DATELINE: CUBA : THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, THEN AND NOW

Ridgemont High, 1982:

Many movies have been made about Cuba, but one movie served up an expression that was meant to be a remembrance of the 1960s and ‘70s. In “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” Jeff Spicolli, a perpetually stoned high school student played by Sean Penn, has a pizza delivered to his history class. The teacher asks him what he’s doing. Spicolli deadpans: “Learning about Cuba and having some food.”

Havana, 1991:

They are showing “Havana” in Havana. Across the street from the hotel, at the movie theater on the corner of 23rd and Vedado, “Old Gringo” has left and Robert Redford is here.

Art imitates life as it once was.

How much of Havana has changed since the late 1950s, when the film, featuring Redford as a gambler, is set? How much will Cubans notice, or long for? The cars are still here and still running, after a fashion. The buildings from 40 years ago have not fallen, only crumbled and cracked.

The vibrant Havana of the movie, the decadent playground for rich gamblers and sophisticated vagabonds, is long gone. The spirit of the city, of its people, is still here, unbroken. There is music and life on the streets at 5 a.m. But the night life is literally in the streets, for Cubans are forbidden from entering the discos and nightclubs reserved for tourists.

What will Cubans see in the movie that they miss? A strong economy, but one based on vice and bootlegging? The island overflowing with tourists, but the kind who are shiftless and cruel? A dictator?

What has changed? Cubans will have a chance to see, through the prism of an American, what they had and, through that, what they have gained.

On nights when the main movie is not playing, and for those who cannot afford to go inside, cartoons are projected on a massive white wall--the side of this hotel. The people are orderly and quiet. Except when they laugh at the nonsense. Usually in the cartoons, some hapless creature is being fooled.

Life mocking art mocking life.