Bantilan, Alexander Jirey

BFA – CNM 3
CNM 3101 – SINEKULTURA 1
Memories of Underdevelopment (1968)
I encourage you to examine Memories of Underdevelopment, directed by Tomas
Gutierrez Alea, one of the finest films of the year chosen by the New York Times in 1974, if you
are willing to assume that Third World Cinema is simple, one-dimensional. Memories of
Underdevelopment is a complicated and sonding film on the difficulty that intellectuals have had
in Cuba after the revolution, based on the novel Inconsolable Memory by Edmundo Desnoës, a
Cuban author who resided in the US. Sergio Corrieri, the protagonist of the narrative, watches
life in post-revolutionary Cuba, where actuality conflicts with his middle-class background and
academic outlook. It's a self-aware film, one that's acutely aware of its surroundings, but in a
subjective way, if that makes sense. Memories of Underdevelopment has a philosophical and
political complexity to it; it is skeptical of both what was going on, namely the Cuban revolution,
and what was going to create it. Not only a historically valuable movie; far from that. It's one of
anybody's biggest movies ever. The balance between the materials included in this project was
superbly lyrical and genuine. 'Hiroshima Mon Amor' and other New Wave masterpieces have a
profound effect on the seminary style, but Alea's personal sensitivity is uniquely "Latin
American Intellectual." The effect of this movie is emotional and should be experienced to be
comprehended. That's enough to say it employs all the capabilities of film and some more, but
discreetly and with the greatest poetry and is a thousand times more precious than most of
today's films of pretense of art.
The director Alea will, of course, like us to witness how the young, virgin Cuba was
raped by the old order of Europe. But if that is the message, why is Sergio freed from the crime?
"Underdevelopment Memories" is a film full of ambiguity. In the film, there is no consistent
signal, simply a blinkered range of historical, revolutionary and violent imagery. In this context,
one person's character shines out with passiveness and conformity to whatever breeze flows.
"Memories of Underdevelopment" is a brief but essential film which portrays a man's life with
no political ideals or position to see the changes in his nation following the socialist revolution.
The script enters images of the historic time as a world scenery, which is completely alienated
from the leading character. Perhaps this is the most important aspect of this film at an age of
political idealism. There are plenty documentary segments all across the movie which don't seem
to be linked to the plot but nevertheless express the feeling that nobody living in revolutionary
Cuba can flee from the influence of history. The first montage portrays a Public Dance apart
from Sergio White, in which all participants are black. An unidentified political leader is killed
in this scenario that continues later in the film. In the other images we find parts from the
counterrevolutionary trial of the Castro and Kennedy during the Cuban Missile crisis at the Giron
Square, the Bay of Pigs site of invasion in the year 1961. Alea often portrays these pictures from
the point of view of Sergio and hence emphasizes his condition as an outcast who neglects the
ability to continue his family in banishment while maintaining the group's pomposity. Therefore,
he remains in a comfortable apartment while still relying on the benefits and exploiting Elena,
similar to the way America had sought to collaborate with.

In addition, Sergio's mental shallowness is revealed by Alea, showing how his Western views
and affections remove him from the genuine Cuban personality as well as how the movie focuses
on Sergio's sub-development as a person as well as as on the situation of the nation following the
Batista dictatorship. Memories show the influence of Alea's neo-realism of the 1950s, the Soviet
montagists' philosophical Marxism and the new-wave cinema boldness. But Alea is also
convinced that film had an obligation to criticize society since it can never be fixed until its
shortcomings were addressed.
The manner of Alea's choices is very intriguing, since she incorporates genuine political
news footages, and even the intimate events of Sergio's life are told and put together in a
documentary style to watch the viewers. Of course, it gives a feeling of reality in the picture, but
I found Sergio not especially engaging or empathic. He sees himself as an intellectual and cares
for Cuba, since he always thinks about politics and issues about Cubans, but he personally is
mainly nonpolitical We spend a lot on his connection with Elena, although she seems to be much
more a toy than somebody who he really cares about. Maybe that's just a picture which
chronicles Cuba's complexity and problems in this turbulent moment, but while this is Sergio's
objective, she doesn't appear to be a best choice for it. This is among the most difficult political
documentaries ever produced. Alea also used a complicated storytelling framework which
resembles the objectivity of Sergio, while also indicating a more objective community of its
neighbors in Havana. Alea is not content to give all sides of the issue. The picture is even more
difficult to pin down stylistically. Gutiérrez Alea mixes documentary and functional methods,
takes urban landscapes that put fictitious personages in actual settings and gives within a guy
who detests what is around him, but is unable to take it away. It is inspired by New Wave. It
combines dramatic episodes which oscillate between the bizarre and the poetic, its spontaneous
sequences that are opposed to filmed and edit images skillfully and, at times, the film is an
uncommon contrast of cinema and drama. Observing Memories of Underdevelopment is a lot
jarrier than anything Bertolucci or Antonioni or perhaps even Godard could confront. Alea
pushes us to focus upon, and our reaction to, what we are looking for, by allowing the gaps
emerge.