Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Twelve Chairs Again (aka Las Doce Sillas)

Courtesy of Netflix, we've now enjoyed our second avatar of The Twelve Chairs--that comic Russian about enterprise and mayhem during the birth pangs of a revolution. This one is not the Mel Brooks we saw a few days ago, and not the Soviet version: it's the work of Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, in his time (per Wiki) "an influential Cuban filmmaker." This one doesn't even get a mention in the director's Wiki. Best I can tell it was actually made in Cuba, shortly after the Revolution, and it is easy to see why he quickly made himself unwelcome in what so soon became an ugly police state. What's perhaps most remarkable how well the story (first crafted in Russia in the 20s) so well suits the new revolution and the new emergent dictatorship.

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