One of two main reasons why Memorias del subdesarrollo is so admired, is the still valid assertion it makes, regarding Cuba (and Latin America and perhaps the so-called Third World): "Everything here remains the same", utters Sergio, its protagonist, as he watches La Habana through a telescope. The phrase still rings today in every corner, after convulse decades in which the promises of new societies vanished. Sergio lives in the margin of the dynamic ambiance supplied by Cuban revolution in the 1960s. His position as observer allows him to listen to phrases which are yet commonplace: "The Americans know very well how to make things work", says his friend Pablo, adding "I'm leaving this country" because "I am not like them" (the people). The definition of underdevelopment, according to Sergio, is inspired by the attitudes of Pablo or young Elena, a girl he has an erotic liaison with, after his wife leaves the country. Pablo is the rootless and boastful "cretin" who thinks he will be "improved" in a different décor. Elena, according to Sergio, is a walking inconstancy: inconsequent, pure alteration and unable to "sustain a feeling or an idea without dispersion". And he adds: "That is one of the signs of underdevelopment: the incapacity to relate things, to accumulate experience, and evolve". The audience has the advantage of watching that neither any thing accumulates in this frustrated writer and ex owner of a furniture store and a building of apartments, who decided to stay to watch the effects of revolution, but who does not understand anything. Minimized by his surroundings (illustrated in an eloquent shot in the levee of La Habana, while he walks with huge waves behind him breaking against the wall),when the missile crisis suddenly explodes in October 1962, Sergio clings to his ghosts, in a montage of his living interiors counterpointed by images of the Cuban people getting ready to confront another invasion. In this sense Memorias del subdesarrollo is also a film of spaces, open and closed, that evoke fragments of time that only exist in Sergio's memory: the house of a rich childhood friend; a whore house, the school of Hannah, his first love; Ernest Hemingway's house, the department store El Encanto, his own apartment. The other main reason why "Memorias del subdesarrollo" is so admired and still relevant half a century after its release, is its condition as one of the best examples of the cultural and political discourses of its decade and, in particular, of 1968, a year of confrontations and ruptures. As other peaks of world cinema released that year, the film is a model of the confluence of the aesthetic and ideological vanguards of its time. It illustrates the characteristic post-modern appropriation of several sources to elaborate a discourse: elements of fiction taken from a novel mixed with documentary resources; melodrama placed besides direct cinema; posters and newspaper headlines that gives us the time frame and serve as ironic commentaries; photos of Sergio's life; engravings of Black slavery, faces of kids illustrating some kind of report about children's death rate in Latin America, a tour to Hemingway's house, a montage about the prisoners of the Playa Girón invasion. Audiovisual elements as a speech by Fidel Castro coexist with resources directly created for the film, as his taping of his wife's protests during a marital quarrel. The result is awesome, an intense search of cinematic expression that owes a lot to film editor Nelson Rodríguez. Although Alea had already made several films of merit, his fifth feature is a milestone in the evolution of Cuban film industry, of Latin American cinema and world vanguard drama. "Memorias del subdesarrollo" deserves very well its high place in critical appreciation and, even though it endorses transformations, change and the no-permanency of certain creeds and ways of seeing the world, the reasons that give it enduring merit remain as reference and legacy for future filmmakers from all over the world.

This was a film that was listed in the book of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and I will first confess that I dozed off in quite a lot of this Cuban film, but to be honest, I was fine as I didn't know what was going on at all. Basically, from what I gathered, Sergio Carmona Mendoyo (Sergio Corrieri) is a middle class but wealthy aspiring writer who has had his wife and friends flee from Cuba, but he is staying put, and as time goes by he sees the country change through the Revolution and the missile crisis. He sees the effects of living in a country full of underdevelopment, he has relationships with various women, including girlfriends Elena (Daisy Granados) and Hanna, and he has to stand alienation from social changes. Also starring Eslinda Núñez as Noemi, Omar Valdés as Pablo and René De La Cruz as Elena's brother. I think the reason I probably didn't understand the point of view story was because the editing was made to resemble a person's conceptual memories, fragmented and highly subjective. I will say that if that is the case with the editing, it certainly worked to this level, I can't personally agree with the four stars out of five that the critics give it, this is due to my confusion as to what was happening, and because I do not follow all political things and world events, unless of course I have heard of them, but anyway, from what I did pay attention to it was an okay political drama. Worth watching, in my opinion!

In 1961, in Cuba, the apolitical aspiring and frustrated writer Sergio Carmona Mendoyo (Sergio Corrieri) stays in Cuba after the Revolution. He sees his wife Carla and his family and friends traveling to the United States but he decides to stay in his country. Sergio receives rental from his apartments and lives alone in a comfortable apartment. He witnesses the reduction of supplies, such as gas and oil for the cars, while recalls parts of his life.

He recalls when he was a teenager and went to a brothel with his friend Pablo (Omar Valdés). He remembers his relationship with Hanna that was the woman that he really loved but let her go to New York without marrying her to run the furniture shop that his father had given to him. He also like to listen to the tape he has recorded with his wife Carla that was molded by him to fit his concept of perfect woman in his society. When Sergio meets the sixteen year-old aspirant actress Elena (Daisy Granados),he has a love affair with her but he concludes that she is not suitable to live with him since she does not grow or develop intellectually.

"Memorias del subdesarrollo", a.k.a. "Memories of Underdevelopment", is a dated but important movie that shows the life of a man without political idealism or position witnessing the changes in his country after a socialist revolution. The screenplay entwines footages of the historical moment as a landscape of the world that the lead character is living in complete alienation. Maybe this is the greatest importance of this movie made in a period when people had political idealism. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Memórias do Subdesenvolvimento" ("Memories of the Underdevelopment")