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Tomás Gutiérrez Alea

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea

Directing

Biography

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea was a Cuban film director and screenwriter. He wrote and directed more than twenty features, documentaries, and short films, which are known for his sharp insight into post-Revolutionary Cuba, and possess a delicate balance between dedication to the revolution and criticism of its social, economic, and political aftermaths in the country.

Known For

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No description available.

Lo + plus

1995
Strawberry and Chocolate
7.0

In 1979 Cuba, flamboyant gay artist Diego attempts to seduce straitlaced David, an idealistic young communist, and fails dismally. But David conspires to be "friends" with Diego so he can monitor the artist's subversive life for the state. As Diego and David discuss politics, individuality and personal expression in Castro's Cuba, a genuine friendship develops between the two.

Strawberry and Chocolate

1993
Memories of Underdevelopment
7.2

In the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs incident, Sergio chooses to stay behind in Cuba while his wife and family escape to neighboring Miami. Alone in a brave new world, Sergio observes the constant threat of foreign invasion while chasing young women all over Havana. He finally meets Elena, a young girl he seeks to mould into the image of his ex-wife, but at what cost to himself?

Memories of Underdevelopment

1968
Hello Cubans
7.4

A photo montage of Cubans filmed by Agnès Varda during her visit to Cuba in 1963, four years after Fidel Castro came to power. This black & white documentary explores their socialist culture and society while making use of 1500 pictures (out of 4000!) the filmmaker took while on the island.

Hello Cubans

1963
Con el amor no se juega
6.5

Susana, a beautiful young girl living in 1990, is happily looking forward to her forthcoming marriage - and has bought an antique mirror to grace her future home. Three weeks before the wedding, the mirror is delivered to her Grandmother's home and taken to Susana's room. Later that day, when looking into the glass, Susana is startled to see the image of a handsome soldier, Nicolas (from 1863), instead of her own reflection. It soon becomes obvious that he can see Susana as clearly as she can see him - and life, for them both, is never quite the same again. Contains three shorts as a trilogy: The Two Way Mirror (El espejo de dos lunas) 1990, 0:29:23 With You from a Distance (Contigo en la distancia) 1991, 0:27:38 Saturday Night Thief (Ladrón de sábado) 1996, 0:24:57

Con el amor no se juega

1991
Guantanamera
6.5

During the 'Special Period', the members of a funeral procession cross paths with truckdrivers who have to take the same route, and begin to talk about God and the world. They discover that life for both groups has many similarities, as well as a lot of differences.

Guantanamera

1995
The Twelve Chairs
7.5

When her country is taken over by socialist revolutionaries, a wealthy woman can't bear to give up all of her wealth and possessions to the new government, so she hides all of her treasures in the 12 chairs of a dining-room set. After her death her nephew finds out what she had done and, since the chairs had been "nationalized" and are now in the possession of a dozen different people, he sets out to track them down and get the treasures he believes rightfully belong to him.

The Twelve Chairs

1962
The Survivors
7.1

A bourgeois Cuban family of aristocratic origin locks itself into its mansion when the Cuban Revolution comes to power, waiting for the new regime to be overthrown. As time passes, they regress to older and older systems of political order, from capitalism to feudalism to "primitive savagery."

The Survivors

1979
The Last Supper
7.8

A pious plantation owner attempts to teach Christianity to 12 of his slaves by inviting them to participate in a reenactment of the Last Supper.

The Last Supper

1976
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2.0

A look at the life and work of Cuban filmmaker Tomas Gutierrez Alea.

Titón: From Havana to Guantanamera, 1928-1996

2008
Death of a Bureaucrat
7.4

A young man attempts to fight the system in an entertaining account of bureaucracy amok and the tyranny of red tape. Restored by the Academy Film Archive and the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industrias Cinematográficos in 2019.

Death of a Bureaucrat

1966
Letters from the Park
6.3

Matanzas, Cuba, 1913. Two young people who are in love communicate through letters written by penman. When the young man leaves town, to become a pilot, the girl discovers she is really in love with the one who wrote the letters.

Letters from the Park

1989
Memória Cubana
N/A

Through the files of Cuban cinema news program Noticieros ICAIC Latinoamericanos, the documentary shows the most relevant events of the second half of the 20th century as seen by the documentary filmmakers of the island. During three decades and under the general direction of Santiago Álvarez, these moviemakers witnessed almost everything: from the shivers of the Cold War to Bola de Nieve's piano solos; from the discovery of the killing fields in Cambodia to the Carnation Revolution in Portugal. In 2009, the original negatives of Noticieros ICAIC Latinoamericanos were declared part of the "world memory" by UNESCO.

Memória Cubana

2010
I Am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth
7.3

Contemporary film critics regard the epic film I Am Cuba as a modern masterpiece. The 1964 Cuban/Soviet coproduction marked a watershed moment of cultural collaboration between two nations. Yet the film never found a mass audience, languishing for decades until its reintroduction as a "classic" in the 1990s. Vicente Ferraz explores the strange history of this cinematic tour de force, and the deeper meaning for those who participated in its creation.

I Am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth

2005
A Cuban Fight Against Demons
5.6

In 1672 Cuban revolutionaries launch an uprising against the Spanish who are occupying the country. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2017.

A Cuban Fight Against Demons

1972
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8.0

No description available.

Il sogno de Giovanni Bassain

1953
Up to a Certain Point
4.5

A theater director and script-writer falls for a female worker from the Havana docks, but his machismo, social and working conflicts, and the Cuban woman's condition interfere with their relationship.

Up to a Certain Point

1983
Stories of the Revolution
6.3

A film about the Cuban Revolution told from three different perspectives.

Stories of the Revolution

1960
Muerte al invasor
5.9

Produced by ICAIC in the wake of the Bay of Pigs invasion, "Muerte al invasor" chronicles the three days of fighting at Playa Girón, portraying the rapid mobilization of Cuban forces and civilians against a CIA-backed exile army.

Muerte al invasor

1962
One Way or Another
6.5

In Miraflores, Cuba, the growing romance between Mario, a factory worker, and Yolanda, a schoolteacher, throws into relief the differences in their perspectives and values in Revolutionary Cuba.

One Way or Another

1977