Valeria C.

Guerrero del Pozo

William G. Simon

Film Form and Film Sense

12 December 2014

Self-criticism and Sexism in Memorias del subdesarrollo

A revolutionary film, Memorias del subdesarrollo [‘Memories of

Underdevelopment’] (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1968) was produced in the late sixties as part of

a series of experimental Cuban films with an aesthetic of fragmentation and decentered

narrative, in opposition to Hollywood mainstream cinema (“Introduction,” Chanan 5).

Indeed, it was not until the triumph of the Revolution when the trajectory of Tomás Gutiérrez

Alea as a filmmaker truly started. He was among the creators of the Instituto Cubano de Arte

e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC), the institution created by the revolutionary

government for the production of films in Cuba. As part of a movement of Cuban filmmakers

and intellectuals, he explored the thematics and languages of the new Cuban cinema (“Tomás

Gutiérrez Alea,” Chanan 17).

Thus, although the film is undeniably aligned with the revolution, it is significant how,

in the midst of its overall positive critical reception, some of the reviewers found it as critical

to Cuba’s revolutionary project1. This interpretation, which the director explicitly denied

(Burton 8), stems mainly from the narrative structure and focalization of this work. Memorias

is focalized through its protagonist, the bourgeois intellectual Sergio, living in the optimistic

climate of the revolutionary Cuba after the defeat of the United States at the Bay of Pigs in

1961. Because of his inability to participate in the transformation process occurring in Cuba,

1In talking about the “misconstructions” of his film, Gutiérrez referenced at least one review written
by Don Alen for Sight and Sound, which took this perspective (Burton 8).
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Sergio ends up devoured by this new world of exciting potentialities. In the director’s choice

of focalizing the film through ‘the enemy’ one can see his intention of doing, not a partisan

exaltation but a self-critical portrait of the revolutionary Cuba.‘Titón’ acknowledges the

contradictions of the revolutionary project and its coexistence with pre-revolutionary values

and morales.

The movie’s self-criticism informs its discourse about sexuality. Memorias aims to

criticize the persistence of repressive sexual moral values in the post-1959 Cuba. Elena, a

woman of the people who has transgressed the traditional moral codes, is the victim of her

repressive environment. However, while criticizing the world of intellectuality in favor of the

popular culture, a sexist mindset is revealed.

The result is a rather complex and contradictory understanding of sexuality. Although

there is at some points an underlying sexist ideology, it is rather difficult to characterize the

film as blatantly ‘sexist’. In fact, the negative portrayal of characters does not seem to be

specifically related to the female gender and not even to the middle class; rather, the larger

aim seems to be to do a general mea culpa in the context of the Revolution.

The main objective of the analysis is to develop a feminist ideological critique

of the sexuality and gender of the film, mainly through the study of the movie’s

characters. However, in order to understand the film’s discourse about sexuality, I will

also use other methods of analysis.

The first part of the essay is devoted to understanding the film’s underlying

sexist ideology. It is centered on the analysis of the protagonist, Sergio. I will briefly

use the concept of the structure of sympathy as understood by Smith, comprised by

three levels of engagement: recognition, alignment and allegiance (Smith 39).

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In the second section, I will analyze the feminist commentary of the film. The

analysis is centered in the character of Elena, but also members of her family. I will

use briefly the theory of melodrama, specifically the notion of text of muteness. In

explaining the elements of this concept, Peter Brooks says, “Gesture in all forms is a

necessary complement and supplement to the word, tableau is a repeated device in the

summary of meaning acted out, and the mute role is the virtuoso emblem of the

possibilities of meaning engendered in the absence of the word” (62).

Throughout this work, I will use the theory of focalization as presented by

Gerard Gennete, which he generally defines as “the second mode of regulating

information, arising from the choice (or not) of a restrictive ‘point of view’” (Genette

185, 186). Internal focalization is defined as “Narrative = Character (the narrator says

only what a given character knows)”; external focalization is “Narrator < Character

(the narrator says less than the character knows” (189). Finally, the concept of

paralipsis will also be used, defined as “giving less information than is necessary in

principle” (195).

In doing an ideological critique of Memorias, one of the challenges stems from the

film’s focalization. Since the movie is mainly narrated through the voiceover of a bourgeois,

the researcher has, at every step, to examine the context in which Sergio’s comments were

made to determine the attitude the movie is taking towards them. Thus, although it may seem

paradoxical, part of the movie’s sexism stems from the fact that there are not particularly

numerous examples of Sergio’s sexism. The ones that exist seem to be there to emphasize his

alienation, not to censure his sexism.

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An essential part in the movie’s criticism towards the protagonist stems from his

characterization as practically a stranger to his social context, unwilling to commit to the

Revolution or any other cause. The Cuban Revolution and its people is a world that Sergio

understands well, but only observes from afar, judgmentally. In this context, some of his

sexist comments seem to be directed at underlining the protagonist’s disparagement of the

Cuban people.

An example is a comment he makes about his ex-wife, Laura. After she has

left Cuba to settle definitely in the United States, Sergio thinks, “She’ll really have to

work there… well, that is, until she finds some dumb guy who’ll marry her. To tell the

truth, she’s still hot.2” This line suggests that the ultimate goal of a woman is marriage

and her place is in the domestic sphere of the house. In this same line there is also a

comment about her looks that objectifies her. When he says “todavía está buena”

(“she’s still hot’), buena in this context literally means ‘good’ in Spanish as opposed

to ‘not rotten’. However, immediately after this, he says, “Will she remember me

when things get bad? The truth is that I’m the one who’s really been stupid. Working

so that she could live like someone who had been born in New York or Paris, and not

on this underdeveloped island…” All the previous comments appear as a prologue to

this highly pejorative statement about the Cuban people.

Apart from the people, Sergio also despises his bourgeois pairs with an equal if not

greater force. He rejects his ex-wife and Pablo, his friend, to the point that, when the latter

leaves, Sergio says, “Was I like him, before? It’s possible. Although it may destroy me, this

revolution is my revenge agains the stupid Cuban bourgeoisie. Against idiots like Pablo.”

2All the dialogues have at first been based on the continuity script as published in Chanan’s book, but
I have made certain precisions in the translation myself.
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In that context appears another misogynist comment, which underlines his alienation

from the group to which he is supposed to belong. While he is at a pool, he compares Cuban

women to rotten fruits: “There is an exquisite moment between thirty and thirty-five when

Cuban women suddenly go from maturity to decay. They are fruits that rot at an amazing

speed.” Although the comment is generalized to all Cuban women, his words are illustrated

with middle-class women in the pool area of a hotel, evidently not a popular environment.

Furthermore, it is preceded by a negative comment directed to humanity in general, this time

illustrated with images of middle-class men.

Further proof that Sergio’s sexist comments are part of a series of resources to

underline his alienation is the emphasis on the hedonistic nature of the character. Sergio’s

selfish and constant look for pleasure accentuates his lack of commitment to any ‘real’ and

significant cause. For that purpose, the descriptions about his sexual experiences or interests

occupy an important part of the film. A flashback informs of his first sexual experiences,

which occurred in a brothel. We learn about an important sexual and emotional relationship

with a German girl called Hanna and, later on, we see his involvement with Elena.

Due to his lack of commitment to any real cause, the seek of pleasure seems to be one

of his only motivations. His daydreams about Noemí are punctuated with shots of himself

caressing a reproduction of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus in the light and pleasant environment of

his apartment. Near the end, he appears doing the same thing, but in a very different context.

The Missile Crisis has unleashed, marking the definite deconstruction of the character. A

complete darkness engulfs his figure. In this context, his action reflects a longing for even the

small sense of purpose that he previously had but has now lost.

Therefore, other sexist comments appear to underline the character’s banality and

alienation in his hedonism. In a zero-focalized shot intercut in the conversation between

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Sergio and Pablo, both of them appear watching lasciviously at women at a pool.

Furthermore, in introducing Noemí, Sergio says, “If she fixed herself up and dressed better,

she would be very attractive. She’s as thin as a Vogue model.” The sexism lies in the

suggestion that women are slaves of their physical appearance, with the obligation of using

makeup and other ‘props’ to attract the opposite sex.

Thus, the sexist comments uttered by Sergio illustrate his alienation from both middle

and popular classes or underline his hedonism as an expression of his lack of commitment. In

fact, not only does the film fail in taking a critical stand towards Sergio’s sexism; at times the

camera even does a ‘focal’ sexism of its own.

One of these instances occurs in a very early documentary shot. Let us remember that

the documentary images in this film are associated with the popular culture and are a way to

counter the bourgeois perspective of Sergio, and so generally are externally focalized. In this

particular case, though, the camera takes the point-of-view of a man. After showing people

walking down the street from an objective perspective, the camera fixes on a woman’s legs.

The camera tilts upwards toward her head, imitating the lascivious look of a man. Noticing

the look upon her, she looks back in anger. She reacts to an intrusive and aggressive look of

desire.

Another example of the camera’s sexism occurs in the sequence in which Pablo and

his wife leave Cuba to settle down definitely in the United States. The camera excludes

Pablo’s wife in the first two scenes of this sequence, despite that her early presence would

have avoided later confusions. In a brief scene that takes place in a taxi going towards the

airport, what little is seen of her, her nose and her hat, is hidden in the shadows in the right

corner of the frame. The next scene continues the conversation between Pablo and Sergio

through what presumably are the hallways of the airport; she is not seen at all. Since she only
 Guerrero del Pozo 7

appears clearly visible when they are saying goodbye through the airport window, it is easy at

first to confuse her for another passerby that is talking to someone who is right next to Sergio.

In this framing choice, she is judged to be unimportant, giving predominance to the male cast,

despite that her earlier presence would have been necessary to understand this final scene

better.

Returning to Sergio’s analysis, before it was mentioned that one of his only

motivations is the search for pleasure. However, to say that his sexuality is explained by a

mere search of physical satisfaction would be an extreme oversimplification. By means of a

contrast with the protagonist of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, the film emphasizes how,

although he is looking for pleasure, he is mainly searching for intellectual satisfaction in his

romantic partners.

As Humbert Humbert—the protagonist of Lolita—, Sergio is also presented as

somewhat perverted due to his preference for younger women. However, while

Humbert considers the early age of his female choices as crucial—he is attracted to

‘nymphets’, girls who must be between the ages of nine and fourteen—Sergio seems

to regard it as preferable, but not essential. Elena is sixteen3 and Noemí also appears

quite young, but he is also attracted to his ex-wife, Laura, and other older women.

Therefore, it seems that in Sergio there is other explanation for his ‘perversion’. Both

Sergio and Humbert’s preferences originate from an early experience with a woman that left a

mark in them, Hannah and Annabel, respectively. Although Hannah was also a teenager when

he met her, he seems to value more her intellectual qualities rather than her age. He de nes

her as “more mature, more of a woman than the underdeveloped girls here,” and at the end of

3 At the beginning of the trial between Elena’s family and Sergio, the bailiff says she is sixteen years
old. However, when the final verdict is read, he says she is seventeen. Several months could have
passed between the hearings, so she would have aged.
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the ashback in which he explains this story he says, “I look for you, I’ll always look for

you.” His disillusionment with Elena stems from her supposed lack of intellectual substance.

After complaining about Elena’s inconsistency, he says, “It is dif cult here [in Cuba] to

produce a woman shaped by sentiments and culture. It’s a bland environment.” Further along

the lm, he says, “I had expected more of her. I thought she was more complex and

interesting,” pointing at how the protagonist looks for substance in women. The fact that this

monologue occurs when the protagonist is picking up a copy of Nabokov’s Lolita refers

directly to the parallelism made with this work.

So, his perversion is the result in part of a frustrated search for intellectual substance

in women. This fact further complicates the lm’s discourse about sexuality. We have

mentioned some examples in which Sergio assumes the voyeuristic look of a ‘macho’ that

observes women as mere objects of desire rather. However, Sergio is not only passively

looking at women. He also sees them as rational beings, capable of emotions as well as of

intelligence. His view that there are no such women in Cuba, more than sexist, reveals a

racial prejudice against Cuban people, since he nds what he is looking for in a foreign

woman, Hannah.

Therefore, to understand the film’s sexism, it is necessary to move beyond the mere

analysis of Sergio and compare his characterization to that of other characters of the film. In

that respect, one of Sergio’s most salient characteristics is his self-awareness. He is

remarkably reflexive; he seems to observe and understand it all around him. He is conscious

of the lack of purpose of his existence.

On the other hand, Elena displays quite an insightful comment at the beginning of the

sequence that bears her name. When Sergio asks her why she wanted to become an actress,

she answered, “Because I’m tired of always being the same. That way I can be someone else
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 Guerrero del Pozo 9

without people thinking I’m crazy. I want to be able to unfold my personality.” However, this

is the last spark of intelligence that we will see in her throughout the film. In fact, she is

characterized as a beautiful yet irreparably dim-witted woman, indifferent to anything of

substance.

The general lack of self-awareness is hardly exclusive of Elena. In fact, the movie in its

beginning creates a qualified sympathetic alignment with Sergio by contrasting him with the

shallow and materialistic Pablo. When he says that all he has done is to work as an animal,

the movie shows him relaxing by the pool. The film presents a similarly negative portrait of

Laura. In the recording Sergio made of her she uses English words unnecessarily, even

though the general dialogue is produced in Spanish. Later on, we see her saying among silly

giggles that French people smell bad. Thus, the lack of self-awareness and intelligence is not

associated directly to femininity.

However, as we will see, women are speci cally excluded from the intellectual world.

Intellectuality is presented as a path towards cultural alienation if it is not accompanied by a

necessary compromise and contact with reality. Indeed, part of the reasons why Sergio is

alienated from his milieu is because of a false sense of superiority stemming from his contact

with high culture. In fact, Sergio’s comment against one of the speakers of the round table

alerts precisely of this danger: “And what are you doing up there with that cigar? You must

feel pretty important because there’s not much competition here. Outside Cuba, you’d be a

nobody… But here, you’re well placed.”4

While desacralizing the intellectual world, Memorias praises popular knowledge. That

is evident in Elena’s comment against Ernest Hemingway. After a tour around the house, she

4 Additionally,this is perhaps the most clear example of self-criticism, since the authors launch a critic
directly upon themselves. The attacked intellectual of the round table is Edmundo Desnoes, author of
the novel which inspired the movie. He worked closely with Gutiérrez Alea in the development of the
script.
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 Guerrero del Pozo 10

says, “Is this where Mr. Way used to live? I don’t see anything so special. Books and dead

animals. Just like the American house in Preston. The same furniture and the same American

smell.” This comment emphasizes the honesty and purity of the people who, without

prejudices or complexes, reveal truths in their simplicity.

Beyond the treatment of intellectual knowledge in the movie, the underlying sexist

ideology lies in that this world, for the better or the worse, is of exclusive male domain. The

realm of the intellectual is presented as unnatural to women. When Sergio actually forces

Elena into intellectual spaces, it seems like, much like water and oil, they can coexist but

never mix. This is evident in a scene that takes place in Ernest Hemingway’s house, when

Elena is not paying much attention to the guide’s explanation. However, it is especially

noticeable when she appears in the library biting her nails and in the museum arranging

Sergio’s tie while he is trying to explain a work of art to her. Commenting on the last scene,

the voiceover mentions, “She has another world in her head, very different from mine,”

reinforcing the idea of the incompatibility between femininity and intellectuality.

The fact that Sergio also tried unsuccessfully to “change” Laura—in the sense of

“educate” her—, as he mentions in one of his monologues, confirms that this is a trait not

exclusive of Elena but characteristic of the female gender in general. In that respect, it is

significant the lack of female intellectuals in the round table. In fact, even the person who

asks the question from the public is a man, Jack Gelber: women in that scene are only passive

spectators. When a woman appears in a library, Sergio’s comment sexualizes her, “Here

women look straight into your eyes as if they want to be touched by your look.”

To complicate the panorama even more, Memorias also attempts to criticize traditional

sexual morality that repress women to the point of emotional instability. This criticism is
 Guerrero del Pozo 11

sustained in the movie’s intension to acknowledge the coexistence of reactionary values in

the revolutionary Cuba. With the inclusion in the movie of the shots censored by the

Commission of Censorship of Batista’s government, an association is created between

traditional sexual norms and the Cuban dictator. Several copies of the same shots, portraying

sexual encounters, are played one after the other so that they loose their erotic component.

“The intension of this scene was not just to have fun. Rather, there was an ethical point of

view that I considered important: the fact that Batista’s government wanted to give an image

of morality when they murdered openly in the streets. This contradiction highlights the

hypocrisy hidden behind these straight-laced attitudes towards the problem of sex.” (Fundación

del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano)

To develop this criticism, the movie condemns these oppressive sexual norms against

women through the characterization of Elena as the victim of her oppressive milieu. The

particular way in which she is characterized is one of the first signs of the intentionality of

this condemnation. Since the beginning of the ‘Elena’ sequence up until 20 minutes later

there is a paralipsis. Rather than being narrated exclusively from Sergio’s point of view, these

scenes are externally focalized. This is significant since, as has been mentioned before, the

movie associates external focalization with the filmmaker’s perspective.

A narrative consequence of this choice is the manipulation of the viewer’s expectations.

Rather than receiving an explanation of the events from Sergio’s perspective, the spectator is

presented with a series of signs which she has to interpret. At first, several clues that point at

the fact that Elena is somewhat mentally disturbed. Briefly after meeting Sergio she says that

she is getting shots for her nerves. She declares a somewhat schizophrenic need to alter her

personality. When he asks her why she wants to be an actress, she answers, “Because I’m

tired of always being the same. That way I can be someone else without people thinking I’m
 Guerrero del Pozo 12

crazy. I want to be able to unfold my personality.” Following this declaration, her moods

seem to change fast and radically. Her intention to work as an actress seems to be more of a

crazy illusion than a reality, since she has had no training or experience. Besides, she doesn’t

seem to attend school, given that she is never in uniform and is looking for job.

At this point, one could say the psychological conflict between her ego and her

superego is represented perhaps in an overdone fashion, as a visible ‘battle’, based on the

misogynistic idea of the overly emotional and mercurial nature of women. Before she has sex

with Sergio, in over two minutes she goes through a wide range of emotions. First she is

slightly pleased at Sergio’s comments about her appearance; she is mildly aroused and kisses

him, only to be almost immediately afterwards somewhat scared of Sergio’s advances. She is

crying when he touches her, but her touch aroused her. They kiss but she goes back to being

scared when he tries to undress her, then she rejects him playfully; finally, she mildly resists

him only to end in a strong and passionate embrace.

But, the same time, the movie also suggests that her quasi-schizophrenic mood swings

are the result of the strictures of a moralistic society. Indeed, before the bedroom scene she

appears to want to go up to his apartment, but she is scared of what the neighbors might

think. After the sexual act, she appears unconsolable in her sorrow and exclaims

melodramatically, “You’ve ruined me!,” leading us to believe that her tears and fears were a

response to the guilt she felt from her sexual acts.

It is not until the trial scenes where the enigma over whether she is or is not insane is

finally solved. When Elena’s family find out about her relationship with Sergio, they want to

force him into marrying her. Since Sergio refuses to do so, they accuse him of rape with the

argument that she is “mentally disturbed and therefore incapable of resisting.” However, the

court rules in favor of Sergio, determining that Elena is mentally capable. This outcome
 Guerrero del Pozo 13

establishes her repressive milieu as the responsible of her instability. If the tribunal had

determined that she were crazy, it would have eased the responsibility of the pre-

revolutionary environment she grew up in, given that there are always physiological as well

as environmental factors to insanity. In the trial’s decision to place her as mentally capable,

the instability suggested in the movie is, then, merely sociological. Thus, in a way, the film

parts on stereotypes related to women’s ‘fickle nature’ to later deconstruct them.

The patriarchal and repressive authority that represses her is embodied

principally in Elena’s brother. He is as an aggressive brute who recurs to violence

instead of arguing with reasonable arguments. He throws the dresses at Sergio in his

apartment. Later on, in a scene that takes place in a restaurant, Elena is talking with

Sergio and her brother. When Sergio tells her that she was not a virgin before they had

sex, the brother pounds the table with his fist—even though Sergio is quite calm—and

exclaims, “My sister is no whore!” He has an authoritarian attitude towards Elena and

the rest of his family. At the restaurant, he orders Elena to repeat to Sergio what she

had told her mom; in the scene that occurs outside this place, he is really aggressive

with his father and, without any reason, also with his mother.

However, this apparent feminist denunciation lacks consistency. The function of

certain narrative and stylistic signs seems to be to criticize the family, specially the

mother, for their puritan beliefs. Nevertheless, at the same time the movie appears to

present the mother in a positive light, as another of the brother’s victims.

Although it is most likely that the family found out about the relationship

between Elena and Sergio after it was over, some of the mother’s lines suggest that

she found out since the beginning. She says that she discovered her relationship after

she found blood in her underpants and saw bruises in her body; she must have seen
 Guerrero del Pozo 14

this the day in which she had sex with Sergio. If she had indeed seen these signs at

that time, she would have acted immediately, but she did not. Depending on how we

interpret these events, the mother could be represented as either a victim, a liar or

both.

Therefore, on the one hand, it is possible that she had remained silent, probably

for fear of the reactions of both her husband and son. However, it is unlikely for her to

have seen any significant bruising in Elena’s body, since her sexual encounters with

Sergio were consented, which suggests that at least in part her statements are false.

Besides, the virginity of Elena before her sexual encounters is not definite. Sergio is

convinced that she was not a virgin—he says so explicitly in his voiceover—and, as

we will discuss later, even herself at one point seems to acknowledge that this is true.

We are left with several unanswered questions. Are these statements just mere plot

inconsistencies? Or were they consciously inserted in the movie to undermine the

mother’s reliability?

Another sign of the negative characterization of the mother is that she is

surrounded by melodrama, incompatible with the film’s overall aesthetics and

ideological standing. Her performance is overdone and stylistic, unlike Sergio’s and

Elena’s performances. Also, she is the protagonist of a highly melodramatic fragment.

On her way out of the court room, the mother exclaims, “The bastard! He has nerve!”

and attacks Sergio with her handbag. The clerk manages to get ahold of her but she

keeps trying to break free from him to attack Sergio, screaming hysterically until she

arrives to the door. It is not specifically an instance of a text of muteness, since it has

some dialogue. However, in this moment her gestures, postures and physical
 Guerrero del Pozo 15

movements are the predominant vehicles to express her emotions—her exasperation

for the lost honor of her daughter—over language.

A similar instance of melodrama could point at the film’s intention to criticize

the whole family for their prurient beliefs. The melodramatic fragment occurs in the

final part of the scene in which the family gathers to force Sergio into marrying Elena

outside a restaurant. Towards the end of this scene, the dialogue becomes more

confusing and the importance lays on the physical actions of the characters. Both

father and mother try to attack Sergio, expressing their frustration and indignation

over the events. The brother holds back the father and, in his manner, we can see his

authoritativeness. After a cut to Sergio, the camera returns to a somewhat hysteric and

crying Elena being comforted by her mother, next to her brother, who is trying to hold

back both his father and mother, although the latter is not trying to attack Sergio.

Everyone is screaming and the dialogues are not clearly discernible. As a whole, this

fragment speaks of the class differences between Sergio and the family.

Additionally, there are several inconsistencies related directly to Elena. The outcome of

the trial does not fully explain why she is receiving her shots for the nerves. She herself does

not seem to be sure of her virginity. Her reactions during and after her first sex encounter

with Sergio—with they way she had her doubts and her later repentance, saying to Sergio that

he ruined her—clearly suggest that it was her first time. However, her reactions in the

restaurant scene suggest otherwise. Sergio tells her, “Besides, you’re not a virgin,” (Gutiérrez

86) and in response she lowers her head, which seems a sign of silent acknowledgment.

Memorias is a film about transitions; in the process of developing this subject, it

unintentionally reveals the changing attitudes towards sex of the times in which it was
 Guerrero del Pozo 16

produced. The movie stands as an attempt to criticize the traditional sexual paradigms

oppressing women. However, the result is not consistent, revealing that some of those ideas

about women themselves still pervade. In that respect, the realm of the intellectual is

consigned only to men, disparaging any intellectual activity in women.

As such, it is not possible to characterize this film as either ‘sexist’ or

‘progressive’. Although the characterization of certain characters reveals several

sexist assumptions, there is not a consistently negative representation of women

throughout the film. If Laura is shallow and materialistic, so is Pablo; if Elena’s

brother is characterized negatively, so is—at least in part—her mother. What is

prevalent, then, in the film, is a sense of self-criticism; a recognition that, regardless

of the class or gender, the post-revolutionary Cuba had still many challenges to face.
 Guerrero del Pozo 17

Works Cited

Brooks, Peter. The Melodramatic Imagination : Balzac, Henry James, Melodrama, and the

Mode of Excess. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976. Google Books. Web.

Burton, J. "'Individual Fulfillment and Collective Achievement' - an Interview with Tomas

Gutierrez Alea." Cineaste III.1 (1977): 8,15,59. Print.

Chanan, Michael. “Introduction.” Ed. Michel Chanan. Memories of Underdevelopment. New

Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1990. Print.

Chanan, Michael. “Tomás Gutiérrez Alea: A Biographical Sketch.” Ed. Michel Chanan.

Memories of Underdevelopment. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press,

1990. Print.

Fundación del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano. “A 40 años de Memorias del subdesarrollo.”

Portal del cine y el audiovisual latinoamericano y caribeño. Fundación del Nuevo

Cine Latinoamericano, 2014. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.

Genette, Gérard. Narrative Discourse : An Essay in Method. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University

Press, 1980. Print.

Gutiérrez Alea, Tomás. “Continuity Script.” Ed. Michel Chanan. Memories of

Underdevelopment. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1990. Print.

Smith, Murray. "Altered States: Character and Emotional Response in the Cinema." Cinema

Journal.4 (1994). Web.