IN the splendid “Buena Vista Social Club,” director Wim Wenders documents a musical miracle: the virtual resurrection of aged and forgotten Cuban son musicians, brought together two years ago in Havana to make the glorious (and bestselling) record that shares a title with Wenders’ film.
The miracle-workers were guitarist Ry Cooder and record producer Nick Gold, who re-discovered the elderly all-stars of Cuban music, many of whom had fallen on hard times (the magnificent vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer, for example, had been shining shoes to pay the rent). The joyous album they recorded went on to sell millions of copies internationally, win a Grammy award, and revive the careers of these living monuments of world music.
In “Buena Vista Social Club” – the movie – Wenders returns with Cooder to Havana for a studio reunion of the band members, and he also shows them in concert in Amsterdam and New York. The filmmaker introduces us to the leading lights of the group and has them talk about how their early lives, and introduction to music.
This is sheer delight. Snowy-haired pianist Ruben Gonzalez muses gently under the banyan tree in a Havana park, while the courtly old rascal Compay Segundo, 92, puffs a stogie and brags about his virility. The film shows us extensive Havana street scenes, showcasing the crumbling beauty of the Spanish colonial city and drawing a moving contrast between the material poverty of the people’s lives and the richness of their music.
The one flaw in Wenders’ approach is the inexplicable absence of any detailed discussion of Cuban musical traditions and how they developed. Cuban son music’s distinct sound comes from a tempestuous marriage of African rhythm with Latin melodies and, like the blues in this country, largely springs from the lives and experiences of downtrodden Afro-Cubans. This is left dismayingly unexplored.
That aside, if you’re one of the millions who fell in love with the “Buena Vista Social Club” record, this film is without question a must-see. It concludes with the group’s final performance, at Carnegie Hall. We see these old Cuban gentlemen, who live so meagerly, and in such isolation from the rest of the world, walk the streets of Manhattan as if they were in heaven itself. That final concert is both a remarkable triumph of the spirit and a hell of a good show.
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BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB
A documentary starring Ibrahim Ferrer, Ry Cooder. Directed by Wim Wenders. Running time: 101 minutes. Rated: G. At the Lincoln Plaza and Angelika.