Memories of Underdevelopment (1968, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea)

Quest Status: 745 / 1000

TSPDT Rank #259

Memories of Underdevelopment was released in 1968, but it takes place during the most famous period of modern Cuban history - starting in the wake of the Bay of Pigs invasion by US-sponsored counter-revolutionaries in 1961 and ending with the looming threat of the Cuban Missile Crisis the following year. It starts out with dancing in the streets, followed by scenes of a bourgeois man watching his wife and parents leave for America. He has no political sensibilities, no feelings about the revolution one way or the other. Much stronger are his sexual desires, as he starts prowling around, leering at every attractive young woman in sight.

As a result, the first half of the film is something like a Fellini-esque sex comedy with ambiguous political commentary thrown in around the edges. In the second half, the man's philandering ways come back to haunt him, as the political situation in Cuba becomes increasingly confusing and fraught with tension. For me, the most interesting aspect was that Sergio, the protagonist, chooses to stay behind in Cuba and live the life of an outsider - despite having no connection to or even a coherent understanding of the revolution going on around him. Through Sergio's eyes, Memories of Underdevelopment examines the passive observers within its country with a critical eye, while also asking the viewer what side of the line they would fall on if placed in the same situation.

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NOTE

This review is part of my new Tumblr blog Cinema Cycles, which can be found here.

Touki Bouki (1973, Djibril Diop Mambéty)

Quest Status: 744 / 1000

TSPDT Rank #305

Heavily inspired by French New Wave films like Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless and Pierrot le fou on the surface, there’s much more to this densely layered tour de force than initially meets the eye. Rebel without a cause Mory decides to shake off the dregs of Dakar and head north to Paris with his girlfriend Anta, first setting off on a carefree crime spree to raise the funds. But while the core story is straight out of Pierrot le fou, Mambety isn’t just a stylist looking to transplant French cinema into an African setting.

After all, Senegal had only recently gained their independence from France at the time this film was made. There’s a sarcastic edge to much of the self-consciously French New Wave flourishes, like the song on the radio incessantly crooning “Paris, Paris, Paris” and jokes at the expense of those who have sold themselves out to the new neo-colonial order. And when Mory finally has his chance to leave Senegal, Mambety uses allegorical montage to signal his change of heart, a stunning moment of free-flowing visual poetry that leads into an impressionistic dreamlike sequence to end the film. Mambety’s vision is vivid and defiant, integrating French influence into a framework that is proudly African, with logic defying montage and cinematography so vivid and striking that it threatens to explode right off the screen.

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NOTE

This review is part of my new Tumblr blog Cinema Cycles, which can be found here.