Death of a Bureaucrat

When lent this film by a Spanish professor, my expectations were not high -- I had no idea this film from the early years of revolutionary Cuba was by Gutierrez Alea, Tinton, the director of Strawberries and Chocalate. Now, having seen the film, I wonder how it is that such a wonderful, imaginative work is not better known. For a good laugh, this can hardly be beat.

"Death of a Bureaucrat"(Muerte de un burocrata) is the story of a body that just can't get in the ground, and the frustrations suffered by the deceased's family in trying to address this situation. With the themes of bureaucratic rigidity, death, burial and the challenges of (then) modern-day Cuban life, we see linkages to Tinton's last work, "Guantanamera". The director has played with a range of techniques borrowed from some of the greats -- we find Bunuel's dream sequences, Chaplin's battles with the machine, and Keaton's daring-do. Hopefully, with the success of Tinton's final works, some of his earlier works will come into vogue.

Forget post-revolutionary Cuba; right here in America, in 2000, there is enough bureaucracy for the comedic lessons of Alea's great film about people's propensity to conform at all costs to absurd restrictions from 'above' and cause misery to others rather than risk the slightest insecurity to themselves, to be driven home painfully. This is a really funny film but one that makes you think, like Tati's 'Playtime,' Fellini's early films or some of Bunuel's. This film is deeply critical and ridicules everything that is part and parcel of government enforced socialism. You can't fault Castro for not having a sense of humor, if he agreed to release this film. Leo Beower's understated music is, as always, excellent.

She is the model in the bikini holding a hammer 1 hour into the movie. Her name is Regina Amador, top model at Tropicana Club Havana, Cuba 1962-1968.

This film is not just superb, but it is also a homage to movies in general.

This is a comedy, a tragedy, a parody, and a documentary. Why is this film so important to people who have never lived in Cuba? Because, like every work of art from the beginning of civilization, it is applicable the old Arab saying of "write about your street, and you will be writing about the world." Anyone who has ever dealt with the Tax Office, the Immigration Board, the City Bylaws Enforcement, the European Union office of standards, the Human Resources Department, the Phone Company, the Big Bank, the Insurance Company, or any other office of some big organization will immediately recognize the situations shown in this film.

A must see.

Communist Cuba in the 1960s is not exactly the place that you'd expect to produce a satire on bureaucracy. But the spirit of Harold Lloyd was kept alive by this singular farce, which manages to be both harrowing and funny; in which our hero (SLIGHT SPOILERS COMING:) begins by needing to recover his father's union card - sentimentally buried in the old man's coffin - and somehow finds himself ultimately perched on a window ledge surrounded by gawpers convinced he's threatening to jump.