PLAYING LECUONA
Directed by JUAN MANUEL VILLAR BETANCORT & PAVEL GIROUD

Date
August 20, 2019
About Project
DIRECTOR
JUAN MANUEL VILLAR BETANCORT & PAVEL GIROUD
COUNTRY
SPAIN / CUBA
RUNNING TIME
110 mins
YEAR
2015
LANGUAGE
Spanish with English subtitles
ABOUT THE FILM
In Playing Lecuona, Pavel Giroud and Juan Manuel Villar Betancort pay a visual and aural artistic tribute to Ernesto Lecuona through the cinematography of Santiago Torres and the very best of Latin America’s pianists playing his music – city soundscapes, or fusions of Afro-Cuban rhythms or Flamenco with Latin Jazz. The exuberance and ecstasy in the playing of Chucho Valdes in Havana, of Michael Camilo in New York, and of Gonzalo Rubalcaba in Seville and the insights into musicianship that they share are a true delight. As Michael Camilo says, ‘Lecuona must be listening from heaven’. We are right there with him.