This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

That was an excellent one.

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

One could describe it as a life lesson. A seminar for anyone involved in any art form. The internal recognition and peace with no need for wide acceptance, glory or money. Giants of the musical firmament that their food was the greatness of their soul and their love for music. Human sensitivity and romanticism at the height of their beauty. Their gold, the human values, honor and dignity. Lovers of love and truth. All these huge musicians appearing give us a life lesson. Simplicity as something more precious than all the treasures of the world. Wenders once again shows its quality. And a big thanks to Ry Cooder who brought to light these diamonds of world civilization.

Most documentaries these days are nothing more than masked narratives, some semblance of reality (often largely fictitious) structured as a story meant to grip. They grip and hold on to. This is not that type, although it's loosely a story. It's more properly a frame, a portal; into the lives of ageing Cuban musicians brought out of retirement and obscurity for one last round, recast as memory of a time and place.Like their music, the film is not about spine-tingling rhythms or crescendos. It is mostly a colorful lull with the sweet pull of a hot summer night. A pull into anecdotes about life in old Cuba and snapshots of the present one. We never get to know any of the players well enough, but we spend with them time enough to soak up the atmosphere of being there.Being there is what the movie is all about. The wise choice of digital video abets this, the palpable immediacy. Wenders' camera tricks are superfluous then, because the material doesn't need any mediating. The only thing required of the camera here is to transport us.And it does. Watching this, I felt like it was the first time I was seeing New York (when eventually the band flies there for one night of apotheosis at the Carnegie Hall). We walk the streets, also back in Cuba. Glimpses of life abound, some spontaneous others not so much. Wonderful architecture, colonial remnants wasting away with the last signs of a revolution heading south. A building sign reads "KARL MA X", the R missing and no one bothered to replace it. But we so rarely get to see these things in movies, that it's a breath of fresh air. But in order for the film to breathe into you, you need to have devoted part of yourself and have an affinity for untravellled cinematic space. For the place, despite the narrative. We get plenty of that here.

Most people don't seem to have seen the movie from the very beginning. Cooder and Wenders were in Cuba to film with some Japanese Musicans who had problems with their visas or whatever and didn't make it in time, so they just went to look for some local musicians in order not to waste their time in Cuba. The revelation and worldwide success of these oldtimers was by pure chance and not by design. In my eyes that makes it more 'documentary' than any preconceived plans that other such movies had. They called off the artists from whatever jobs or duties they were doing at that exact time. Ibrahim Ferrer for example was shining shoes at that time and didn't even get the time to shower before they recorded the album.Give the guys a break!

More than a beautiful musical movie, I would classify this picture as a documentary. Who hasn't heard about Cuba's legendary Buenavista Social Club?? The story is nothing more than a recreation of the now aging stars of this club, back in the middle of the past century. Two main aspects can be judged here: The poverty of these in their native Cuban environment, and their joy of life that permits them to be happy even with all their limitations, and the contrasts they encounter while traveling to the USA for a presentation at the Carnegie Hall back in July 1998. It is a very shocking impact to see them go from their impoverished surroundings to the fascination of New York, where they now realize that this is where the other half of the world lives. The magic of the picture itself is brought to a sudden stop when one realizes that even in our 21st Century there can be so contrasting differences between human beings living in different parts of the world. Regardless of this sudden awakening to reality, the picture is beautiful and transports us back in time.