Sixteen years — that is how long it took Andy Garcia to bring his directorial debut, “The Lost City,” to the big screen. The film, written by Cabrera Infante, chronicles a wealthy family in 1950s Cuba struggling to endure the country’s communist revolution. Garcia may have poured his heart into making the film (he served as director, producer, actor and composer), but it has opened to mostly negative reviews. It is an epic story, but its overextended storyline and vapid characters have kept it from achieving greatness.
It Was You, Fredo:“The Lost City” chronicles the relationship of three brothers in Cuba.
Yet the lukewarm reception from critics hasn’t dimmed Garcia’s optimism for the project. “I’ve been really impressed with the response the film is getting from audiences,” he said in a phone interview.
In “The Lost City,” Garcia plays Fico Fellove, the owner of Havana’s famed El Tropico nightclub. Fellove is ambivalent about politics until both of his younger brothers join rebel forces in the Cuban Revolution. One (Nestor Carbonell) becomes a member in a small revolutionary group that attempts to overthrow the Batista regime. The other (Enrique Murciano) joins Che Guevara’s guerilla battalion.
Guevara (Jsu Garcia) is portrayed as a blood-hungry guerilla warrior, a sharp contrast to the wide-eyed, compassionate youngster portrayed in “The Motorcycle Diaries.” However, Garcia says that this representation of the character is more historically accurate. “You know a lot of people see Guevara as a rebel, a revolutionary and someone who looks good on a T-shirt, but [he] oversaw 2,000 executions after the Cuban Revolution — without a trial,” Garcia said. “I thought ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ was a great film; Walter Salles is a very talented filmmaker, but [the film] depicted Guevara at 18 … It chose not to explore Guevara’s dark side.”
“The Lost City” is an immense aesthetic achievement, especially considering it was shot in 35 days for under $10 million. The film, shot in Dominican Republic is chock-full of scenes that feature the exquisite Caribbean landscape. Garcia unabashedly admits that his film is a love letter to a culture lost in Cuba — the pre-Castro era when Havana was a vacation hotspot with glamorous nightclubs, exotic beaches and an innovative music scene.
Garcia was able to attract long-time friends like Dustin Hoffman and Bill Murray to the cast. But even Garcia admits that not everyone has had a positive response to Murray’s character. Murray plays Fellove’s best friend and El Tropico’s resident funnyman.
“You know a lot of people like [his character], but they don’t know why he’s in the film,” he said. “They think he is a character that the film can do without, but if you know Infante’s writing, you know why he is there.” In an interview in Backstage West magazine, Garcia said that Murray’s character is essential to the film because he represents Infante’s voice in the story.
“The Lost City” has garnered a lot of comparisons to another film about feuding brothers that takes place during the Cuban Revolution: “The Godfather: Part II.” Garcia, who co-starred in “The Godfather: Part III” said he learned a lot from working with director Francis Ford Coppola. “‘The Godfather’ was an influence,” he said. “When I was working with Francis, I went to the dailies and sat with [cinematographer] Gordon Willis — it was an incredible period in my life.” However, he said that “The Lost City” may be inspired by the work of Coppola, but it is by no means an homage to “The Godfather: Part II.”
Garcia said he would like to keep directing and that he has a couple of projects in the works. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take him another 16 years.
