The eight films on this disk span roughly eight years (1965-1973) and provide only a slim aperture through which to view Álvarez’s body of work, which is reputed to comprise some 700 films. In this sampling, we have an outsider’s perspective of U.S. foreign policy in the late ’60s and early ’70s, filtered through the filmmaker’s personalized, Latinized take on Soviet montage. One wonders what the connection might have been between Álvarez and Agnès Varda, the style of whose 1963 short Salut les Cubains (featured in her 2004 portmanteau, Cinévardaphotoars a striking resemblance to Álvarez’s highly kinetic use of still photography.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Extreme Low Frequency DVD
28 Mar 2006 1:38 PM | Submit Comment