My Videodrome muse alerted me to this film. I had heard the recent murmurings from the Criterion blog on Letter Never Sent (same director and cinematographer) and had just noticed it on their just in shelf.
She rhapsodized on the camera work in both movies and it took little persuasion to rent them both. So far I have just watched I am Cuba, and was so enthralled that after the first 15 minutes had to give her a call to express my thanks for bringing these to my attention.
The shot she described and which got me was not even the amazing one in the shot below but rather one which begins three stories up and gradually descends down the side of the building, weaving its way through tables around a pool and ending up under water (a move worthy of Raul Ruiz at his zaniest).
Get this film!
It will astound you on many levels. One remarkable club sequence could only be called carnival noir. Though the acting is a bit hamhanded in parts, for a 1964 Russian-Cuban co-production this is miles ahead of its time. I was going through my film books and wondering how this had been missed in all the histories until I found out that it had sunk unappreciated at the time and had been rediscovered thirty years later.
The Mind Travels 