Lucía [Cuba 1968]

Lucía
Director: H. Solas
Cinematographer: J. Herrero

A classic Cuban movie which, although long, bears watching more than once for a full appreciation. A combination of a sophisticated depiction of female roles in Cuban history with interesting and varied cinematography holds interest although the film is longer than average.

The film is divided into three parts, depicting the stories of three Cuban women named Lucía, one in the 1860s, one in the 1930s and one in the 1960s. The second figure is the strongest of all three; the first is weak and a victim of her circumstances, and the third must become strong by drawing inspiration from her community. A strength of the 19th century story is that it depicts women as victims both of circumstance and of the circumstances of their formation, thus of the fact that they were kept naïve and unformed. And the third story is of course most directly propagandistic, but attempts to be so by appealing not just to women but also to men--making chauvinism look outdated and oafish.

Herrera's cinematography is deft, particularly because it manages to mix the kind of ordinary, dramatic shots with which Cubans were more acquainted before the revolution with more experimental and artistically interesting shots, thereby possibly playing to a Cuban audience while simultaneously pushing their development. The more interesting shots include powerful close-ups of the faces of the women which seem to rely strongly on their striking facial features, but are also emphasised by the use of a washed out filter (in one of the 19th century shots) or bright light (in the salt flats). There are several powerful scenes of conflict, including a striking battle scene involving naked ex-slaves charging into battle on horseback against the Spanish. Several almost surreal montages are put together with a minimalist soundtrack to achieve an abstract quality that surrounds the more concrete plot details.

The third part of the film, which takes place during socialism, depicts the commonly known Cuba of the 1960s--mobilisation, optimism, community spirit and collective involvement and belief in the revolution, the literacy campaign, etc. The message is clear: men must change the way they treat their wives, being machista is outdated, and women are as much entitled to work as men; what is more, women as much as men have a duty to work and to contribute to the revolution. Although the reconciliation of the final scene is a bit cheesy, it does send another distinct message: this is not about an irreconcilable conflict between men and women, rather it is about learning to live better together.

Altogether this is an interesting film not just for the political message it pushes, but for its attempt to give people a more sophisticated idea of the history of women in their society. The abstractness and concreteness of the cinematography itself mirrors the abstractness and concreteness of the concepts being deployed, and the mixture of the two gives us both a wider picture of different experiences of women and the specific picture of the three women depicted. We are therefore led to see women less as a one-dimensional stereotype, and at least a bit more as multi-dimensional human beings. That is in fact a powerful political message in itself, supported strongly by the artistry of the film.