Roberto Miqueli Pérez

Important set designer and special effects director of Cuban cinema.

Miqueli in La Habana, and from his youth he was associated with cinema; he graduated in 1943 from the Academia de San Alejandro, where he studied sculpture and painting.

Miqueli became involved in cinema as an adolescent. At age 14 he began as an assistant to his brother Armando Miqueli, who was set designer for numerous films produced by the firm PECUSA.

But his fate in cinema was sealed from that moment on. In 1953 his name appeared for the first time in the credits of a film as set designer for Angeles de la calle, a Mexican-Cuban co-production by director Agustín P. Delgado. During those years he also designed sets for theatrical groups in La Habana, during the so-called "época de las salitas" that marked a moment of splendor in the Cuban theater scene.

He was the set designer for the most notable titles by Juan Orol, including Sandra La mujer de fuego (1952), La mesera del café del puerto (1954), El farol en la ventana (1955), and Thaimí, la hija del pescador (1958).

Filming with John Huston
His catalog of set design productions during those years also includes La rosa blanca (1953), by Emilio "El Indio" Fernández; Más fuerte que el amor (1953) and El extraño de la escalera (1954), by T. Demicheli; Golpe de suerte (1954), by Miguel Altolaguirre; Una gallega en La Habana (1955), by R. Cardona; Tropicana (1956), by J.J. Ortega; ¡Olé...Cuba! (1957), by M. de la Pedrosa; and Con el deseo en los dedos (1959), by M. Barral, Cuba.

He worked on the filming of the series Aventuras del Capitán Griff for United States television, and participated in the technical teams of American films that were shot on location on the island.

This is how he filmed alongside luminaries of American cinema such as John Huston in Rompiendo las cadenas (1949), Laszlo Benedek (El árbol de la fiebre, 1957), and John Sturges (El viejo y el mar, 1958).

After the founding of ICAIC, he was the set designer and special effects director for, among others, Historias de la Revolución (1960), La muerte de un burócrata (1966) and Una pelea cubana contra los demonios (1972), by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, as well as Lucía (1968) and Cecilia (1981), by Humberto Solás, Los días del agua (1971), by Manuel Octavio Gómez, and El brigadista, by Octavio Cortázar (1977).

Roberto Miqueli also contributed to the training of young set designers and special effects directors.

His filmography as a set designer and creator of imaginative solutions for the stage reaches 150 titles, including landmarks in the history of Cuban cinema during the republic and the period after 1959.

He was director and designer of the Department of Special Effects, and traveled to Mexico, Hungary, Poland, France, and the Soviet Union to receive specialized studies.

During a stay at the Barrandov studios in Czechoslovakia, he studied under the tutelage of Karel Zeman and Jiri Trncka, and collaborated on the production of the comedy Limonada Joe.

At the Cubanacán studios he organized and taught numerous workshops on set design and special effects, contributing to the training of new technicians in his specialty.

Among the films for which he designed sets and created special effects in recent decades are classics such as El otro Cristóbal (Cuba-France, 1963), by Armand Gatti; La muerte de un burócrata (1966) and Una pelea cubana contra los demonios (1972), by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea; El bautizo (1967), by Roberto Fandiño; La ausencia (1968), by Alberto Roldán); Lucía (1968) and Cecilia (1981), by Humberto Solás; and Los días del agua (1971), by Manuel Octavio Gómez.

"Roberto Miqueli was a passionate artist, someone in love with his work and a great person," commented Tony Somoza, assistant film director who worked alongside him. "He would spend hours and hours in his laboratory at the Cubanacán studios inventing sets and special effects with the pride that he was creating something exceptional."

For his notable contribution to national cinematography, he was nominated for the National Film Award in its first edition in 2003.