Sunday, December 18, 2016

Four Seasons in Havana: Cuban Noir on Netflix

So many great shows to watch this season--and in so many different ways. Four Seasons in Havana based on Leonardo Padura's Havana novels is now available on Netflix.

NETFLIX AND CUBAN CRIME:
Four Seasons in Havana slowly revolves through the year, as wistful detective Mario Conde probes the sultry heart of the city to investigate dark and deadly crimes. Four Seasons in Havana is a Spanish/Cuban production. The series features police detective Mario Conde, who’d rather be a writer, and is based on Leonardo Padura’s Havana Quartet, his four Conde novels.

From Variety:
Adapting Leonardo Padura’ Havana-set crime novels, ‘Four Seasons’ represents the first TV production sold by Wild Bunch and produced by Spain’s Tornasol. In many ways, Cuban crime thriller “Four Seasons in Havana,” a four-part mini-series, is a first.  “Four Seasons in Havana” is also the first Caribbean Noir. It adapts Leonardo Padura four crime novels published over 1991-98, taking in Cuba’s Special Period, when it was plunged into penury by the break-up of the Soviet Union, and an end to Soviet aid. Written by Lucia Lopez Coll and Padura and directed by Spain’s Felix Viscarret (“Under the Stars”), “Four Seasons in Havana” pits the color, music, sensuality and rambunctiousness of Cuba against not only crime and corruption in high places but, in Jorge Perugorria’s cornerstone performance as Captain Mario Conde, the overwhelming solitude of a romantic condemned to affairs, who dreams of marriage and family, though he knows it will never happen. Few gumshoes, in the final analysis, are so melancholy.

Read an interview with Padura and Viscarret about the show and adaptation in Variety. 


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just returned from a trip to Cuba and chanced upon this show. I am hooked ! Great atmosphere and acting and makes me nostalgic for Havana already. Question : it could not have been filmed on location (Cuban government would surely not permit) so where did they film it ?
- looks very much like La Habana to me.

Janet Rudolph said...

Yes, it was filmed in Havana. Read the interview (there's a link) at the end of the article. Fascinating.

Unknown said...

The series was superb....Conde character was so real..un-Hollywood, and so three dimensional......they captured Havana as it is.....a declining beauty.
I have read that another of Padura's quartet of books , The Havana Quartet, is in development by Starz....with Antonio Banderas playing the detective Conde.....it will have a lot to live up to with Four Seasons in Havana being so riveting to watch!

Anonymous said...

does anyone know the title or artist of the opening song ?

sftry7 said...

I'm in the middle of "Heretics" a book by Padura that features character Mario Conde but is not part of the TV series. The book is excellent and I am looking forward to watching the show.

Anonymous said...

Silvo Rodriguez sings the theme song - SueƱo con serpientes

Unknown said...

I watched this serial in TataSky World series channel. I really liked it somehow become addicted in watching again and again.

Anonymous said...

does anyone know if there is a soundtrack to the series?
Or, if Silvo Rodriguez has released an album featuring the sone 'Sieno con seroientes'?

Anonymous said...

I have been to Cuba 10x. I love the people who I know there. The culture is simple and complex at the same time and seeing so much of what I have experienced was enjoyable. There is so much I love about this series, but I wish it was not pornographic and full of filthy language. I fast forward through the sex scenes but unfortunately, as much as I wish I could, I cannot recommend it to family and friends that I would love to have see the interesting things about Cuba that I have experienced.