Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32879 in VHS
• Released on: 1999-12-14
• Formats: Black & White, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Running time: 97 minutes

Amazon.com
While his family fled to America in the wake of the revolution, Cuban intellectual Sergio has stayed behind--more due to passivity than political commitment. Unable to imagine himself a part of the new landscape, his days are spent killing time: gazing out his balcony telescope; taking lazy, aimless walks down neighborhood streets lined with both shady trees and his own clamorous memories; smoking in bed. All the while his head teems with thoughts of Cuba's cultural inferiority to Europe, self-pitying diatribes, and erotic reveries. Disgusted by his own diffidence, Sergio can't even see the irony when his scathing assessment of the teenage actress manqué he picks up on the street works equally well to describe himself. No less than the "underdeveloped" Erica, he has become alienated, filled with "the inability to relate to things, to accumulate experience, to develop." Probably because his film's central figure is so inactive, director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea constructed his 1968 masterpiece out of a riot of influences and styles, throwing seemingly everything he could think of into the pot. There are minidocumentaries on the cruelties of Batista forces, stream-of-consciousness flashbacks and flash-forwards, delicate little photomontages, newspaper headlines, visits to Hemingway's home, even a philological debate attended by Sergio. The last does get a little tiresome; but other than the one misstep, Memories of Underdevelopment is such a vivid, consistently fresh and surprising film--intellectually and sensually vibrant from start to finish--that it's little wonder its belated foreign release single-handedly put Cuban cinema on the map. --Bruce Reid

Customer Reviews

Tommorow Never Knows
This isn't just a film of historical value; far from it. It is one of the greatest films ever made by anyone. The balance of elements that went into this venture came out magnificently poetic and real. The semi-documentary style is deeply influenced by "Hiroshima Mon Amour" and other New Wave classics, but the sensibility is Alea's own and distinctly 'Latin American Intellectual.'

There are very few films that can make me cry, this is one of them. The hot tears begin their descent, not because of the story itself, but the simple and beautifully subtle way it is expressed.

The leading character's central tragedy of not being able to reconcile his own deep feeling for his people with his intellectual standards because of their 'underdevelopment' and subsequent alienated existence, or more precisely, their inability to transcend their alienation to reach a more fulfilled state, is one of the most touching and relevant themes I've ever seen in a film.

A great performance by Sergio Corrieri(I Am Cuba) provides the required erotic undertone and comedic rhythms to convey the true feel of an intellectual 'playboy' existence in early '60s Cuba. The effect of this film is visceral and must be seen to be appreciated, words can hardly describe it. Suffice it to suffice that it uses all the resources of cinema and then some. Not the least of the resources on parade is the fantastic, understated score by Leo Beower which perfectly captures the film's bittersweet mood. WATCH IT TODAY because as those wise-aleck, overrated mopheads once sang: "Tommorow Never Knows"

The crude significance of underdevelopment!

Everything remains without any change. The real essence of the underdevelopment is precisely the incapability of growing up, transformation and even more to innovate.

The real is may well identified thanks its own strength and its effectiveness, by its fast ability to react and act. The real is inimitable, the false is unchanging.

This film reveals so much more than you can really expect. It' s a work which works out at several levels. Through the personal portrait of an outlaw Cuban, without financial problems, decides to stay in the early sixties to watch what it happens. In fact he becomes in a real sociological peeping tom and somehow he doesn't seem to realize the immense spider web that slowly goes involving him. Bitter and sharp reflections through a voice in off will be accompanied by an unscrupulous and valiant camera that will show you the faces, the surroundings and the quotidian behavior of a inexpressive faces as sinister ghosts who just walk without dreams.

Watch this movie. It is a historical document and a powerful statement. It useless to affirm this is the masterpiece of Tomas Gutierrez Alea, the same director of Strawberry and chocolat.

Post-revolutionary Cuba 1960's
According to most "critics" this is one of the best movies ever. Pretty strong statement but not without some validity. An excellent movie to watch in terms of techniques used to get a point across. I enjoyed it but felt like I was sitting in one of my old communication film classes. When it was over I thought a prof might materialize and say " what do you think Tomas Gutierrez Alea was trying to say when Sergio......?" The thing about this movie is that there is so much going on, constantly flowing, never stoping, the drums are beating to a frenzy as the images are flashed before your eyes, it can be a bit much. Part propaganda piece, part romance, intellectual stimuli, a little of this and little of that made for a smorgasborg of cinema. While going through the cinema buffet the viewer is treated to glimpses of authentic historical footage. For starters the hungary film viewer may feast there eyes on fleeing family memebers after the Revolution, followed by the playboy of Havana in search of a young pidgeon. Moving along the cinema buffet line, the viewer will find romance, distraught lovers, rekindled affairs of the heart, and the consequences of societies handling of affairs between a young, naive girl and her seducer. Since there is always more than on can eat at a buffet, you might get tired and need a little nap before resuming your cinema course. There are no times for naps but Cuban music and dancing will be provided for your entertainment. Resuming your place in the film buffet don't miss the fast and furious view of Cuba without Batista. Be sure to treat yourself to the footage of the bay of pigs fiasco, a tour of Hemmingways home, complete with narration and original footage of Hemmingway hunting and later decorating his retreat home with his worldly prizes from his adventures. Feeling a little stuffed by now? Don't forget that included is a young Fidel the orator, making his anti- Yankee(not beisbol) speeches and for dessert President Kenedy speaking on the Cuban missle crisis. Exhausted or full yet? Well you will be after seeing this stream of consciousness movie. The characters are incidental vehicles of expression for this black and white picture of post revolutionary Cuba. This is what the world was allowed to see as represenative of Cuban film. Some will like it, others not. I imagine if you're living in Miami now you'll hate it. A stimulating movie that raises many questions, that depending on your viewpoint, creates many different answers. A must see for those interested in US-Cuban relations, or best said, those interested in knowing why we don't have relations. Every young, aspiring film maker should probably see this movie to learn something about film making.