79 primaveras

79 Springs / 79 kevättä. CU 1969. PC: ICAIC. D: Santiago Alvarez. Poems by Ho Chi Minh and José Marti. 35mm, 25 min. The film has no spoken sound. The intertitles are in Spanish. Viewed at SEA, Orion, Helsinki, 18 Jan 2005. E-subtitles in Finnish by Mari Halonen. The official Cubanese obituary of Ho Chi Minh was created by Alvarez as a poem. The theme of death is conveyed via transitions from positive to negative. There is an inspired use of slow motion, surrealistic juxtapositions (screaming flowers opening, bombs exploding). The musical montage from Silvio Rodriguez, the passionate Cubanese song, and Iron Butterfly is effective. Alvarez plays film like Hendrix played the guitar. The finale is a cinematic explosion where the film itself is exposed as material with sprocket holes, scratches, and it's torn and burned. A high point of experimental film and visual music. This film was very popular among Finnish film aficionados of the time, and it has stood the test of time. It is one-sided, yet ****