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:

Cuba | Cuban Missile Crisis | New Latin American Cinema | Fidel Castro | Havana Cuba

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

  (Complete credited 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]
Mnimes ypanaptyxis (Greece) [el]
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:

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

Filming Locations:

Havana, Cuba

Company:

Cuban State Film

Trivia:

Alea was heavily influenced in his style by Alain Resnais' _Hiroshima Mon Amour_.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Memorias del desarrollo (2010)

An excellent, telling perspective of post-revolutionary Cuba

In this excellent perspective of post-revolutionary Cuba, we see how Sergio has decided to ignore the changes in the world around him even after his parents and wife leave for Miami. Instead he stays in his home and lives off past rent money while focusing on women who attract him and the way the world seems not to have actually changed as he looks out his window with a small telescope. "All of a sudden," he claims,"it looks like a set, a city of card board." The movie is interesting and telling of this world and one man's desire to avoid it. Sergio visits the home of Hemmingway in Cuba and comments on his reasons for living there. The movie ends with an outside view of Cuba by President Kennedy's warnings to the new communist state.

The movie is quick-paced and packed with information, as well as interesting and enjoyable.