Memories of Underdevelopment

“Memories of Underdevelopment” was the first great international success of Cuban cinema. The film provides a complex portrait of Sergio, a disaffected bourgeois intellectual who remains in Havana after the Revolution, suspended between two worlds. His dilemma as as non-participant amidst the turmoil is expressed in the film through its mixture of cinematic styles; documentary footage from newsreels and fictional sequences, objective and subjective camera work create a record of a present existence governed by memories of the past. The result is a film that is densely textured in its narrative and notable in its responsiveness to the psychological condition of its hero and to the political issues that he ignores. This double volume includes the complete continuity script of “Memories”, as well as the complete novel, “Inconsolable Memories”, upon which the film is based. Michael Chanan’s introduction places the film in the context of Cuban political and cultural history. The volume also includes a biographical sketch of Alea, a chronology of the Cuban Revolution, reviews, commentary, a filmography, and a bibliography.

Author Biography

Michael Chanan lives in England, where he teaches and writes on film. He is the author of The Cuban Image: Cinema and Cultural Politics in Cuba.