Memories of Underdevelopment Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.5

Memories of Underdevelopment Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 14, 2018

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's "Memories of Underdevelopment" (1968) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include a vintage trailer for the film; archival audio interview with the director; exclusive new ivdeo interview with author Edmundo Desnoes; segment from an archival interview with actor Nelson Rodriguez; and a lot more. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring an essay by author Joshua Jelly-Schapiro and technical credits. In Spanish, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Observing the transformation

The fluid camerawork provides Memories of Underdevelopment with a European quality that reminds of the work of the French New Wave directors. For as long as possible its end destination also remains vague, which is precisely how the New Wave films managed to successfully bend various conventional cinematic rules -- they pulled in different directions at the same time and while doing so the boldest amongst them created their own stylistic identities.

The reality that is reflected through the film, however, very quickly diminishes the significance of everything that would have made it easy to compare it to the likes of Paris Belongs to Us and Chronicle of a Summer. Simply put, this film captures a very different type of transformation -- it is not the reawakening of a great city and its enthusiastic embrace of its adventurous residents, but the slow death of what used to be a great city and the alienation of its residents.

Initially the camera attempts to stay as close as possible to Sergio (Sergio Corrieri), a lot like an invisible friend who is determined to help him remain positive despite the fact that his entire life has fallen apart. But the more time passes by, the clearer it becomes that it isn’t working because the man is very intelligent and understands incredibly well what takes place before his eyes. Shortly after he parts ways with his ex-wife who is heading to Miami to start a new life, he begins wandering the streets of Havana and what he sees confirms his worst fears -- the transformation is in full force and is already destroying the character of his people. As a seasoned connoisseur of female beauty, Sergio even dares to pinpoint precisely what Cuban women are losing in the process. Later on, his casual affairs only further solidify his conviction that the ‘new order’ that has arrived with Fidel Castro and his rebels is even altering the way in which people connect on a physical level.

A few scattered flashbacks with raw documentary footage quickly alert the viewer that the Bay of Pigs invasion has failed and as a result the country’s future remains bright. But then Sergio’s discussions with his best friend deliver a solid dose of sobering logic and confirm what the propagandists wish to hide -- the country is just a playground which the military strategists of two superpowers have used to outmaneuver each other.

The complete image of Sergio that emerges before the final credits roll is actually an incredibly accurate portrayal of endless European intellectuals that found themselves trapped in the communist nightmare after the end of WWII. At some point, they all realized how a totalitarian ideology had irreversibly corrupted their societies and destroyed their cultural identities, and they became social drifters. After that there were those that learned to be content with the illusion that they were still in control of their lives and made the best of them for as long as they could, just like Sergio does in the film, and then there was another group of people that gave up and either drank themselves to death or used a gun to end their misery.

*This release of Memories of Underdevelopment is sourced from a brand new 4K restoration and reconstruction of the film that was completed by Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata, Italy, in association with Instituto Cubano del Arte Industria Cinematograficos (ICAIC). For the restoration, the original camera negative was accessed as well as a vintage interpositive which was used to replace decayed portions of it.

Memories of Underdevelopment Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's Memories of Underdevelopment arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the leaflet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"This restoration -- which was undertaken by the Cineteca di Blogna at L'Iammgine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematograficos (ICAIC), and funded by the George Lucas Family Foundation and The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project -- was created in 4K resolution using the 35mm original camera negative and an interpositive. These elements were scanned on an ARRISCAN film, scanner, using a wet gate for the most damaged sections. The monaural soundtrack was remastered from the original soundtrack negative.

Colorist: Giandomenico Zeppa/L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna."

There were portions of the OCN that apparently had plenty of decay and had to be reconstructed with footage from an interpositive, but the final product boasts a degree of consistency that is hugely impressive. In fact, there are very few viewers that might be able to tell that time was not kind to this film. Delineation, depth, clarity, and fluidity are really terrific. Obviously, during the raw documentary footage density levels fluctuate and there are some inherited source limitations, but this is the native quality of the material that was utilized by the creators of the film. The grading is very convincing. Blacks and whites are very stable, while the ranges of nuanced grays are nicely balanced. Image stability is excellent. Debris, cuts, stains, damage marks, and other conventional imperfections have been removed as best as possible. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Memories of Underdevelopment Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Spanish LPCM 1.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

You should expect to hear a few minor fluctuations during the raw documentary footage, but the audio for the original content is excellent. Quite predictably for a film of this nature and age dynamic intensity is rather limited, but such is the original sound design and these are the corresponding qualities that are reproduced by the lossless track.

Memories of Underdevelopment Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for Memories of Underdevelopment. (3 min, 1080p).

• Edmundo Desnoes - in this new video interview, Edmundo Desnoes, author of Inconsolable Memories, discusses the cinematic adaptation of his novel and the type of struggle that he intended to chronicle in it. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in New York in 2018. In English, not subtitled. (16 min, 1080p).

• Titon: From Havana to "Guantanamera" - this archival documentary focuses on the life and work of director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. Included in it are interviews with the late director, actor Jorge Perugorria, editor Nelson Rodriguez, and screenwriter Enrique Pineda Barnet, amongst others. The documentary was produced by Mirtha Ibarra in 2008. In Spanish, with optional English subtitles. (97 min, 1080p).

• Tomas Gutierrez Alea - presented here is a segment from an audio interview with director Tomas Gutierrez Alea which was recorded by Silva Oroz for the 1989 book Tomas Gutierrez Alea: Los filmes que no filme. In Spanish, with optional English subtitles. (12 min, 1080p).

• Daisy Granados - presented here is a segment from an archival interview with actor Daisy Granados in which she discusses the character she played in Memories of Underdevelopment. The interview was recorded for the Visual History Program at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2017. In Spanish, with optional English subtitles. (10 min, 1080p).

• Nelson Rodriguez - presented here is a segment from an archival interview with actor Nelson Rodriguez in which he discuses his contribution to Memories of Underdevelopment and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's working methods. The interview was recorded for the Visual History Program at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2017. In Spanish, with optional English subtitles. (17 min, 1080p).

• B. Ruby Rich and Jose Antonio Evora - in this new program, critics B. Ruby Rich and Jose Antonio Evora discuss the socio-political environment in which Tomás Gutiérrez Alea shot Memories of Underdevelopment, the message of the film and the reality it focused on, as well as the personality of its protagonist. The program was produced for Criterion in 2018. In Spanish and English, with optional English subtitles where necessary. (19 min, 1080p).

• Leaflet - an illustrated leaflet featuring author Joshua Jelly-Schapiro's essay "Imagining History" and technical credits.

Memories of Underdevelopment Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The hundreds of thousands of Cubans that escaped after Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries entered Havana were not cowards, and those that later on lost their lives while trying to reclaim their country were certainly not the extremists that some contemporary historians are casually implying they were. Those that stayed behind and did their best to endure the brutal communist regime were also not trying to be heroes -- for many, many of them it was the only option; the alternative was death. Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's Memories of Underdevelopment follows a middle-aged intellectual who foolishly refuses to join his wife and start a new life in Miami, and then witnesses the slow death of his favorite city. The film was made during the 1960s, and considering the socio-political climate at the time, it really is a small miracle that it survived Castro's watchdogs. Criterion's Blu-ray release is sourced from a fabulous new 4K restoration and features some very interesting interviews with people that contributed to the film, as well as a wonderful documentary about the life and legacy of director Alea. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.