Alea, Tomás Gutiérrez (1928-1996), cubano:A Última Ceia (1976);
Los Sobrevivientes (1978);
Morango e Chocolate (1993);
Guantanamera (1995).
Born in Havana on Cuba in 1928, Tomas Gutierrez Alea influenced Cuban film-making more than anyone else. All his 29 films focus on the paradoxes of life on Cuba, and his great international successes include Strawberry and Chocolate (1993) and Guantanamera (1995). He died in 1996.
"There"s too much polemic about Cuba," complained Tomas Gutierrez Alea in an interview in 1994. "It is seen as being a communist hell or a communist paradise. The real Cuba often lapses into the background." Born in Havana in 1928, he did much to free the island from dull propaganda films in depicting it subtly and ironically in films like Memories of Underdevelopment (1968) and Strawberry and Chocolate (1993). His last film, Gauntanamera (Travelling with a Corpse, 1996) is a romantic comedy showing the transportation of corpses in a planned economy. His films are notable for not only their fine humour and self-irony but also for their formal daring.
