El Benny (2006) Documentaries – Resources
A biographical film about Benny Moré — "El Bárbaro del Ritmo" — the greatest Cuban popular singer of the 20th century. Not a documentary but a dramatic feature, El Benny reconstructs the life of the musician who more than anyone else embodied the feeling of Cuban popular music.
Film
What It Covers
Director Jorge Luis Sánchez's film traces Benny Moré's life from his origins in Santa Isabel de las Lajas through his rise to fame with Cuban and Mexican orchestras, his return to Cuba, and the formation of his legendary Banda Gigante. It recreates the sound and feel of Cuban popular music at its peak — the 1950s — through performances of his most celebrated songs. Renny Arozarena plays Benny (the singing voice is Juan Manuel Villy Carbonell), and new versions of his songs are performed by Chucho Valdés, Juan Formell, Haila and Orishas, among others. Arozarena won the Boccalino for best performance at the 2006 Locarno festival, the film was Cuba's candidate for the Oscars, and in December 2006 it won the Opera Prima award at the Havana Festival of New Latin American Cinema.
Why Dancers Should Watch It
Benny Moré's music is what the golden age of Cuban popular dance sounds like. His sense of sabor — the quality that makes music irresistible to dance to — is what every Cuban band since has tried to capture. Watching this film with a dancer's ear, you hear what clave feels like when it's perfect, what the relationship between voice and rhythm section produces in the body of a dancer. Understanding Benny Moré is understanding the aesthetic standard Cuban music measures itself against.
- IMDB: link