Calle 54 - TT: Calle 54 - Reseña

Latin Beat Magazine, April, 2001 by Paquito D'Rivera

The striking sensation of an international film festival is without doubt a unique experience, and if this has as a backdrop a radiant full moon whose reflection pours on the waters of the romantic city of Venice, then the experience turns into a fascinating adventure, capable of bewitching eternally the memory of those who lived it. I had the great fortune of witnessing the latest edition of that festival, celebrated in the land (and water!) of Marco Polo, as part of the triumphant Spanish delegation to the celebration of Lido.

Numerous films from around the globe were presented, including the one titled Vengo, a French-Spanish co-production directed by the French gypsy Tony Gatlif. This film explores the picturesque and passionate themes of Spanish gypsies. On the other hand, La Virgen de los Sicarios, directed by Barbet Shroeder, is based on the Colombian writer Fernando Vallejo's tragic novel about the extreme violence and the murderous children of Medellín. And among my favorites there was the one called Before Night Falls, a highly impacting film by the distinguished painter and director Julian Schnabel, based on the posthumously published autobiography of Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas.

Coming from a family of farmers, Arenas arrived in Havana when he was still almost a child, allied to the victorious troops of Fidel Castro. Possessing an innate talent for writing, he studied at the university of said city, where some years later he would be incarcerated and brutally oppressed by the Castro dictatorship on several occasions, mainly because of his open homosexuality, and for daring to publish outside of the country without due authorization from the government. Then, in 1980, in the company of criminals and the mentally deranged sent by Castro among the 125,000 "boat people" packed into the Mariel exodus, he finally succeeded in fleeing to the coast of Florida. The torturous existence of the writer culminates with his suicide in New York City, in 1990, when AIDS had taken hold of him.

The very difficult leading role for Before Night Falls was given to Javier Bardém, and the extraordinary transformation of this Madrid-born actor emotionally moved the international press attending the Lido Festival.

"At first I was a bit doubtful about taking the job. I thought it would be a bit too much for me, and it would also question some political ideals of mine. But at the end, this role has certainly changed my life. Reinaldo Arenas has made me realize the true meaning of the word freedom," stated Javier Bardem to a group of Spanish journalists.

In this film Sean Penn makes a brief appearance as a slow-witted cart driver whose neuron activity is scarce and deficient. The young and talented actor Johnny Depp is also in this film, playing a transvestite prisoner who inserts incredible volumes of the most diverse objects up his rectum (to be smuggled out of the prison). Among other things, there is the entire manuscript of a novel! Schnabel's film is a wrenching testimonial document that earned this New York-based director the Great Award of the Jury, respectively awarded to Carter Burwell (best original score), and Javier Bardem (best actor).

Although my preferences leaned heavily towards the production of Julian Schnabel, the competition was very tough, and who was given the coveted prize of the Golden Lion of Venice was the Iranian film The Circle, directed by Jalar Panahi. Because my schedule didn't permit it, I was unable to attend the presentation of this important film. The primary plot of the Iranian film denounces the horrible abuses and crimes systematically committed against women by the Islamic fundamentalists in Iran and other Muslim countries. A week later, when I attended the Toronto Film Festival (where said film was also shown), a rumor surfaced that certain threats weighed on the filmmakers upon their return to Teheran.

But among so many murderous children, abused women and a repressed poet, the director who sang the festive song in Venice, as well as in Toronto, was the Spanish visionary Fernando Trueba with his Calle 54 (54th Street), a title taken from the street where the Sony studios are located in Manhattan and where the film's musical fragments were recorded. The result is a spectacular documentary that documents in detail, and with a great amount of love, the lives and works of some of us who have chosen to modestly dedicate our lives to the genre known today as Latin jazz. The film arrived late to both events, so its showing was out of the competition, but as fortune has it, it was chosen to close (with a packed house) the Mostra of Venice, following the performance of the jazz sextet of yours truly.

My Panamericana Suite was the piece selected as the overture to the documentary; perhaps because a great amount of instruments and sounds from the New World are used in it, from the Afro-Cuban batá drums and the Central American marimba to the Brazilian bossa nova, the Venezuelan cuatro and the Argentinean bandoneón. Since it is not an easy task to comment with total credibility on a labor that I was so actively and directly involved with, I will proceed by citing the words of commentator Elvis Mitchel, who from the pages of the New York Times (September 19, 2000) states: "Trueba's film was so unbelievably good, that it could have been shown successfully every day of the festival in Toronto." And I would add that the effect achieved by the director of La Belle Epoque in his new production is a form realism so pure, that on those occasions that I have attended its viewings, the audience applauded at the end of each musical number as if they were attending a live performance!