Memorias del subdesarrollo (1968)

Director:

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea

Writers:

Edmundo Desnoes (novel)
Edmundo Desnoes (screenplay)

Release Date:

17 May 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Sergio, a wealthy bourgeois aspiring writer, decides to stay in Cuba even though his wife and friends flee to Miami...

Plot Keywords:

Cuban Missile Crisis | Fidel Castro | Cuba | Havana Cuba | Based On Novel

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Sergio Corrieri	...	Sergio Carmona Mendoyo
Daisy Granados	...	Elena
Eslinda Núñez	...	Noemi
Omar Valdés	...	Pablo
René de la Cruz	...	Elena's brother
Yolanda Farr
Ofelia González
Jose Gil Abad
Daniel Jordan
Luis López
Rafael Sosa
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Eduardo Casado Revuelta
René Depestre	...	Himself / Panelist
Edmundo Desnoes	...	Himself
Pello el Afrokán
Jack Gelber	...	Himself
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea	...	Himself
Gilda Hernández
Fausto Pinelo
Beatriz Ponchova
Gianni Toti	...	Himself / Panelist
Julio Vega
René Villarreal
David Viñas	...	Himself / Panelist

Also Known As:

Historias del subdesarrollo
Inconsolable Memories
Memories of Underdevelopment (USA)
Erinnerung an die Unterentwicklung (West Germany) (TV title) [de]
Memórias do Subdesenvolvimento (Brazil) [pt]
Memorie del sottosviluppo (Italy) [it]
Muistoja alikehityksen ajoilta (Finland) [fi]
Wspomnienia (Poland) [pl]

Runtime:

97 min | West Germany:90 min (TV)

Country:

Cuba

Language:

Spanish | English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Brazil:18 | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Havana, Cuba

Company:

Cuban State Film

Trivia:

Director Cameo: [Tomás Gutiérrez Alea]the director that Sergio is talking to at the ICIAC about the college film

Movie Connections:

Followed by Memorias del desarrollo (2009)

A classic from a very troubled year

Sergio, a bourgeois intellectual living off of (seemingly tenuous) rental income as a property holder, decides to stay in Cuba. The conflict set up between his intellectual convictions and the reality of Cuban life in the wake of the revolution makes up the central problem of the film. The film presents a year in the life of the protagonist, a year culminating in the missile crises of 1962. What makes the film is the candid nature of it's reflections on the role of the intellectual in political life - certainly THE hot topic during the summer of 1968. The film is also a stylistic tour de force, welding together neorealistic drama, newsreel footage, montages of life in contemporary Havana as seen from Sergio's flat (through a telescope), and some filmed Shavian-styled debates amid the action. Far from being a typical propaganda piece, the films treatment of the future of the revolution was very open ended, candid, and thoughtful. It's a film that emerges from the debates about the future and which stages it's own participation in that debate. The film features two significant cameos: Edmundo Desnoes - the author of the novel on which the film is based, and Gutierez Alea himself. Both cameos occur in diegetic reflections about art: a debate about literature in the case of Desnoes, and a talk with a young director in the case of Alea. This film is almost impossible to find in the US thanks to the Cuban expatriate zealot nonsense. It's available in Mexico though - on a fairly well mastered DVD. It's worth seeking out. It's one of the best Cuban films ever and one of the greatest films of the new wave era.