This is the first film I have made that I consider a documentary. I never called Notebook and Tokyo-Ga documentaries; I called them journals. They were highly subjective, personal diaries of an experience. I went to Havana because I wanted to let these musicians speak for themselves, since this music speaks for itself so powerfully. So I thought if I went to Havana and described my experience like a diary, this would be less productive than keeping myself out of it. I wouldn’t say it’s less personal. It’s a different approach and in a strange way, maybe because I kept myself out of it, I’m so much happier with this film than with my other diary films.

Wim Wenders in Richard Falcon, The Heavens Over Havana, “Sight and Sound”, vol. 9, no. 10, October 1999

The documentary directed by Wim Wenders at the invitation of his friend and collaborator Ry Cooder, producer of the Buena Vista Social Club album, is mainly built around three stylistic techniques. The forward tracking shot, taking an exploratory approach, follows the singer Omara Portuondo (whom everyone talks to in the street, few singers are better-known), or the singer Ibrahim Ferrer (very reserved, few people know who he is yet). The lateral tracking shot shows the streets of Havana, providing a cross-section of the city (particularly when it follows the side-car carrying Cooder, father-and-son on their way to the recording studio) or the musical installation of the Amsterdam concert. Finally, the circular tracking shot, which revolves around the musicians, gives us an insight into the vocals or explanatory lyrics, and, sometimes, in a second pass, reveals the partner in a duet or musical dialogue. The fluidity and elegance of the movements in Wim Wenders’ superb film gradually help us understand – through their music, the looks that pass between them and their warm complicity – the fragility of the musicians that Ry Cooder introduced to his filmmaker friend during a second trip to Havana, triggered by the recording of a new album dedicated in particular to Ibrahim Ferrer.

Hubert Niogret, “Positif ”, no. 461-462, July-August 1999