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Memorias del Subdesarrollo (Memories of Underdevelopment)


A 1968 film, in a 4K restoration for its 50th anniversary. Post-Bay of Pigs Havana, as bourgeois, would-be writer Sergio Corrieri sees off his parents (they embrace) and wife (they don’t).  Later, his seeming best friend emigrates, too, only after a long harangue. He attempts to write, observes the city through a telescope from his très 60s apartment balcony, and wanders through the streets, book stores, and art galleries, always aware of glances from women, fantasizing about his cleaning lady - then seducing Daisy Granados’ nervous/passionate working class teen. He watches a reel of sexy scenes cut from Hollywood movies by Batista-era censors and attends a literary round table with the likes of Edmundo Desnoes (author of the original novel) and Jack Gelber (author of The Connection).  He sweats his way through an embarrassing trial, and listens to a vintage Castro rant during the Missile Crisis. All filtered through brooding voice-overs, newsreels, and hidden camera treks through the city; a character study of a post-revolution désengagée through the techniques of the New Wave and Antonioni.

Omaha: June 3 - 6 at Film Streams.