Tomás Gutiérrez Alea

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Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (born December 11, 1928 in Havana , Cuba ; † April 17, 1996 ibid), also known by his nickname Titón , was a Cuban film director and screenwriter . He set the trend for the New Latin American Cinema.

biography

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea studied law at the University of Havana at the same time as Fidel Castro . During his studies he shot his first humorous and satirical short films with his Super 8 camera: Little Red Riding Hood ( La caperucita roja , 1946), The Fakir ( El faquir , 1947) and, based on a story by Franz Kafka, A Daily Confusion ( Una confusión cotidiana , 1950 ).

After graduating from the University of Havana in 1951, he went to Rome with Julio García Espinosa , where he trained as a director at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. Here he met the film buffs Fernando Birri from Argentina , Gabriel García Márquez from Colombia , Oscar Torres from the Dominican Republic and the cameraman Néstor Almendros . One of his teachers at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia was the Italian film director Cesare Zavattini . As a thesis at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, he wrote the screenplay for The Dream of Giovanni Bassain ( Il sogno di Giovanni Bassain , 1953), a short film on 35 mm, and worked as an assistant director.

Influenced by Italian neorealism , Tomás Gutiérrez Alea returned to Cuba in 1953 and became a member of the progressive cultural organization Our Time (Sociedad Cultural Nuestro Tiempo), which also included Alfredo Guevara , Santiago Álvarez , Julio García Espinosa and José Massip . According to Cuban cinema buffs, neorealism had the best experience in building an authentic cinema culture in Cuba. Together with García Espinosa, Gutiérrez Alea shot the 20-minute documentary The Koehler Village ( El mégano ) in 1955 about the life of charcoal burners and woodworkers in the swamps of Zapata south of Havana. Although the film contained no direct charges against the Batista dictatorship, it was banned and some of those involved in it were arrested. Today El mégano is the starting point for the New Cuban Cinema.

In 1957 Tomás Gutiérrez Alea worked as a director at the newsreel Cine Revista , which the Mexican Manuel Barbachano produced in Cuba and from which the technicians for the Cuban Film Institute, founded in 1959, came. In 1957, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea made the documentary The Capture of Havana by the English for Cine Revista ( La toma de la Habana por los Ingleses ).

Together with Julio García Espinosa, he built the film department of the rebel army and participated in the uprising against the Batista - dictatorship . After the victorious revolution , Tomás Gutiérrez Alea made his short documentary This is our country ( Esta tierra nuestra ) about the expulsion of peasants in Cuba before the victory of the revolution and supported Julio García Espinosa with the documentary report about the celebration of the 6th anniversary of the storm in 1959 Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba, sixth anniversary ( Sexto aniversario ). In 1959 he was involved in the founding and development of the Cuban film institute Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC) together with Alfredo Guevara, Santiago Álvarez, José Massip, Manuel Octavio Gómez and Julio García Espinosa. In 1960 Tomás Gutiérrez Alea made the documentary General Assembly ( Asamblea general ) about the assembly at which the 1st Declaration of Havana was adopted. Tomás Gutiérrez Alea made the first feature film after the revolution in 1960: Tales of the Revolution ( Historias de la revolución ). This episode film unfolds a broad picture of the struggle of the Cuban people against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista (1952–1958). The cameraman for two episodes was Otelleo Martell, who had already directed the camera in Italy for Roberto Rossellini Stromboli ( Stromboli, terra di dio ) (1949) and Federico Fellini Das süße Leben ( La dolce vita , 1959). For the Cuban newsreel, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea shot the documentary Death to the Invaders ( Muerte al invasor ) together with Santiago Alvarez in 1961 about the failed invasion of the Cubans in exile in the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs).

Based on the Russian novel by Ilya Ilf and Jewgeni Petrowitsch Katajew , he realized his satirical feature film The Twelve Chairs ( Las doce sillas ) in 1962 , in which the remnants of the bourgeois order are delivered with mockery and irony to the laughter of the new order. In 1964 he filmed the novel Gouverneur de la rose ( Lord of the dew ) by Jacques Roumain : Conjuration ( Cumbite ). The film shows the inhabitants of a Haitian village in the 19th century who organize themselves in a cooperative.

With The Death of a Bureaucrat ( La muerte de un burócrata , 1966), a biting satire about the rampant bureaucracy in Cuba (and not only there), he showed his cinematic preferences ( Luis Buñuel , Ingmar Bergman ). The film was awarded the Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 1966 . An opening sequence of the film pays homage to Juan Carlos Tabío , a young Cuban documentary filmmaker. Since then, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea has had a deep friendship with him, which is also reflected in the joint work, in films such as Swap Apartment ( Se permuta , 1983) by Juan Carlos Tabío, for whom he provided the idea. Both worked in the 'Rociante' group, one of the three ICAIC production groups. The screenplay for his feature film Up to a Certain Point ( Hasta cierto punto , 1984) was written by Juan Carlos Tabío. When Tomás Gutiérrez Alea fell seriously ill in the early 1990s, they made strawberry and chocolate ( Fresa y Chocolate ) and Guantanamera together .

In the feature film Memorias del subdesarrollo ( Memories of Underdevelopment , 1968), which was very popular with critics in North America, he mixes feature and documentary film sequences. Sergio, a forty-year-old bourgeois intellectual, remains in Cuba after the revolution, although his wife and parents have left the country. A companion of Tomás Gutiérrez Aleas, Néstor Almendros , who made a documentary about the persecution of homosexuals in Cuba in the 1960s, left Cuba in the late 1960s and then worked for Claude Chabrol , François Truffaut , Robert Benton , Mike Nichols and Andrew Solt. Néstor Almendros received an Oscar for In der Glut des Südens ( Days of Heaven , 1978) by Terrence Malick .

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's historical fiction film A Cuban Battle Against the Demons ( Una pelea cubana contra los demonios , 1971) based on the work of the same name by the Cuban researcher Fernando Ortiz Fernández is set in 17th century Cuba. Tomás Gutiérrez Alea wrote the script and worked as a dramaturge for other Cuban historical and everyday films: 1974 Der Other Francisco ( El otro Francisco ) by Sergio Giral and In a certain way ( De cierta manera ) by Sara Gómez. Gómez, one of the few Cuban filmmakers, describes in her film the conflicts of a teacher, two workers and a prisoner who are faced with problems that they are unable to solve.

In 1974 Tomás Gutiérrez Alea shot the documentary The Art of the Cigar ( El arte de tabaco ) about the manual production process of a cigar. His documentary The Battle of Guisa ( La batala de Guisa ), started in 1974, remained unfinished. In 1975 he traveled to Yemen and was production manager for the documentary The Way of Frankincense and Myrrh ( El camino de la mirra y el incienso ) about the Yemeni revolution, which was completed in 1978 by Constante Diego. In 1977 he traveled to Azerbaijan and was production manager for The sixth part of the world ( La sexta parte del mundo ) by Julio García Espinosa .

Another historical feature film about understanding the problems of slavery from a contemporary perspective followed in 1976 with The Last Supper ( La última cena ), which is set in Cuba at the end of the 18th century. The owner of a sugar cane plantation, a religious count from Havana, invites twelve of his slaves to a symbolic communion during Holy Week. The cameraman on his first film in color was Mario García Joya, who also did A Cuban Battle Against the Demons , The Art of the Cigar , The Last Supper , The Survivors , Up to a Point , Letters from the Park , Strawberry and Chocolate and Jorge Ali Triana's Time of Vengeance ( Tiempo de morrir , Colombia, Cuba 1985) based on the script by Gabriel García Márquez . In 1978, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's feature film The Survivors ( Los sobrevivienters ) followed, a homage to Luis Buñuel The Strangler Angel ( El ángel exterminador , Mexico 1962). After the victory of the revolution, a bourgeois family of aristocratic origin decides to stay in Cuba and to curl up on their estate until the revolution is over.

In Up to a Certain Point ( Hasta cierto punto , 1984), a love story between the screenwriter Oscar and the dock worker Lina, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea takes a critical look at the widespread 'machismo' in Cuba. The leading actress in Up to a Certain Point is his partner Mirtha Ibarra, who is also featured in his feature films Letters from the Park ( Cartas del parque , 1988), a simple and romantic love story from pre-revolutionary Cuba based on a text by Gabriel García Márquez , Strawberry and Chocolate and Guantanamera showed her acting qualities. In 1991 he made the short film Contigo en la distancia based on an idea by García Márquez . The film is dedicated to a bolero by César Portillo de la Luz from the 1950s with the same title. His internationally best-known film Strawberry and Chocolate ( Fresa y chocolate , 1993) received an Oscar nomination in 1995 and was awarded the Silver Bear and the Special Jury Prize at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival . His last film Guantanamera (1995) is devoted to the difficulties of everyday Cuban life, at the end of the film the dogmatic functionary stands alone in the rain. In a longer sequence he is devoted to Afro-Cuban culture, one of the roots of Cuban identity, and thinking about death.

In February 1998, after the director's death, the then head of state Fidel Castro attacked the film Guantanamera - without having seen it beforehand - as a “counterrevolutionary film” in a speech broadcast on state television in front of the Cuban parliament . Castro described it as "despicable" that state funds were used for the production of such works that were to be combated. Instead of these kinds of comedies, Cuba needs more films that celebrate the heroism and successes of the revolution. Alfredo Guevara, Castro's close confidante since his student days and founder and head of the state film institute ICAIC, commented on the criticism shortly afterwards with the conviction that Castro was insufficiently informed. At the beginning of March there was a closed discussion between Castro and the board members of the artists' association UNEAC, during which several association representatives defended Guantanamera and other criticized works. Castro spoke of "misunderstandings" at the meeting and stated that he did not want to diminish the great merits of the late Gutiérrez Alea. A tightening of the Cuban cultural policy previously feared by many intellectuals did not materialize afterwards.

Gutiérrez Alea left behind not only impressive films, but also numerous essays that deal with the medium of film, such as the most famous essay: Dialéctica del espectador ( Dialectic of the viewer ), which has been translated into Italian, English and Portuguese.

In Germany he was a guest at the International Forum of New Cinema in Berlin with two films: The Last Supper (8th Forum, 1978) and Up to a Certain Point (14th Forum, 1986). During his tour of Germany in 1990, Tomás Gutíerrez Alea was with Miriam Talavera, who edited his films Up to a Certain Point , Letters from the Park and Strawberry and Chocolate at the cutting table, and Juan Carlos Tabío u. a. Guest of the Filmwerkstatt Münster and in Bremen .

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea died on April 17, 1996 in Havana after a long period of cancer. With his entertaining films - often in the form of comedy - he was able to expose and criticize grievances in society, the rampant bureaucracy in The Death of a Bureaucrat , the machismo in Up to a Certain Point , the repression against homosexuals in Strawberry and Chocolate and the capers of the planned economy in Guantanamera (1995). Even with his historical films like Conjuration ; A Cuban Battle Against the Demons and The Last Supper , he contributed to a better understanding of today's social reality. With Memories of Underdevelopment , one of his most important works, he dealt with the role of intellectuals in revolutionary Cuba in 1968. With his oeuvre he has given important impulses for the new Latin American cinema.

In 1996 the 18th International Festival of New Latin American Film in Havana dedicated a retrospective to him.

Filmography

  • 1946: The red cap ( La caperucita roja ) short film
  • 1947: The fakir ( El faquir ) short film
  • 1950: A Daily Confusion ( Una confusión cotidiana ) short film
  • 1953: The Dream of Giovanni Bassain ( Il sogno di Giovanni Bassain ) short film, assistant director and screenplay
  • 1955: Das Köhlerdorf ( El mégano ) short film together with Julio García Espinosa
  • 1958: The capture of Havana by the English ( Cine Revista: La toma de La Habana por los ingleses )
  • 1959: This is our country ( Esta tierra nuestra )
  • 1959: Sixth anniversary ( Sexto aniversario ) of Julio García Espinosa , collaboration
  • 1960: General Assembly ( Asamblea general )
  • 1960: Stories of the Revolution ( Historias de la revolución )
  • 1961: Death of the Invaders ( Muerte al invasor ) together with Santiago Alvarez
  • 1962: The twelve chairs ( Las doce sillas )
  • 1964: Summoning ( Cumbite )
  • 1966: The death of a bureaucrat ( La muerte de un burócrata )
  • 1966: Papers are papers ( Papeles son Papeles ) by Fausto Canel, screenplay, dramaturgy
  • 1968: Memories of Underdevelopment ( Memorias del Subdesarrollo )
  • 1971: A Cuban battle against the demons ( Una pelea cubana contra los demonios )
  • 1974: The Art of the Cigar ( El arte de tabaco )
  • 1974: In a certain way ( De cierta manera ) by Sara Gómez, dramaturgy and screenplay
  • 1974: The other Francisco ( El otro Francisco ) by Sergio Giral, screenplay
  • 1976: The Last Supper ( La última cena )
  • 1978: The way of frankincense and myrrh ( El camino de la mirra y el incienso ) by Constante Diego, reception manager
  • 1979: The Survivors ( Los sobrevivientes )
  • 1983: Apartment to be swapped ( Se permuta ) by Juan Carlos Tabío, idea
  • 1984: Up to a certain point ( Hasta cierto punto )
  • 1988: Letters from the Park ( Cartas del parque )
  • 1991: Contigo en la distancia, short film
  • 1993: Strawberry and Chocolate ( Fresa y chocolate ) together with Juan Carlos Tabío
  • 1995: Guantanamera (Guantanamera) , together with Juan Carlos Tabío

literature

  • Julianne Burton: Cinema and social change in Latin America: Conversations with filmmakers. University of Texas Press, Austin 1986, ISBN 0-292-72453-5 .
  • Michael Chanan: The Cuban Image. British Film Institute, London 1985, ISBN 0-85170-137-X .
  • José Antonio Evora: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. Cátedra: Filmoteca Española, Madrid 1996, ISBN 84-376-1433-3 .
  • Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Edmundo Desnoes: Memories of Underdevelopment. The Revolutionary Films of Cuba. Michael Myerson (Ed.), New York 1973.
  • Tomás Gutiérrez Alea: Dialéctica del espectador. (Ediciones Unión), Havana 1982.
  • Guy Hennebelle, Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron (ed.): Les Cinémas d'Amerique Latine. Lherminier, Paris 1981.
  • Eckart Jahnke, Manfred Lichtenstein: Cuban Documentary. State Film Archive of the GDR (publisher), Berlin 1974.
  • Silvia Oroz, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea: Os filmes que nicht filmei. (Anima Produçoes Artísticas e Culturais). Rio de Janeiro 1985.
  • Volker Pade: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea: a cinematic plea for tolerance and humanity. Friends of Latin American Cinema, Münster 1996.
  • Paulo Antônio de Paranaguá : Le Cinema Cubain. Center Georges Pompidou (Ed.), Paris 1990, ISBN 2-85850-540-3 .
  • Peter B. Schumann (Ed.): Kino in Kuba 1959–1978. Vervuert, Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-921600-09-X .
  • Peter B. Schumann: Handbook of Latin American Films. Vervuert, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-921600-16-2 .
  • Teresa Toledo: 10 Años del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano. Cinemateca de Cuba, Verdoux Quinto Centenario (ed.), Madrid, Havanna 1990, ISBN 84-404-6079-1 .
  • Reinhold Zwick: The Lord's Supper and the Slaves' Supper. Identity processes in Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's film “La Última Cena”. In: M. Ebner (Ed.): Lord's meal and group identity. (Quaestiones disputatae 221), Herder, Freiburg-Basel-Wien 2007, ISBN 978-3-451-02221-0 , pp. 254-277.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rob Stone: Killing Time in Cuba: Juan Carlos Tabío's Lista de espera , in: Contemporary Latin American Cinema: Breaking Into the Global Market, ed. by Deborah Shaw, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham et al. a. 2007, pp. 135–152, here: p. 136 (English)
  2. ↑ Reinaldo Escobar: The Comandante ordered: Stop! In: The daily newspaper of March 4, 1998
  3. ↑ Mauricio Vicent: Castro afirma que 'Guantanamera' va contra el espiritu de la revolución, in: El País from February 26, 1998, accessed on January 11, 2017 (Spanish)
  4. ↑ Mauricio Vicent: El Instituto de Cine aclara que Castro está mal informado sobre 'Guantanamera', in: El País from February 28, 1998, accessed on January 11, 2017 (Spanish)
  5. ↑ Tabío, director de “Guantanamera”: “Es una película revolucionaria”, in: Proceso of March 7, 1998, accessed on January 11, 2017 (Spanish)
  6. ↑ Peter B. Schumann: The rumors of Havanna, in: Frankfurter Rundschau of March 14, 1998, p. 9
personal data
SURNAME Gutiérrez Alea, Tomás
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Titón (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cuban film director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Havana , Cuba
DATE OF DEATH April 17, 1996
Place of death Havana , Cuba