Product Details

• Actors: Jose Gil Abad, Eduardo Casado Revuelta, Sergio Corrieri, René Depestre, Yolanda Farr
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Language: English, Spanish
• Studio: New Yorker Films
• VHS Release Date: December 14, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000005F9Z
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #211,232 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tommorow Never Knows, October 4, 2000

By 

TUCO H. "H. TUCO" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Memories of Underdevelopment [VHS] (VHS Tape)

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"

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sergio is a little cynical but maybe he is realistic also, March 18, 2009

By 

Richard J. Brzostek (New England, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Memories of Underdevelopment (DVD)

Memories of Under Development is a movie about a man named Sergio who is recently divorced. It tells us his story but also the story of his country Cuba. It goes back and forth between these two, illuminating us on the story of how the people he knows in Cuba are "underdeveloped" and how the country itself, made up of such people, is in a way "underdeveloped" too. Even with that said it isn't a harsh critic of people but more of a mild one and perhaps a bit of self-criticism as well.

Sergio thinks most of the people he knows are underdeveloped. His ex-wife and parents have left Cuba to go to the United States, and he doesn't mind, in fact he nearly pities them and this movie shows us why. He is artistic and thinks of himself as Europeanized, thus more advanced than others on some level but he doesn't gloat about it or show off. Sergio is a little cynical but maybe he is realistic also. Best if all, at times he is very funny.

The film mixes video footage and still photography that tells us about Cuba and life there. It sheds light on how the country was influenced by Spain, the United States and the Soviet Union. One has to also give it some credit as the film doesn't create an entirely a rosy portrait of the Cuban government under Castro and shows how the wealthy had their property confiscated.

The way the story in Memories of Under Development blends personal history with the history of a country works well. If you enjoy art house films or have interest in learning about Cuba, I would say it is worth checking out Memories of Under Development.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sergio is a little cynical but maybe he is realistic also, March 18, 2009

By 

Richard J. Brzostek (New England, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Memories of Underdevelopment (DVD)

Memories of Under Development is a movie about a man named Sergio who is recently divorced. It tells us his story but also the story of his country Cuba. It goes back and forth between these two, illuminating us on the story of how the people he knows in Cuba are "underdeveloped" and how the country itself, made up of such people, is in a way "underdeveloped" too. Even with that said it isn't a harsh critic of people but more of a mild one and perhaps a bit of self-criticism as well.

Sergio thinks most of the people he knows are underdeveloped. His ex-wife and parents have left Cuba to go to the United States, and he doesn't mind, in fact he nearly pities them and this movie shows us why. He is artistic and thinks of himself as Europeanized, thus more advanced than others on some level but he doesn't gloat about it or show off. Sergio is a little cynical but maybe he is realistic also. Best if all, at times he is very funny.

The film mixes video footage and still photography that tells us about Cuba and life there. It sheds light on how the country was influenced by Spain, the United States and the Soviet Union. One has to also give it some credit as the film doesn't create an entirely a rosy portrait of the Cuban government under Castro and shows how the wealthy had their property confiscated.

The way the story in Memories of Under Development blends personal history with the history of a country works well. If you enjoy art house films or have interest in learning about Cuba, I would say it is worth checking out Memories of Under Development.