Buena Vista Social Club

Ry Cooder, who provided the memorable slide guitar soundtrack to Wim Wender’s classic road movie Paris Texas, went to Cuba and found a host of legendary Cuban musicians, some as old as their nineties, forgotten by the music industry. He got them together to record an album capturing the essence of Cuba’s music and society which became a best-seller and picked up a Grammy award.

This film follows the musicians as they take to stages across the world, culminating with a sell-out show at Carnegie Hall in New York. However this isn’t a tour film. Wenders pioneered the art of the documentary in the 1980’s and here returns to the form which has brought him esteem and recognition. We see the lives of a group of extrodinary individuals whose stories merge with the directors masterful use of sounds, images, music to provide a powerful sense of humanity converge to form an intoxicating sensory fabric.

What is especially charming is that the film is as much a journey for its subjects, many of whom are in their 70s, 80s and 90s, as for its audience. Their childlike bliss at having been rediscovered in the twilight years of their lives, the wide-eyed wonder with which they greet their first trip to New York and their profound gratitude at receiving yet another chance to share their beloved music with the world, help create a narrative as emotional and affecting as anything Hollywood could contrive.

The album was a revelation for those who heard it and the film gives it a visual element that heightens the power of the Latin rhythms. Quite simply this is one of the most beautiful and poetic documentaries ever made, as startling for its subject matter as it is for its expert production, just try not to start dancing in the aisles.

David Goody