Agnés Varda's Salut les Cubains (1963)

Salut les Cubains is Agnès Varda's love letter to revolutionary Cuba four years after the event. It shows the Cubans greatly praising Fidel Castro, and generally living their lives in celebration of the downfall of the dreaded Batista. But this (it is the wonderful Varda after all) is no mindless eulogy: what we have here is a secular hymn to Cuban culture in all its forms – the variety of the music, the literature, the architecture, the continuing ghost of Hemingway, etc. A glorious little film taken at the height of Cuban joy. Michel Piccoli is the voice.