Movies from Cuba

MADRIGAL is dedicated to René Clair. Why? In 1955, this French director made LES GRANDES MANOEUVRES (SUMMER MANOEUVRES), in which Gérard Philipe plays a young officer who accepts a bet that he can win the heart of Michèle Morgan, who plays the most beautiful and mysterious woman in town. Something that begins as a game for this rakish charmer, soon develops into a full-blown passion on both sides that ends dramatically as soon as the woman learns of the deception.

It might take two viewings to grasp fully what Fernando Pérez is doing in "Suite Habana," an elusive but intermittently beautiful tone poem on film. There is virtually no dialogue. There are no story lines that build to a climax, no documentary-style voice-overs. There are just snippets from a day in Havana, so disjointed and seemingly random that it takes a while to realize that Mr. Pérez is focusing on 10 specific individuals, tracking them through 24 hours in their painfully ordinary lives.