-on-one situation. A lot of people found him sort of cold and distant. So Benicio and I talked about that, a lot. That he really only reserved the warmer side of his personality for when he was in the doctor mode. When he was in the sort of leader-comandante mode, he was really, really harsh. I can understand why. The stakes are pretty high."
On research regarding Che: "If you’ve read about Che at all, if you go to the bookstore, there’s an entire wall of Che material. There’s a lot to go through. We tried to get through all of it. We spoke to everyone who’s still around, and willing to talk, that fought with him, and knew him. And research can be… I think J.G. Ballard once said, 'Research is the refuge of the unimaginative.' There were times when I thought he was absolutely right. We were just overwhelmed with information.
"As Jon Lee Anderson [author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life], who was one of our consultants, said at the press conference in Cannes, 'Look, there’s a billion Ches. He means something different to everyone.' And at a certain point, we, the core creative team, just had to decide what to use and what not to use. Frankly, a lot of it was by exclusion. I went in with more of an idea of what I didn’t want to do than what I wanted to do. At least that’s a start. I mean, you can begin to shape it a little bit.
"I was trying as much as I could to avoid scenes that I thought were too typical. I didn’t want to have the scene where somebody says, 'Hey, why do they call you Che?' Or, you know, him in battle and his hat blows off, and he runs over and picks up a beret. I didn’t want to do that, so that helped, too.
"We’d find these crazy little stories. One of our favorites we found very late in one of the memoirs written by the Acevedo brother, who we see at the end of the film driving the car to Havana. Che stops him and says, 'Turn around.' We found that story very late in the process. It’s such a perfect Che scene, a perfect expression of who he was, so I was always on the lookout for scenes like that."
On Che as a political film: "I believe that any movie that accurately presents anyone’s life, or any situation; any movie that’s not a fantasy; that isn’t just a pure entertainment; any movie that makes an attempt to show things the way they are, is to me, by definition, a political film. Whether you’ve made a cop movie or whether it’s Erin Brockovich, any movie that attempts to look at things in a straightforward fashion, and not polish it up, I think you could argue, is a political film. Obviously, these are political films, in the sense that there’s an ideology that’s being expressed. But that isn’t what drew me to it, ultimately.
"I’m obviously not a communist. As I said to someone a couple of weeks ago, there isn’t even a place for me in the society that Che was trying to build, literally. In Man and Socialism in Cuba [sic], he says, 'There is no great artist who is also a true revolutionary.' He didn’t have a lot of use for the kind of stuff that I do, and I think personally, he probably would have hated me. But again, I can still look at him, and find him one of the most compelling political figures of the last century. I do think the ideas are fascinating to debate, and to look at in the context of the world we live in now.
"One of the things that was interesting to me about the Cuban Revolution is that is the last time you’re ever going to see a revolution like that, fought. That’s what I call the last 'analog' revolution. Today, that would have been over in two weeks. Technology just makes it impossible to fight a revolution the way they did, as we see even seven or eight years later. That doesn’t mean revolutions don’t happen. I’m just saying I don’t think they’re ever going to happen that way again. That was kind of interesting, to make a period film about a type of war that can’t really be fought anymore."
On Cuba today: "As far as what’s going on in Cuba now, I think that the relations between [our] two countries… I don’t think we’ve been very smart in how we’ve played this. I think there are other moves that could have been made, on our part, to make a dialogue more inevitable. I’m still stunned that this embargo is still going on. It’s just shocking. It doesn’t seem to make much sense. It’s my personal belief that if you wanted the embargo to end, and you wanted to see some change there, you should flood them… There’s nothing like exposure to new ideas to get people thinking about new ideas. So in fact, our policy is the opposite of what I would be doing."
On Che's ideology: "I don’t think the economic policy that flows from Marxist-Leninist doctrine works. I don’t think it works. That’s a core principle of his belief system... I don’t think you can build an economy that’s going to function when you base it on this ideology. It’s an ideology that worked in a very specific place, in a very specific time, in an industrialized situation. Mostly it works on paper because as soon as you start adding human beings to it, it falls apart. Do I support his ideas when a system is in place in which profit is only possible through the exploitation of the weak and the poor? I’d say, yeah, I want to see that eradicated. But his methodology, and his economic belief system, I don’t think work."
Click here for Part 1 of Soderbergh's discussion.
Still provided courtesy of Getty Images.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Director Steven Soderbergh on Che, Part 1
After the recent press screening for Che, starring Benicio Del Toro as revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, director Steven Soderbergh gave a captivating discussion of the film. This was no easy feat given that we had started seeing the film at 10 a.m. and hadn't finished it until about 3 p.m. with only one 20-minute break for lunch.
His discussion was so interesting, I've left most of it intact. Today, I present Part 1 in which he discusses the logistics of making and presenting the film.
On what interested Soderbergh about the story of Che: "The making of this film was so extended. We started talking about it when we were working on Traffic… Producer Laura Bickford, Benicio and I started talking about it. That’s eight years ago. And what I found… why you said yes... That reason changes… during the course of the film.
"It really wasn’t until the films were finished… around the time of Cannes, that I realized what they were really about to me, or what they really meant to me, was this issue of engagement versus disengagement. That every day in our lives, on a personal level, on a community level, on a local level, we are making a decision about how engaged we want to be, or how disengaged we want to be. Do we want to participate, or do we want to observe? I realized that what was compelling about Che to me was once he made the decision to engage, that he engaged fully... You have to remember he also was an atheist. A lot of times when you have figures that can sustain this sort of level of engagement, they attribute it to a higher power, or there’s some other element that they can call upon. He didn’t have that, or at least he expressed it in terms of only being concerned with what people are doing to each other here."
On financing Che: "All I can say is I’m glad I’m not looking for money right now. It was complicated, but we knew it would be. I mean look at it. It took a couple of people sticking it out for a long time, and just believing in the ultimate commercial viability of the brand of Che. That’s the weird paradox about this guy.
"Here is the icon of Marxist-Leninist economic ideology, and you stick his face on anything and it sells. It’s a very weird situation. And I believed if we could just get this thing made, that ultimately it would find enough of an audience to get its money back. The amount of money we had dictated a pretty strict shooting schedule.
"We had 39 days for each part. To put that into context of something else that I’ve made, that’s fewer days than it took me to shoot the first Ocean’s film. So we had to move very, very quickly. There are aspects of that I really think are great. And there are aspects of it that are difficult to accept. But we didn’t have any choice.
"Wild Bunch, which is a French sales and production company, and Telecinco, which is a very large Spanish television and film production company, both came in. Wild Bunch has been there since the beginning, and Telecinco came in a couple of years ago."
On the logistics of shooting Che: "We had a ten day gap between the two shoots. We shot part two first, and we shot it backwards, so it was confusing. As far as casting goes, look, I was trying to stack that thing with as many well known people as I could. I put a lot of calls out. I think a lot of people see the movie, and don’t even know it’s Matt [Damon, as the American missionary]. I wasn’t really worried that it would pull them out of the film, because they were supporting characters. They didn’t carry the film on their shoulders. I was absolutely looking to cast it up. I had to.
"Unfortunately, as an American, I’m not allowed to shoot in Cuba. We made many trips there that were licensed through the state department. So at least we got a look at where events actually took place. Bolivia, we were able to shoot in. Part one was shot in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and New York, obviously. Part two was Bolivia and Spain. We shot all over Spain in some very remote areas. As it turned out we had somebody working on the film who grew up in La Higuera [the Bolivian town where Che was executed]. We built that La Higuera set in the top of this mountain in the middle of nowhere. When he came to the set he was stunned. He said, 'It’s exactly where I remember growing up.' Our production designer, Antxón Gómez, did a really great job."
On the aesthetic differences between the first part, The Argentine, and the second part, Guerilla: "I was trying to find a very simple way to create a different sensation for each part. The wider frame, what I consider to be a more 'Hollywood' format, I felt was more appropriate for the Cuban Revolution because it really had the trajectory of the classic Hollywood war film. 82 guys start out. Then they’re down to 12. It looks like they’re not going to make it, but they do. Everything that needs to go right goes right. They get all the breaks, and I obviously wanted it to have more of a traditional Hollywood aesthetic, including the music and the cutting.
"In the second film, I want it to feel less settled where you felt that the outcome was not clear, even from the beginning. So I use the 1:85 frame which is a little less wide, and went all handheld. Gradually through the second part, the camera finally starts to get closer to him, until he’s in the schoolroom, and we end with the biggest shot of him in the film, which is the last time we see him. It seemed to me a very simple way of sending a different message to the audience about what each part was going to feel like."
On the English dialogue voice-over used over Del Toro's Spanish dialogue in the New York sequence: "It seemed organic to me, because we used the actor who was his interpreter following him around in New York. It seemed appropriate to use that idea to continue hearing this guy translate Che. More importantly, there are sequences in which he is speaking, in which I do not want an English speaking audience to be reading. I want them to be able to watch the images, and hear the words, without having to read, especially during, for instance, the Battle of El Uvero, where he does the Tolstoy quote. I’ve seen the film with English subtitles. You cannot watch both things at the same time. You just can’t. That’s the reason I did it. I felt by bringing in his New York interpreter at least it was in line with this conceit of the interview, or the idea of this series of interviews that Che is doing throughout his New York trip."
On Che's time in Africa, which is not covered in the film: "If this film makes a $100 million, I’ll make the third one [tongue-in-cheek]. We talked about it. The story of Che in the Congo is absolutely fascinating. We actually sort of sketched an idea for a very small film that would take place in the Congo, and in Prague, where he went after fighting in the Congo, to lick his wounds, and write a very self-critical book on what happened in the Congo. The answer is that we didn’t have enough money to do that. Also, it’s a fascinating chapter, but it didn’t really fall into the kind of bookend idea that we ended up with.
"When the film was first being developed, it was only about Bolivia. And it was a little more than halfway through the process of working on that, that we decided Bolivia doesn’t really make a lot of sense unless you’ve seen Cuba. Because you keep wondering, why doesn’t he quit? It’s going so badly. You have to see what happened in Cuba to understand why he still thought they were going to pull this off.
"So it grew from one manageable film into one giant film. Overseas it’s going to be split in half. So we just couldn’t fit that in. We read all that material, and in fact, there was a quote from one of the African rebels that fought with Che, Victor Dreke, which was fantastic. He said, 'Che would rather face a bullet than reality.' And that’s a perfect description of him I think."
On the 268-minute roadshow version vs. two films: 'Here’s our plan, currently. Whenever the movie enters a specific market, New York, L.A., San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, that for one week, on one screen, you can see it like you just saw it. There will be a specially printed program with the credits for both films. We’re referring to that as the roadshow version, the way they used to do in the fifties and sixties.
"Yeah, sure, I think that’s the ideal way to see it. It’s a lot to ask of someone to throw away an entire day. I guess my only argument is, cinematically, we’re making a demand on the audience that’s very similar to the demands that Che made on the people around him [tongue-in-cheek]. It’s a big commitment, and it requires a certain kind of personality to want to experience it like that. It was certainly designed that way, so that you could get the full effect of the kind of call and response between the two parts."
[Update]: Part 2 of Soderbergh's discussion has been posted.
Still provided courtesy of Brooklyn Bridge.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Movie Review: Che - Soderbergh's Take on Guevara Is Surprisingly Even-Handed
by Tony Dayoub
In the 8 days since I saw Che, my already high estimation at the sheer audacity of its director, Steven Soderbergh, has only grown. To take such a polarizing leftist figure, and dedicate over 4 hours of Spanish language film to him, despite its audience being primarily made up of a populace that is slightly right of center, is courageous enough. But to do it in such a way that experiments with traditional narrative structure, as he does in Che is bold and not just a little quixotic given the state of cinema today. The version premiering at the New York Film Festival tonight is the “roadshow” version. That is to say, it’s a 268-minute version with a 30 minute intermission between the two parts that make up the film, The Argentine, and Guerilla.
The first part, The Argentine, follows Ernesto “Che” Guevara (Benicio Del Toro), the famous Argentinean Marxist, as he rises up the ranks of Fidel Castro’s revolutionary army in Cuba to eventually lead his own column of troops. The film climaxes with the decisive Battle of Santa Clara, which Che’s troops won, and led to the flight of Cuba’s president, Fulgencio Batista, in January 1959. This portion of the film is told in color, with black-and-white flash-forwards to Che’s December 1964 visit to the United Nations framing the central story.
The Argentine is presented in anamorphic widescreen, with smooth Steadicam tracking shots. If you pair that with the heroic depiction of Guevara and the Cuban revolutionary cause, the film comes off as a very traditional Hollywood war epic. As a viewer, you are placed in the position of rooting for Che, and if you were to only see this part of the film, an objective viewer could find it to be biased on the side of Guevara’s legendary status as a countercultural hero.
Soderbergh paints a quite admirable picture of Che as a political leader and warrior. Guevara, a doctor by profession, is at the fore when it comes to bringing basic healthcare to the poor guajiros living in Cuba’s rural areas. He is dedicated in his pursuit of deserting soldiers who steal and rape in the name of Fidel’s revolution.
The second part, Guerilla, is a very different experience from the first. It follows Guevara in his abortive attempt to foment revolution in Bolivia in 1967. Where the first part has a mainstream flavor, a la Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Guerilla has a more circumspect and abstract view towards Che and his cause. Guerilla is shot mostly with handheld, grainy Super 16mm. Alberto Iglesias’s melodic inspirational music of the first part gives way to a darker minimalist tonal score for the second part. Tonally, it has more in common with the subjective nightmare depicted in Apocalypse Now (1979), where the greater objective of the mission is sacrificed to the basic directive of simply surviving.
Guevara is rarely shown to speak, and in fact, the viewer spends less time with him than looking at him through the eyes of his comrades. Hoping to duplicate his success in Cuba, he tries following the same rulebook in his warfare. But infighting and disloyalty within his ranks, and from the local leader of Bolivia’s Communist Party, Mario Monje (Lou Diamond Phillips), contribute to the breakdown of his organization. Where in The Argentine, Che’s well-reported asthmatic condition is treated as an interesting oddity in the leader, in Guerilla its continued resurgence throughout his campaign is a metaphor for the wheezing implosion of his cause.
Midway through Che, I, a first-generation Cuban American, was disappointed that so much of Guevara’s darker aspects had been ignored. While I believe the Cuban Right is too quick to ascribe villainous qualities to what I think was simply a misguided idealist, I am constantly disappointed to see Che Guevara idolized by the entire world despite some of the atrocities he committed in the name of the Cuban revolution. I was fearful that Soderbergh would present the same heroic perspective on Guevara that previous stories have. The film even looked to be living up to my expectations at the intermission, when only the first half of the film had been screened. But after seeing the second part of the film, I find that my fears regarding this were unfounded. Soderbergh portrays a complex Che in line with what I feel the individual to honestly be, and Del Toro is terrific in the part.
Seeing the film’s two parts presented together helps the film attain what Soderbergh refers to, in the succeeding press conference, as a "call and response" quality. Che's persistence in the lost cause of the Bolivian revolution is rationalized by his near-impossible success in the Cuban revolution. Filmically, to show the "darker" Che and his executions of dissidents, homosexuals, etc. would have been to tip one's hand storywise as to the downward stubborn, and isolated, spiral Che travels on in Guerilla. Besides, like in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), there are enough references to the darker side of this "hero" to present what I thought was a balanced picture. Indeed, there are multiple references to the executions at La Cabaña after the Castro’s victory, primarily in scenes depicting protesters during his UN visit. And his famous homophobia is also referred to, when he calls a deserter no better than a maricón, (the English equivalent would be the expletive, faggot).
But I have to disagree with Soderbergh on this format for presenting the film. I think the film plays better, as two films not one. The films are so stylistically distinct from each other, one classic, the other more formal, and have very few characters that carry over from each other for more than a few minutes. Maybe with their recent rerelease it's all The Godfather (1972) films on my mind of late, but The Argentine reminds me of Coppola's first part, building up Che the "hero", with Guerilla reminding me of Coppola's second part, tearing Che down to some extent, while also serving to deepen the experience and story of the previous part.
Soderbergh hopes to release the film in each major market in its entirety for at least a week, before breaking it up into the two separate films, The Argentine and Guerilla, to be released in January and March, respectively. I don't have enough confidence in the average moviegoer to expect them to commit to a 4-hour presentation. Like in the two parts of The Godfather, what I saw was a very commercial first half, and a very "arthouse" second half. As edited, I feel there is a structural problem with making it one film. The first half has a "call and response" of its own with the UN framing sequence. That is one editorial decision that is not stylistically duplicated in the second half. Are there any other long-form films out there with a similar conundrum that I'm forgetting?
I like the long-form, don't get me wrong, and wish Che could be shown that way. But the reality is that I think it will reach a greater audience the other way. And besides both films being bold and exemplary of Soderbergh's abilities, I think The Argentine could have a real shot at success if marketed correctly, which might lead to interest in the more difficult Guerilla.
Che is playing at the 46th New York Film Festival, at 6:00 p.m. tonight only, at the Ziegfeld Theatre, 141 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019, (212) 307-1862
This screening will include a 30-minute intermission.
Photo Credit: IFC Films / Wild Bunch / Film Society of Lincoln Center
In the 8 days since I saw Che, my already high estimation at the sheer audacity of its director, Steven Soderbergh, has only grown. To take such a polarizing leftist figure, and dedicate over 4 hours of Spanish language film to him, despite its audience being primarily made up of a populace that is slightly right of center, is courageous enough. But to do it in such a way that experiments with traditional narrative structure, as he does in Che is bold and not just a little quixotic given the state of cinema today. The version premiering at the New York Film Festival tonight is the “roadshow” version. That is to say, it’s a 268-minute version with a 30 minute intermission between the two parts that make up the film, The Argentine, and Guerilla.
The first part, The Argentine, follows Ernesto “Che” Guevara (Benicio Del Toro), the famous Argentinean Marxist, as he rises up the ranks of Fidel Castro’s revolutionary army in Cuba to eventually lead his own column of troops. The film climaxes with the decisive Battle of Santa Clara, which Che’s troops won, and led to the flight of Cuba’s president, Fulgencio Batista, in January 1959. This portion of the film is told in color, with black-and-white flash-forwards to Che’s December 1964 visit to the United Nations framing the central story.
The Argentine is presented in anamorphic widescreen, with smooth Steadicam tracking shots. If you pair that with the heroic depiction of Guevara and the Cuban revolutionary cause, the film comes off as a very traditional Hollywood war epic. As a viewer, you are placed in the position of rooting for Che, and if you were to only see this part of the film, an objective viewer could find it to be biased on the side of Guevara’s legendary status as a countercultural hero.
Soderbergh paints a quite admirable picture of Che as a political leader and warrior. Guevara, a doctor by profession, is at the fore when it comes to bringing basic healthcare to the poor guajiros living in Cuba’s rural areas. He is dedicated in his pursuit of deserting soldiers who steal and rape in the name of Fidel’s revolution.
The second part, Guerilla, is a very different experience from the first. It follows Guevara in his abortive attempt to foment revolution in Bolivia in 1967. Where the first part has a mainstream flavor, a la Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Guerilla has a more circumspect and abstract view towards Che and his cause. Guerilla is shot mostly with handheld, grainy Super 16mm. Alberto Iglesias’s melodic inspirational music of the first part gives way to a darker minimalist tonal score for the second part. Tonally, it has more in common with the subjective nightmare depicted in Apocalypse Now (1979), where the greater objective of the mission is sacrificed to the basic directive of simply surviving.
Guevara is rarely shown to speak, and in fact, the viewer spends less time with him than looking at him through the eyes of his comrades. Hoping to duplicate his success in Cuba, he tries following the same rulebook in his warfare. But infighting and disloyalty within his ranks, and from the local leader of Bolivia’s Communist Party, Mario Monje (Lou Diamond Phillips), contribute to the breakdown of his organization. Where in The Argentine, Che’s well-reported asthmatic condition is treated as an interesting oddity in the leader, in Guerilla its continued resurgence throughout his campaign is a metaphor for the wheezing implosion of his cause.
Midway through Che, I, a first-generation Cuban American, was disappointed that so much of Guevara’s darker aspects had been ignored. While I believe the Cuban Right is too quick to ascribe villainous qualities to what I think was simply a misguided idealist, I am constantly disappointed to see Che Guevara idolized by the entire world despite some of the atrocities he committed in the name of the Cuban revolution. I was fearful that Soderbergh would present the same heroic perspective on Guevara that previous stories have. The film even looked to be living up to my expectations at the intermission, when only the first half of the film had been screened. But after seeing the second part of the film, I find that my fears regarding this were unfounded. Soderbergh portrays a complex Che in line with what I feel the individual to honestly be, and Del Toro is terrific in the part.
Seeing the film’s two parts presented together helps the film attain what Soderbergh refers to, in the succeeding press conference, as a "call and response" quality. Che's persistence in the lost cause of the Bolivian revolution is rationalized by his near-impossible success in the Cuban revolution. Filmically, to show the "darker" Che and his executions of dissidents, homosexuals, etc. would have been to tip one's hand storywise as to the downward stubborn, and isolated, spiral Che travels on in Guerilla. Besides, like in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), there are enough references to the darker side of this "hero" to present what I thought was a balanced picture. Indeed, there are multiple references to the executions at La Cabaña after the Castro’s victory, primarily in scenes depicting protesters during his UN visit. And his famous homophobia is also referred to, when he calls a deserter no better than a maricón, (the English equivalent would be the expletive, faggot).
But I have to disagree with Soderbergh on this format for presenting the film. I think the film plays better, as two films not one. The films are so stylistically distinct from each other, one classic, the other more formal, and have very few characters that carry over from each other for more than a few minutes. Maybe with their recent rerelease it's all The Godfather (1972) films on my mind of late, but The Argentine reminds me of Coppola's first part, building up Che the "hero", with Guerilla reminding me of Coppola's second part, tearing Che down to some extent, while also serving to deepen the experience and story of the previous part.
Soderbergh hopes to release the film in each major market in its entirety for at least a week, before breaking it up into the two separate films, The Argentine and Guerilla, to be released in January and March, respectively. I don't have enough confidence in the average moviegoer to expect them to commit to a 4-hour presentation. Like in the two parts of The Godfather, what I saw was a very commercial first half, and a very "arthouse" second half. As edited, I feel there is a structural problem with making it one film. The first half has a "call and response" of its own with the UN framing sequence. That is one editorial decision that is not stylistically duplicated in the second half. Are there any other long-form films out there with a similar conundrum that I'm forgetting?
I like the long-form, don't get me wrong, and wish Che could be shown that way. But the reality is that I think it will reach a greater audience the other way. And besides both films being bold and exemplary of Soderbergh's abilities, I think The Argentine could have a real shot at success if marketed correctly, which might lead to interest in the more difficult Guerilla.
Che is playing at the 46th New York Film Festival, at 6:00 p.m. tonight only, at the Ziegfeld Theatre, 141 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019, (212) 307-1862
This screening will include a 30-minute intermission.
Photo Credit: IFC Films / Wild Bunch / Film Society of Lincoln Center
Monday, September 29, 2008
NYFF Days 2 thru 4 - Notes on Che and a Panel
by Tony DayoubJust a short post today since I'm on my way to the Film Forum downtown to catch the restored print of The Godfather Part II. I saw The Godfather there last night and it looked fantastic. Though the Forum does have an appropriately grungy vibe in most cases, I can't say it suits the Godfather films so well, as I was discussing with two fellow film aficionados today, Ron Henriques of Latino Review, and Glenn Kenny from Some Came Running. I'm sorry the venue isn't as vast and palatial as the Ziegfeld, in midtown Manhattan, is. There, we saw an exciting film today, that will no doubt prove to be controversial. It was the full 268-minute version of Steven Soderbergh's Che.
I went with my knife sharpened, I must admit, to the screening. As a first generation Cuban American, I am constantly disappointed to see Ernesto Guevara idolized by the entire world despite some of the atrocities he committed in the name of the Cuban Revolution. I also think the Cuban Right is too quick to ascribe villainous qualities to what I think was simply a misguided idealist. After reading Kenny's review when he first saw the film at Cannes, where despite liking it he stated:
[The film's] structure very conveniently elides the period wherein Che, as effective co-head of Castro's Cuban government, presided over mass executions, the persecution of homosexuals, the ruination of the island's economy, the ill-fated alliance with the Soviet Union, and so on.I was fearful that Soderbergh would present the same heroic perspective on Guevara that previous stories have. The director was to appear at a press conference after the film, and I was prepared to hit him with some questions. The movie even looked to be living up to my expectations at the intermission, when only the first half of the film had been screened.
But after seeing the second half, I find that my fears regarding this were unfounded. Soderbergh portrays a complex Che in line with what I feel the individual to honestly be, and Benicio Del Toro is terrific in the part. I want to give some honest thought to this significant movie before I write my review, so I'm going to post it on the day of its screening, October 7th.
Other than that, I attended an interesting panel discussion on the current state of film criticism, this past Saturday, which I'll talk about more fully in the upcoming days, once I can squeeze some time in my schedule. And I will be posting a three-part Godfather series under the Seventies Cinema Revival placard (which seems to be experiencing some success) in the next few weeks, after I get through the new Blu-ray set released last week.
Below is a schedule of tonight's festival events. More information can be found at the festival's web site.
EVENT TITLES
NYFF – Festival main slate film
OSH – NYFF Sidebar: In the Realm of Oshima
SCREENING LOCATIONS
ZT – Ziegfeld Theatre, 54th St. between 6th and 7th Avenues
WRT – Walter Reade Theater, 65th St. between Amsterdam and Broadway, upper level
Monday, Sept. 29
4:30 A Town of Love and Hope, with Diary of a Yunbogi Boy (OSH/WRT)
6:00 I’m Gonna Explode, with This is Her (NYFF/ZT)
6:15 Cruel Story of Youth (OSH/WRT)
8:15 A Town of Love and Hope, with Diary of a Yunbogi Boy (OSH/WRT)
9:15 Tony Manero, with Love You More (NYFF/ZT)
Photo Credit: Wild Bunch / Film Society of Lincoln Center
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Tribeca Film Festival 4/30 - Icons and Iconoclasts
by Tony Dayoub
Day 2 - 11:29 am - Made my way down to Union Square, and took in the sights and smells at the Farmer's Market, since I had a few minutes before the start of the next film, Chevolution.
12:45 pm - Chevolution, a documentary directed by, is a slickly produced piece focusing on the ubiquitous image of Che Guevara, known as Guerrillero Heroico, that has become so iconic, it is purported to be the most reproduced photographic image of all time (according to the V & A Museum in London). The doc strives to place the image in a historical, political, artistic and ethical context. Directed by Trisha Ziff and Luis Lopez, it is a film edited and shot for maximum aesthetic impact. Unfortunately, it is to the detriment of the film's thesis.
While the historical and artistic context are well described in the feature, short shrift is given to some of the realities of the politics involved. Much is made of the fact that Che was an idealistic revolutionary, and how the capitalism inherent in the use of his image on T-shirts would have been anathema to Guevara's socialist philosophy. But little voice is given to the opposing viewpoint that this idealistic revolutionary was also responsible for executions of many Cuban dissidents during his tenure as comandante of Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba in the early 1960s. True, the dissenting viewpoint appears in the film, but it is only after more than an hour of establishing Guevara's heroic mystique. And this viewpoint is spoken of way too briefly, and by too few interviewees, to give the argument any weight.
While I wouldn't go as far as calling the film propaganda, as many in the exile community in Miami probably will (if it ever sees the light of day there), I will say that the film feels slanted without the balance that viewpoint would provide.
5:33 pm - Dinner at Pazza Notte (1375 6th Ave, 212-765-6288) is a nice surprise, with prompt service, and serviceable if not stellar food. Started with the wonderful Beef Carpaccio for my antipasto. The main course was the Baccala con Succo di Zafferano, a roasted Chilean sea bass in saffron sauce with sauteed spinach and fingerling potatoes. The fish was perfect, flaking off easily with that melt-in-your-mouth texture. However, they went a little overboard on the saffron sauce, which masked, instead of enhanced, the taste of the sea bass. The sauteed spinach was crisp, but entirely too much garlic was used in its preparation, as it took me several minutes to extract it.
7:00 pm - At the Museum of Modern Art, Tribeca, in conjunction with Paramount Pictures and MoMA, presented its final restoration of a cinema classic, Once Upon a Time in the West. Directed by Sergio Leone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), starring Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Charles Bronson, Gabriele Ferzetti, and Jason Robards, this is probably his most underrated western (although Duck, You Sucker is gaining a new status in that category). The film was introduced by Barry Allen of Paramount's film restoration department (who is so obviously happy with his rewarding career). He was beaming as he described the amount of work that went into restoring the film's color (difficult considering the film was shot in the now non-existent Techniscope format), and its now revelatory soundtrack.
Leone shot parts of this film in the red-earthy Monument Valley, an homage to John Ford's earlier westerns. He went to great lengths to match the red dust in scenes he shot in other locales, importing much of that earth to those locations. This restoration makes that effort worthwhile, as the brilliant reds are much more evident than in previous releases.
Leone was one of the pioneers when it came to designing the use of sound to manipulate his audience. The first scene of this movie is a perfect example of how he ratchets up the tension by minimizing the dialogue and moving the ambient sound to the fore. Three men wait to ambush the protagonist at a train station. The creak of the wooden floorboards as Woody Strode's bad man walks across the platform; henchman Jack Elam's blowing off the buzzing fly that keeps annoying him because he's too lazy to swat it; and the weather vane's unique high-pitched squeal as it turns in the wind are all memorable. The restored soundtrack is a revelation. We can hear even the background extras distinctly as they make small talk when Cardinale's Mrs. McBain is unloading her bags from the train.
I was ecstatic at the experience of sharing this film with an audience for the first time. The packed house was gleeful in all the same places that I've always been, and the film got a standing ovation. Hope to see this one released on DVD or Blu-ray soon.
11:05 pm - Acerbic cartoonist Bill Plympton presents his Idiots and Angels, after which he will answer questions. In his introduction, he says two key facts: it is his birthday, and he thinks this film is the first he's made that has the potential to break out. Though I have never seen one of his feature-length films, I am excited, since I have enjoyed many of his droll short films. This one's about a really malicious man who starts sprouting angel wings, symbolic of the last bit of good he has within him, and his efforts to get rid of them.
Two things: I never enjoy films I start after 11:00 pm, and I usually start nodding off (and possibly snoring) at about this time. So I'm good for the first twenty minutes before I feel like the film is starting to drag. The woman next to me, who professed to being the biggest Plympton fan in the city, has only chuckled twice. Plympton is waiting outside for the film to finish, so he can come in and do a Q & A. I don't know at what point I started to nod off, but I do know at what point I started feeling guilty about it. Just the night before, I was so pissed that some guy in front of me snored through Toby Dammit, and here I was ruining it for others. But what a dilemma... I didn't want to walk out of the theater and confront the obviously inspired Plympton. I didn't want him to think that his movie failed, when I myself wasn't sure. Besides, it should be over by 12:20 am. I could soldier on till then.
12:10 am - I walked out of the theater with only ten minutes left to go. I just couldn't bear the discomfort anymore, and decided to take my chances. After all, Plympton wouldn't be right outside the theater, right? Wrong. I almost tripped over his legs as he sat in the hallway just outside the door, and I tried not making eye contact.
So as far this film goes, I reserve judgement... for obvious reasons.
MoMA Presents: Once Upon a Time in the West continues its exhibition thru Monday, May 5th, at the Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd St, between 5th and 6th Ave, New York, NY 10019-5497, (212) 708-9400.
Day 2 - 11:29 am - Made my way down to Union Square, and took in the sights and smells at the Farmer's Market, since I had a few minutes before the start of the next film, Chevolution.12:45 pm - Chevolution, a documentary directed by, is a slickly produced piece focusing on the ubiquitous image of Che Guevara, known as Guerrillero Heroico, that has become so iconic, it is purported to be the most reproduced photographic image of all time (according to the V & A Museum in London). The doc strives to place the image in a historical, political, artistic and ethical context. Directed by Trisha Ziff and Luis Lopez, it is a film edited and shot for maximum aesthetic impact. Unfortunately, it is to the detriment of the film's thesis.
While the historical and artistic context are well described in the feature, short shrift is given to some of the realities of the politics involved. Much is made of the fact that Che was an idealistic revolutionary, and how the capitalism inherent in the use of his image on T-shirts would have been anathema to Guevara's socialist philosophy. But little voice is given to the opposing viewpoint that this idealistic revolutionary was also responsible for executions of many Cuban dissidents during his tenure as comandante of Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba in the early 1960s. True, the dissenting viewpoint appears in the film, but it is only after more than an hour of establishing Guevara's heroic mystique. And this viewpoint is spoken of way too briefly, and by too few interviewees, to give the argument any weight.
While I wouldn't go as far as calling the film propaganda, as many in the exile community in Miami probably will (if it ever sees the light of day there), I will say that the film feels slanted without the balance that viewpoint would provide.
5:33 pm - Dinner at Pazza Notte (1375 6th Ave, 212-765-6288) is a nice surprise, with prompt service, and serviceable if not stellar food. Started with the wonderful Beef Carpaccio for my antipasto. The main course was the Baccala con Succo di Zafferano, a roasted Chilean sea bass in saffron sauce with sauteed spinach and fingerling potatoes. The fish was perfect, flaking off easily with that melt-in-your-mouth texture. However, they went a little overboard on the saffron sauce, which masked, instead of enhanced, the taste of the sea bass. The sauteed spinach was crisp, but entirely too much garlic was used in its preparation, as it took me several minutes to extract it.
7:00 pm - At the Museum of Modern Art, Tribeca, in conjunction with Paramount Pictures and MoMA, presented its final restoration of a cinema classic, Once Upon a Time in the West. Directed by Sergio Leone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), starring Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Charles Bronson, Gabriele Ferzetti, and Jason Robards, this is probably his most underrated western (although Duck, You Sucker is gaining a new status in that category). The film was introduced by Barry Allen of Paramount's film restoration department (who is so obviously happy with his rewarding career). He was beaming as he described the amount of work that went into restoring the film's color (difficult considering the film was shot in the now non-existent Techniscope format), and its now revelatory soundtrack.
Leone shot parts of this film in the red-earthy Monument Valley, an homage to John Ford's earlier westerns. He went to great lengths to match the red dust in scenes he shot in other locales, importing much of that earth to those locations. This restoration makes that effort worthwhile, as the brilliant reds are much more evident than in previous releases.
Leone was one of the pioneers when it came to designing the use of sound to manipulate his audience. The first scene of this movie is a perfect example of how he ratchets up the tension by minimizing the dialogue and moving the ambient sound to the fore. Three men wait to ambush the protagonist at a train station. The creak of the wooden floorboards as Woody Strode's bad man walks across the platform; henchman Jack Elam's blowing off the buzzing fly that keeps annoying him because he's too lazy to swat it; and the weather vane's unique high-pitched squeal as it turns in the wind are all memorable. The restored soundtrack is a revelation. We can hear even the background extras distinctly as they make small talk when Cardinale's Mrs. McBain is unloading her bags from the train.
I was ecstatic at the experience of sharing this film with an audience for the first time. The packed house was gleeful in all the same places that I've always been, and the film got a standing ovation. Hope to see this one released on DVD or Blu-ray soon.
11:05 pm - Acerbic cartoonist Bill Plympton presents his Idiots and Angels, after which he will answer questions. In his introduction, he says two key facts: it is his birthday, and he thinks this film is the first he's made that has the potential to break out. Though I have never seen one of his feature-length films, I am excited, since I have enjoyed many of his droll short films. This one's about a really malicious man who starts sprouting angel wings, symbolic of the last bit of good he has within him, and his efforts to get rid of them.Two things: I never enjoy films I start after 11:00 pm, and I usually start nodding off (and possibly snoring) at about this time. So I'm good for the first twenty minutes before I feel like the film is starting to drag. The woman next to me, who professed to being the biggest Plympton fan in the city, has only chuckled twice. Plympton is waiting outside for the film to finish, so he can come in and do a Q & A. I don't know at what point I started to nod off, but I do know at what point I started feeling guilty about it. Just the night before, I was so pissed that some guy in front of me snored through Toby Dammit, and here I was ruining it for others. But what a dilemma... I didn't want to walk out of the theater and confront the obviously inspired Plympton. I didn't want him to think that his movie failed, when I myself wasn't sure. Besides, it should be over by 12:20 am. I could soldier on till then.
12:10 am - I walked out of the theater with only ten minutes left to go. I just couldn't bear the discomfort anymore, and decided to take my chances. After all, Plympton wouldn't be right outside the theater, right? Wrong. I almost tripped over his legs as he sat in the hallway just outside the door, and I tried not making eye contact.
So as far this film goes, I reserve judgement... for obvious reasons.
MoMA Presents: Once Upon a Time in the West continues its exhibition thru Monday, May 5th, at the Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd St, between 5th and 6th Ave, New York, NY 10019-5497, (212) 708-9400.
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