Alea's Memories of Underdevelopment

Thomás Gutiérrez Alea's film could actually be summarized by a scene in the actual film: it is a tragically poetic shot in which Sergio is washing his hands in the sink and he leaves behind excess bubbles. He tries to wash them away but they continue to live in the sink. This shot encapsulates Sergio's journey throughout the film. He constantly tries to run away from this so called "underdevelopment" left behind by the revolution, but no matter how much he tries to wash it away, he is not able to escape it...the "bubbles" of his underdevelopment stay behind.

I was impressed with Alea's treatment of the source material. It is certainly an advantage that Desnoes himself worked with Alea on the film adaptation of the novel. This collaboration helped take the novel to the next level, I believe. Scenes such as the visit to the Hemingway house and the Kennedy and Castro speeches were even added to that of the original Spanish version, which have proven to be very valuable in the film. It was like the film was Desnoes's final draft.

One thing I am certainly pleased with was Alea's take on the narrative in the novel. In Desnoes's work, the narrator is speaking to us through what seem like journal entries, which are very precise and personal. At times, though, the narrative can seem like the random complaints of an ex bourgeousie Cuban who thinks he is somehow better than most of his peers when he himself is flawed in many ways. Many films tend to take advantage of the voiceover but I think it was a key element here. Whenever Sergio gave his voiceover speeches, something important was being depicted, whether it be scenes of the trial or the documentary pieces; the visualization of these monologues of Sergio's definitely add more meaning to the words and make him a more personable character than in the novel.

underdevelopment vs. inconsolable

Memories of Underdevelopment was once called Inconsolable Memories. The title change is more effective now as it describes the protagonist, Sergio's, inner isolation and turmoil in the face of this social climate change in Cuba.

Lessons of Experience by Michael Chanan states that underdevelopment is an "economic concept" but it can also be applied emotionally. Sergio has made a decision to stay behind and enclose himself in this environment which he cannot even stomach sometimes, calling his acquaintance Pablo, "a perfect moron." Sergio himself realizes that his country has "sunk in underdevelopment." I found it a bit disturbing, however, how unaffected he seems by the events that lead him to such insolation; he lets his wife leave him and willingly decides to stay home most of the time. he seems displeased with his environment, complaining about the bourgeouis and their faults but yet does nothing--does not flee, does not fight, just remains.

This state of paralysis is even more evident through the personal form of narrative Desnoes employs. Sergio is always consumed with talking about material things, such as his need for keeping in shape or fantasizing about Noemi. I feel like Sergio uses the Revolution and its effects as a mean to change, but ultimately does not take any grand steps towards achieving change more so because he was stuck in the past, underdeveloped rather than inconsolable.

Bertolucci: The Spider's Strategem

I was throughly pleased with Bertolucci's film, The Spider's Strategem. I would consider the film one of the better results of a hypertext developed from a hypotext, which in this case is Borges's Theme of the Traitor and the Hero.

Visually, the film was beautiful; Bertolucci seems to have paved the way for the films now in terms of shots and angles. The shot when Athos gets punched for no particular reason, showing just the fist and sound of a punch rather than filming the whole action. It felt a bit familiar, probably because others have been inspired by Bertolucci's genius. Also, towards the end while Athos is in the theater piecing the final clues in the quest for his father's murderer: it felt like a sort of a visual mind trick in how you see Athos on one side and his father's friends off in the distance in the box across the theater and as Athos is verbally piecing the clues together a friend disappears one by one until they all end up in the same box where his father was killed and the confession is revealed. When Draifa is speaking in the present but is placed in a flashback is something I also found incredibly clever. The music, I felt, was very effective in the film, particularly when Athos is taken to the Po River and begins to run out of fear of being harmed by his father's friends.

As Bertolucci states in his interview, he was inspired by the story and maintained most of its "mechanism." Changing some details, among them being the setting and characters, Bertolucci took Borges's story and made it his, applying it to his own experiences at the time; according to him, the film wouldn't have been possible without Bertolucci's experience undergoing psychoanalysis prior to writing the script. As a result, I figure this is a very personal work of art; without this prior knowledge, of both the Borges story or Bertolucci's interview, I don't know if I would have enjoyed it as much. They both gave me a deeper insight into the film's message which helped me appreciate it that much more.

Theme of the Traitor and the Hero

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players " comes to mind after reading Borges's piece. Although Kilpatrick played the role of saint in the public's eyes, he was ultimately the villian. I found it heartbreaking and somewhat humorous the amount of work put into making Kilpatrick's death seem like a noble one; the lengths some will go to cover up a secret is astounding.

The short story in itself has many references to other works; as Ryan is slowly piecing together the events that led up to Kilpatrick's demise, he discovers the "parallelisms" between Kilpatrick and Julius Caesar. Nolan takes ideas from Shakespeare's Macbeth and Julius Caesar to plan the whole spectacle. This is, of course, is done quite deliberately as a way of Nolan's to have someone discover Kilpatrick's truth one day. Still, the idea of fabricating a world to maintain appearances would make anyone wonder if anything in their life is true.

There is a tone of irony and even humor in the piece; Kilpatrick assigns Nolan to discover the traitor knowing the possibility of being found out himself. On the other hand, this could have been done purposely by Kilpatrick. The reference to Yeats's poem The Tower made me wonder about such a possibility. In researching a bit, it seems as though the speakers in both works encounter a similar dilemma. Much like Kilpatrick has to choose between dying a hero at the hands of Nolan or dying a traitor at the hands of the people, the speaker in Yeats's poem feels the need to choose between poetry and reason.

Perhaps Borges includes this piece of Yeats's text to display its possible inspiration to him. I think it just continues to proves intertextuality in all its forms and how it occurs throughout history.

What makes an adaptation?

After discussing Cortázar's "Blowup" or, " Las Babas del Diablo", as is the title in Spanish, I was struck by the notion of the speaker having to recount his story as a means to "get rid of that tickle in the stomach that bothers [him]." Describing his need to tell the story in this way, I figure the speaker does this as a form of relief. The details of the events that have transpired are much traumatic to keep to himself.

Then I wondered: how will Antonioni portray the speaker's sensation, his urgency to communicate his experiences to the reader? Will he mention or omit this reaction, which is crucial in the development of the story? This all depends on how Antonioni adapted the short story.

There have been many disagreements over the requirements for an adaptation. Many scholars, as noted in Stam's essay, "Beyond Fidelity," have thought that any digression from the novel to film is considered a "betrayal." Stam, however, tells us to lighten up.

In most cases, adaptations are more "translations" of the work rather than a strict adherence to it. Based on the director and other visionaries in charge of the film, there will be things lost in the translation from literature to cinema, as well as things added.

This brings about the idea of intertextuality, or as Gérard Genette describes it, the "effective co-presence of two texts." According to him, adaptation participates in a "double intertextuality" because it includes both the piece of fiction and the movie. Among the five types of intertextuality Genette mentions, Blowup is considered an "architextuality," simply because Antonioni changed the title of the short story for his film. One can hypothesize that from such a change, that Antonioni probably did not make an exact replica of "Las Babas del Diablo" in the form of a film. Does that then, not make it an adaptation? "Blowup" is also a part of Genette's theory of "hypertextuality," which is where an original work, or "hypertext," inspires other works based on it, or "hypotexts." If traced back far enough, it can be found that all art is, in some way, hypertextual.

Stam concludes that audiences should be open to different interpretations when it comes to adaptations of novel to screen. The "differences among the media" should be appreciated. Even though "Blowup" may not be "Las Babas del Diablo," it is still a work of art that has since inspired other film adaptations, alas, in the true form "hypertextuality."