Buena Vista Social Club

G

Released Jun 4, 1999

1 hr. 41 min.

Documentary

Music

List

92%

48 Reviews

Tomatometer

90%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

This documentary by lauded German filmmaker Wim Wenders follows renowned guitarist Ry Cooder and his son, Joachim, as they travel to Cuba and assemble a group of the country's finest musicians to record an album. Among the artists included in the project are singer Ibrahim Ferrer and pianist Rubén González, who are both interviewed and featured in studio footage. Eventually the ensemble travels to the United States to perform in front of rapt audiences.

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Irene Z

unfortunately I missed tonight's show! for some reason I missed the date - I first saw the ad that said "Tuesday August 24" which was perfect for us. I never even looked at the date after that! I feel horrible that We missed it. I have their CD from long ago - before we visited Cuba1 Can I get a refund for my 2 tickets

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

08/23/23

Full Review

Dave S

In the Wim Wenders documentary Buena Vista Social Club, American guitar virtuoso Ry Cooder travels to Havana with the intent of gathering Cuba’s most renowned musicians, most of them elderly and many of them forgotten, to create an album to showcase the country’s rich cultural heritage. Interspersed with live concert footage from Amsterdam and New York, the musicians briefly tell their life stories, most of which are remarkably inspiring, emphasizing the fact that they play for the love of their art, not for fame or fortune. Granted, those who don’t enjoy Cuban music may find the concert footage tedious at times, but the interviews and the glimpses into Cuban culture are consistently compelling.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

04/21/24

Full Review

Harrison R

Haven't seen it in 20 years but it was good and the music is great

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

08/22/23

Full Review

Thomas M

The best documentary movie ever made!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/25/22

Full Review

dustin d

The Buena Vista Social Club is a charming musical documentary with great music and little slices of life from Cuba.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

(Int. Glass Corridor Surrounded By Garden) Urainia: (walks briskly) No Pol Pot, and certainly no Castro. No communist philosophy. Apasmara: You saw what happened when I tried to bring your ideas to light. Urainia: No, I witnessed a grand scale abuse of power once your ego had ultimate power. The ideas of shared wealth are good ideas, your ego simply turned them upside down. Apasmara: What would you do? Urainia: Your dwarf ego is embedded in each child and this is little death. If they pursue their ego, which is their own little death, they will find their Father, end of story. Apasmara: But, what you're suggesting is communism. Urainia: Really. Am I suggesting Cuba? Shall we go over His Story? Apasmara: Ugh... Urainia: His Story of Cuba is that their elite were scared out once Castro came into power. Castro's idea of Communism was to break into people's homes and count common household items like toothpaste to make sure they weren't taking too much. Apasmara: So, we don't do that. Urainia: (stops) Jesus Christ, No! Stop dying for your own sins! (presses nose to glass wall and looks at beautiful garden outside) Where did a huge majority of the those rich Cubans escape to? Apasmara: Rich Cubans? Urainia: The intellectual elite. They didn't stay in crumbling Cuba. No, they escaped to US. But were they the intellectual elite here? Apasmara: (pushes nose to glass and looks at garden) No. Urainia: No. Because we have a dwarf ego in charge of US as well. So when these well-educated Cubans came to US, they were lowly immigrants and assigned jobs at the factories, even though they had been Doctors and Lawyers in Cuba. Apasmara: At least they had jobs, I guess. Urainia: Jobs in which state, though? Apasmara: (sighs) Florida. Urainia: Yes, Florida. Florida has a huge immigrant population. And how does Florida tend to vote on matters of immigration? Apasmara: They don't like immigrants. Urainia: Yes. The immigrants don't like immigrants. Why? Because they were the elite in their country and were on the lowest economic rung here until they worked their way up. You think they want our country giving away free opportunities like their country did? Apasmara: Not all immigrants are this way. Urainia: Not all. But most immigrants have money to travel to improve their life. Who doesn't have money to travel to improve their life? The poor trying to manage in their poor homeland. Who do we want as voters to improve the quality of life for everyone? Is it the elite who escaped and want to keep Others like them out, or is it the poor who have nothing? Apasmara: (turns away from garden/looks at Urainia) Won't the poor ruin your beautiful manicured garden? Urainia: This isn't my garden Apasmara, this is Our home (Apasmara's family pictures appear all over the glass walls so the garden shines through their images). The poor have always been the ones who maintain this beautiful garden through hard work, not the rich. When was the last time I saw you with a leaf blower? If you want your family home and gardens maintained, I suggest you find a way around your political isms and fix this home for all our children once and for all. Apasmara: Yes, Goddess. I guess I'm just (long pause) I'm afraid. Urainia: That's because you've used fear as a tool to enslave my nature. You kept pushing kids out into our universe because you know I love children, and while I'm eager to pull the rug of riches out from under you, I'm not so eager to do that to our kids. Apasmara: (sighs) Okay. Urainia: But, if our kids are maintained on this rug of riches, it's not good for them, either. I expect since you are an actor of many talents, you will fix this. Apasmara: Yes, Goddess.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

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Wim Wenders

Director

Luis Barzaga

Self

Joachim Cooder

Self

Ry Cooder

Self

Julio Alberto Fernández

Self

Ibrahim Ferrer

Self

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Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Rated: B-

Sep 7, 2011

Full Review

Peter Stack

San Francisco Chronicle

Rated: 4/4

Jun 18, 2002

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Globe and Mail

Rated: 3.5/4

Mar 19, 2002

Full Review

Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

An impressionistic glance at Cuba's vibrant cultural heritage, Wim Wenders' Buena Vista Social Club is an often times intriguing portrait of notable musicians and their craft.

Rated: 3/5

Sep 12, 2020

Full Review

Richard Propes

TheIndependentCritic.com

It is nearly impossible to watch this documentary without being moved.

Rated: 3.5/4.0

Sep 4, 2020

Full Review

Landon Palmer

Nonfics

Buena Vista Social Club resonates almost like a diplomatic effort that helped set the stage for a post-revolutionary relationship to Cuba, a rare meeting between neighbors after decades of distance.

May 9, 2017

Full Review

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Synopsis

This documentary by lauded German filmmaker Wim Wenders follows renowned guitarist Ry Cooder and his son, Joachim, as they travel to Cuba and assemble a group of the country's finest musicians to record an album. Among the artists included in the project are singer Ibrahim Ferrer and pianist Rubén González, who are both interviewed and featured in studio footage. Eventually the ensemble travels to the United States to perform in front of rapt audiences.

Director: Wim Wenders
Executive Producer: Ulrich Felsberg
Screenwriter: Wim Wenders
Distributor: Artisan Entertainment
Production Co: Kintop Pictures
Rating: G
Genre: Documentary, Music
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 4, 1999, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 18, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $7.0M
Sound Mix: Dolby SR, Dolby Digital, Dolby A, Surround

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