I have been going to "The Last Remaining Seats" which takes place all through June every year that shows classic films in the incredible picture palaces in Los Angeles. The film they showed last Wednesday at the opulent Palace Theater was DEATH OF A BUREAUCRAT from 1965 directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea who directed such well known Cuban films as MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPEMENT and STRAWBERRY AND CHOCOLATE. He also did a version of THE TWELVE CHAIRS years before Mel Brooks. BEAUREAUCRAT was hilarious, about a guy trying to get his uncle buried and stymied by bureaucracy to the point of insanity. Certainly the funniest Cuban film I have ever seen (and I have seen quite a few) and one of the best satires ever. With sequences that had Monty Python animation (years before Python came into being) and references to great filmmakers like Harold Lloyd, Luis Bunuel, Laurel and Hardy, Ingmar Bergman, Charlie Chaplin and a ton of others (all of which this film is dedicated to).
Also it was a night dedicated to the composer (world reknown for his classical guitar pieces) Leo Brouwer, who is still around. He is not just a Cuban composer, conductor, and classical guitarist, but is the grandson of Cuban composer Ernestina Lecuona y Casado His great-uncle, Ernesto Lecuona, composed "La Malagueña" and his second cousin, Margarita Lecuona, composed "Babalú", which was popularized by Cuban musician and actor Desi Arnaz. He composes wonderful scores for full orchestra, a couple ALSINO AND THE CONDOR and LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE I have in my collection. Guitarist Philip Graulty played a number of his famed pieces before the show. This is why I LOVE The Last Remainng Seats program only in June of every year!
Here he may also be known for the couple of pieces he wrote for A WALK IN THE CLOUDS whose score was by Maurice Jarre. Since these two pieces were co-written by director Alfonso Arau (who used him in his film LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE) I always wondered if Brouwer was his first choice but he ultimately had to go with a "name" composer.
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea who directed such well known Cuban films as MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPEMENT and STRAWBERRY AND CHOCOLATE.
Thanks for mentioning this director & composer.
My earliest encounters with films by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (& scored by Leo Brouwer) were courtesy of those New Yorker VHS tapes from the late 1990s which released The Last Supper (1976) as well as that 1968 Memories of Underdevelopment plus others.
Leo Brouwer is the sort of person (such as Luis de Pablo) whom I attempt to spotlight when an occasional FSM thread asks which composers are unrepresented on disc. I wish more FSM members would be serious film buffs and be familiar with vintage international cinema by the likes of Carlos Saura and Alea...
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea who directed such well known Cuban films as MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPEMENT and STRAWBERRY AND CHOCOLATE.
Thanks for mentioning this director & composer.
My earliest encounters with films by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (& scored by Leo Brouwer) were courtesy of those New Yorker VHS tapes from the late 1990s which released The Last Supper (1976) as well as that 1968 Memories of Underdevelopment plus others.
Leo Brouwer is the sort of person (such as Luis de Pablo) whom I attempt to spotlight when an occasional FSM thread asks which composers are unrepresented on disc. I wish more FSM members would be serious film buffs and be familiar with vintage international cinema by the likes of Carlos Saura and Alea...
Let this be a thread for all things Leo Brouwer.
Amen! On a certain level I can relate to most mainstream collectors. There was a point early on that I thought it was all I could do to explore and catch up to all the wonderful American composers. Luckily early on I also encountered Ennio Morricone and eventually came to the conclusion here was a composer who has had a career equal in power and range to a Jerry Goldsmith or John Williams. But I only found this out by digging into his mass of scores to Italian films. It goes without saying this took, time, work and some expense. Ever since I have wondered how many other brilliant composers in foreign lands, who never got access to a big Hollywood orchestra, were out there.
I always thought all Brouwer scores might be guitar based but based on this quirky score and THE LAST SUPPER I see I was wrong. I wonder how many little treasures are among his other Cuban titles.
