I Am Cuba (1964)
Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov
A study in contrasts set in and around Havana that explores Cuba's 1959 revolution: a young woman's fascination with the excess of an American-owned casino leads to her downfall in the eyes of her street vendor boyfriend; a tenant farmer revolts the only way he knows how, attacking the land he works; university students gain first-hand knowledge of political upheaval; and, in the hills outside the city, the members of a poor peasant family are patriotically swept up into the burgeoning revolt.
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What critics compared I Am Cuba to
Anderson is in love with his camera, and a bit of a showoff in sequences inspired by the famous nightclub entrance in "GoodFellas," Robert De Niro's rehearsal in the mirror in "Raging Bull" and a shot in "I Am Cuba" where the camera follows a woman into a pool.
The pool-party scene in “Boogie Nights” is effectively a long reference to the opening shot of “I Am Cuba,” without adding much to the iconic scene.
The film begins promisingly, with a gorgeous tracking shot through a Day Of The Dead celebration in Mexico City, where cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema harks back to the legendary work of Sergey Urusevsky in I Am Cuba .
It starts with a tracking shot in the spirit of Touch of Evil (or even I Am Cuba given the weightless camera), and is loaded with the high-paced action, stunts, and decisive camera work that you can tell is the artful slight of hand imbued by director Mendes.
" Boogie Nights 's pool scene and its reference to that commie flick I Am Cuba ... that's not me."
Where Mikheil Kalatozishvili savored Cuba’s beauty with his seminal film poem I Am Cuba, culture takes second stage in Cristofer’s thinly-guised, cornball love session to Angelina Jolie’s luscious lips.
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Since Nanook of the North (1927), it has proved a useful guiding principle for documentaries, particularly such city symphonies as Man with A Movie Camera and I Am Cuba.
Stylish and assured, it hooks us from the start, beginning with a dazzling travelling shot (like many directors, Cianfrance probably thinks he's imitating Scorsese and "Goodfellas"; what he's really imitating is Scorsese imitating not just "Touch of Evil," but "I Am Cuba").