The main reason for writing this small film is that I took it out for review this May Day. I went through the commentary and wanted to jot down some pieces that I still remember. One of the commentary tracks is the producer and choreographer JoAnn Fregalette Jansen (Who is she? See the dancer who danced with Patrick when the heroine first met the dance coach). The script of the story is also based on her. The story is adapted. Her story is basically the same as the movie. She fell in love with a local boy in Cuba. It was her first love. She participated in a small competition with him. Her parents didn't know about it until she danced in front of her parents. In the end, of course she also left the boy and Cuba, because of the distance (in 1958, it was inconvenient in all aspects) and never contacted.
Although this movie is Havana, it was shot in San Juan, Puerto Rico, probably because of Cuban political restrictions. All the dancers in it are professional dancers, and many scenes are recorded over and over again (for example, the semi dance, they filmed 7 times, the band performance was filmed separately from them, and later edited by an editor specializing in match rhythm) , The dancers in the bar are all local dancers in Puerto Rico. Because Puerto Rico has only one hotel, in order to satisfy the plot such as swimming pool, retro decoration, etc., I changed 18 locations to shoot. . Sometimes a conversation is even taken in two different places. Since San Juan is a tourist attraction, local tourists were also restricted from parking at the time to avoid destroying the effect.
The whole movie is finished from March to the end of the year. In the middle, Diego and the heroine are both newbies and learned from scratch. The two spent 10 weeks and 8 hours a day for basic training. After the shots were finished, the two of them continued to practice. They mixed a lot of different rhythms and dance types, so it was difficult. Diego has practiced for his dance for six weeks. JoAnn praised Diego for dancing well and learned very fast. He was already very familiar with it from the beginning, and in five weeks he started to point out what dance steps to use. Ha ha. In addition to dancing, Diego continues to learn Spanish, the taste of Cuba. Because of his different accent, he is Mexican. But the other actors in the movie are all Cubans. Cubans say Diego’s accent is not bad.
JoAnn obviously likes Diego very much. She has been complimenting him on being wonderful, dancing well, and liking the look in his eyes when guiding the heroine to dance on the beach, etc. Finally, the original version of the story couldn't help feeling that Diego was so gorgeous several times, a little bit like the boy she loved but never met again. I think it's also because of the Latin taste of Diego, and his youth and affection.
JoAnn has never been to Cuba again. Since the entire film was set in Puerto Rico, she kept feeling that Puerto Rico’s urban scenery looked more like Cuba at the time, and she couldn’t help but said with emotion: “Perhaps I should go again, now I should be able to go and see”. After all, it was the first love she couldn't forget.
(Note: English listening is limited, please correct me if some details are wrong~)
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