Memories of Underdevelopment
| Memories of Underdevelopment | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Tomás Gutiérrez Alea |
| Written by | Edmundo Desnoes Tomás Gutiérrez Alea |
| Based on | Inconsolable Memories 1965 novel by Edmundo Desnoes |
| Produced by | Miguel Mendoza |
| Starring | Sergio Corrieri Daisy Granados |
| Cinematography | Ramón F. Suárez |
| Edited by | Nelson Rodríguez |
| Music by | Leo Brouwer |
| Distributed by | ICAIC |
Release date |
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Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | Cuba |
| Language | Spanish |
Memories of Underdevelopment (Spanish: Memorias del Subdesarrollo) is a 1968 Cuban drama film directed and co-written by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. The story is based on a novel by Edmundo Desnoes entitled Inconsolable Memories (Memorias del Subdesarrollo). It was Gutiérrez Alea's fifth film, and probably his most famous worldwide.
The film gathered several awards at international film festivals. It was elected the 144th best film of all time in the
Plot
Sergio, a wealthy bourgeois aspiring writer, decides to stay in Cuba even though his wife and friends flee to Miami. Sergio looks back over the changes in Cuba, from the Cuban Revolution to the missile crisis, the effect of living in what he calls an underdeveloped country, and his relations with his girlfriends Elena and Hanna. Memories of Underdevelopment is a complex character study of alienation during the turmoil of social changes. The film is told in a highly subjective point of view through a fragmented narrative that resembles the way memories function. Throughout the film, Sergio narrates the action, and at times is used as a tool to present bits of political information about the climate in Cuba at the time. In several instances, real-life documentary footage of protests and political events is incorporated into the film and played over Sergio's narration to expose the audience to the reality of the Revolution. The timeframe of the film is somewhat ambiguous, but it appears to take place over a few months.
Cast
- Sergio Corrieri as Sergio Carmona Mendoyo, a bourgeois intellectual
- Daisy Granados as Elena, a teenaged girl fond of boleros
- Eslinda Nunez as Noemi
- Omar Valdés as Pablo
- René de la Cruz as Elena's brother
- Yolanda Farr as Laura
- Ofelia González as Hanna
- Edmundo Desnoes as himself / panelist
- René Depestre as himself / panelist
- Gianni Toti as himself / panelist
- David Viñas as himself / panelist
- Jack Gelber as himself
Production details
Before the film's release, both the director, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, and the main actor, Sergio Corrieri, were concerned that the film wouldn't be successful.[3] The film was largely inexpensive to produce, as it was made without many technological or economic resources,[3] and as a result Gutiérrez Alea feared that his vision wouldn’t translate to the screen.
Another concern of Gutiérrez Alea's was that Corrieri would seem too young for his part. At the time of shooting in 1968 Corrieri was 28, yet the character was intended to be 38. Gutiérrez Alea and Corrieri worked together to capture the "different rhythm" that Corrieri needed to take on to play the part of someone 10 years his senior in a number of ways, including by dyeing Corrieri's hair grey.[3]
Hanna, Sergio's long-lost love in the film, was intended to be a much larger character, but the actress that ended up being cast was not a professional, so the character's role was reduced.[3]
Because of the political turmoil between the US and Cuba at the time, the US government denied Gutiérrez Alea a visitor's visa in 1970 when he attempted to enter the US to receive several awards he had won for Memories of Underdevelopment, using the Trading with the Enemy Act as justification.[1] Sergio's apartment in the film was a penthouse in the FOCSA Building.[4]
Adaptation from novel to film
The film adaptation has generally been regarded as an improvement on the novel. In an interview in 1999, Sergio Corrieri was quoted stating, “I think that Memories is one of the few cases in which the film is better than the novel, because usually the opposite is the case. Almost always the cinematic version of a novel comes up short, but here the film transcended the novel.”
The film was poorly received by some critics because Sergio was an unconventional protagonist. The author of the novel, Edmundo Desnoes, writes of Sergio in Cine Cubano, “that is the tragedy of Sergio. His irony, his intelligence, is a defense mechanism which prevents him from being involved in the reality.” [6]
Reception
Widely acclaimed as one of the best films of its nation and of its era in terms of bringing together art and politics, and described by John King as 'the most interesting exploration of the problem in any cultural medium'.
The film was selected for screening as part of the Cannes Classics section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.[9]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e Cinéaste, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Summer 1977), pp. 16-21, 58
- ^ "MEMORIAS DEL SUBDESARROLLO". BFI. Archived from the original on 2019-06-05. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
- ^ a b c d Cineaste 35.2 (Spring 2010): 18-25
- ^ Falcon, Olga. Chapter IV, Page 301, Illustration 45 "Urban Utopias in Havana's Representations. An Interdisciplinary Analysis", Middlesex University, London, September 11, 20118
- ^ Cinéaste, Vol. 25, No. 1 (1999), pp. 20-23
- ^ Film Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Winter, 1975-1976), pp. 45-52
- ISSN 0261-3050.
- ^ a b Cinéaste 8.1 (Jan 1, 1977)
- ^ "Cannes Classics 2016". Cannes Film Festival. 20 April 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
External links
- Memories of Underdevelopment at IMDb
- Memories of Underdevelopment at AllMovie
- Memories of Underdevelopment at the TCM Movie Database
- Memories of Underdevelopment at Rotten Tomatoes
- Derek Malcolm of the Guardian places "Memorias del Subdesarrollo" at number 54 in his 100 greatest movies
- Memories of Underdevelopment: Imaging History an essay by Criterion Collection
