Posted on 07/01/2006 7:25:39 PM PDT by nypokerface
KARLOVY VARY, Czech Republic (AFP) - American actor Andy Garcia said he hoped for "a rapid transformation" in Cuba, the country where he was born, when he presented his first film as director at the Karlovy Vary international film festival.
"I do not agitate as part of any movement, but I can say that the Cuban people are suffering and that the sooner a transition will come, the sooner they will be free," said the 50-year-old actor, who came to the west Czech spa town with his daughter, Daniella, for the European premiere of his film, "Lost City."
"We hope that there will be a peaceful transition, not a bloodbath, but the sooner that things change the better," the actor-director said.
Garcia emigrated from Cuba with his parents in the 1960s, the first years after Fidel Castro's overthrow of the dictator Fulgencio Batista and the era when "Lost City" is set.
Shot in the Dominican Republic and based on a novel by Guillermo Cabrera Infante, the film tells the story of a night club manager who flees his country when Castro's regime seized power.
For Garcia, "Lost City" is not a political manifesto but "a homage to Cuban music and culture" which surrounded him during his childhood, until he left the country aged five, and has "accompanied him throughout his life."
The actor who played in "The Untouchables," "Godfather III" and "Ocean's Eleven" explained during a news conference that it took him "16 years to achieve his dream" of making the film -- which he produced, directed and composed and played the music.
"I consider this film the work of my life," he said on Friday after receiving the festival's Crystal Globe award during the opening ceremony.
"During the Cuban revolution, there was a slogan which said 'do not retreat even one step,' and it is due to that that I am here this evening," he said, clearly moved.
Former Czech president, Vaclav Havel, an outspoken critic of Castro's regime, was also present at the opening ceremony.
Garcia said that working with great directors, such as Francis Ford Coppola, had helped him direct the stars in his first film, who include Dustin Hoffman, Bill Murray and Ines Sastre.
The only scene worth watching in that whole movie is the one where Garcia takes out the two assassins who try to kill him.
Said the 50 year old actor - YOUNG man! - 1955'ers RULE!!!
Andrés Arturo García Menéndez – Andy Garcia – was born in Cuba on April 12, 1956, and immigrated to Florida with his family when he was five years old.
55'ers still rule ;-)
You didn't like Ines Sastre?
Cuba's heart found in 'Lost City'
By Glenn Whipp, Film Critic
Los Angeles Daily News
Andy Garcia's deeply personal, long-gestating ode to his native Cuba, "The Lost City," is a gorgeous, nostalgic lament for a culture and country eradicated when Castro came to power. The sprawling — two hours, 23 minutes — epic meanders in places and its mix of tones and templates do not always serve its narrative. But the movie comes from the heart, filled with a passion that carries it through its rougher patches.
Garcia star, director, producer, composer plays Fico, a Havana nightclub owner anxiously watching the gathering revolutionary fervor in his country. Fico is one of three sons of a Havana University professor (Tomas Milian), a man convinced that nothing will come of the unrest. Fico's brothers (Enrique Murciano and Nestor Carbonell), on the other hand, believe change is coming, and they're more than willing to participate in the process using violence if necessary.
The brothers' destinies are played out alongside real-life historical figures Castro, Batista and Che Guevara, all of whom are seen as vicious enemies of right-thinking democracy lovers. There's also a love story between Fico and Aurora (Ines Sastre), a woman whom Garcia and screenwriter G. Cabrera Infante view as a metaphor for Cuba's lost soul.
Try as they might, they can't put that point across, and the film's late-middle portion becomes marooned in romantic longing. Better are the nightclub scenes (there are more than 40 songs in the movie, handpicked by Garcia, an expert in Cuba's musical heritage) and the acerbic commentary provided by Bill Murray, functioning as something of a Greek chorus observing the absurdities of Castro's revolution.
Garcia came to fame in "The Godfather, Part III," and judging from "The Lost City," it's clear he has spent plenty of time watching the first two movies in the series as well. Dustin Hoffman subs for Lee Strasberg, playing a flood-pants-wearing Jewish mobster (in this case, Meyer Lansky). Much of the movie is bathed in dark shadows, and an old patriarch (Richard Bradford) does a death dance a la Brando's last waltz in the tomato garden.
And, of course, "The Godfather, Part II" reached its dramatic apex on the last New Year's Eve in Batista's Cuba, during a night in which Michael told his brother, "I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart." Another betrayal this one of ideals and culture rather than family is at the core of "The Lost City," and Garcia's sadness over that loss gives the film a melancholy heart that's impossible to dismiss.
THE LOST CITY
Our rating:
(R: violence)
Starring: Andy Garcia, Bill Murray, Dustin Hoffman.
Director: Andy Garcia.
Running time: 2 hr. 23 min.
Playing: Laemmle's Town Center 5 in Encino; Landmark's Rialto in Pasadena; Landmark's Westside Pavilion; ArcLight in Hollywood.
"How can the left wingers support such an oppressive regime."
Didn't you know, the WONDERFUL Fidel gives his subjects the BEST health care, and the member of the ALA that opposed Laura Bush speaking at their meeting said Cuba is NOT a dictaorship, it's a Republic. And they say RWers are idiots?
Whoops, typo. Dictatorship.
Joey Zasa!
That could have been a great movie.
Garcia's flick is well worth seeing, enjoyable and very friendly to conservative truths.
I've always been a fan of Garcia's. He is one of the few successful actors who has the guts to say what he thinks regardless of what his contemporaries feel. He doesn't get on a soapbox like others and only speaks the truth when he does (rarely) speak. I'm glad he is as successful as he is. He truly deserves it.
" have you tried convincing them folks over at DU?"
I can't even convince my own friends and relatives. And they like me.
In this case, Garcia actually understands what really is going on, and is pefectly justified in doing anything to rescue Cuba from the Hell it has endured for almost 50 years.
Once again, it shows the difference between Old Europe and New Europe.
How many American celebrities go to England or France and criticize the US. Whereas in the Czech Republic, a place that understands the tyranny of Communism, Andy Garcia is safe to criticize Castro.
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