Skip to content
1981
Volume 13, Issue 4
  • ISSN: 2047-7368
  • E-ISSN: 2047-7376

Abstract

Shortly after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Fidel Castro’s government invited the Italian screenwriter Cesare Zavattini (1902–89) to advise on the new national film system in Havana. There, in January 1960, he was interviewed by the young Catalan–Cuban cinematographer Nestor Almendros (1930–92) for the weekly journal . In their conversation, Zavattini recounted his experiences travelling around the island and explained the film projects he was supervising at the newly founded Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos. Through the discussion of the situation of European and world cinemas in 1959–60, this interview also signals some of the tensions that existed between the Italian master, a promoter of neorealism in Latin America, and Almendros, who at the time was advocating for the adoption of new styles – Nouvelle Vague, Cinéma Vérité, etc. – in Cuban cinema.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jicms_00335_7
2025-08-23
2026-04-20

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Almendros, Néstor (1960), ‘Cesare Zavattini’, Lunes de Revolución, 44:January, pp. 57.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Almendros, Néstor (1961), ‘Se rueda El joven rebelde’, Bohemia, 53:16, p. 90.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Almendros, Néstor (1992), Cinemanía, Barcelona: Seix Barral.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Brancaleone, David (2019), Zavattini: Il Neo-realismo e il Nuevo Cinema Latino-Americano, Parma: Diabasis.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Castillo, Luciano (2022), ‘Zavattini nel seme del nuovo cinema cubano’, in D. Viganò (ed.), Cesare Zavattini e l’eredità culturale tra Italia e Cuba, Rome: Edizioni Magale, pp. 11943.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. García Espinosa, Julio (1999), ‘Memorie e ritorni’, Bianco e Nero, LX:6, pp. 5862.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. García Mesa, Héctor and Eduardo Manet (1960), ‘Una entrevista con Cesare Zavattini’, Cine cubano, 1, pp. 3842.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Giroud, Iván (2020), La historia en un sobre amarillo: El cine en Cuba (1948–1964), Havana: ICAIC.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Jiménez Leal, Orlando, and Zayas, Manuel (eds) (2012), El caso PM: Cine, poder y censura, Madrid: Ediciones Colibrí.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Massip, José (1999), ‘Cronaca cubana’, Bianco e Nero, LX:6, pp. 5057.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Valecce, Anastasia (2020), Neorealismo y cine en Cuba: Historia y discurso en torno a la primera polémica de la Revolución (1951–1962), West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Vega, Jesús (1994), Zavattini en La Habana: crónicas y memorias de un maestro del cine italiano, Havana: Ediciones Unión.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Zavattini, Cesare (1960), ‘Para una discusión con los “no comprometidos”’, ICAIC Archives, Havana, 24 February 1960, translated as Zavattini (1999), ‘Per una discussione con i non-impegnati’, Bianco e Nero, LX:6, pp. 10814.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/jicms_00335_7
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test