LACMA ain't all that bad (kidding). Tonight they're screening -- for bloody free -- "Memorias del Subdesarrollo," the landmark film by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea based on the novel by Edmundo Desnoes. I've had the pleasure of seeing this film twice, first on VHS and then on screen at a museum in Mexico, D.F. last October during the book fair. I've not read the book but the film is an elegiac, almost impressionistic look at Havana in the period right after the fall of Batista, seen through the eyes of a privileged aspiring writer who stays behind instead of escaping to Miami. Here, of all things, is the film's Japanese trailer:
The screening is part of LACMA's Latin American cinema series. The Getty Foundation gave them a grant to do it. Read more on "Memorias del Subdesarrollo" at this nice movie blog from Chile, Vida en 35 mm, which says the film achieves in giving the viewer a vivid portrait of Revolutionary Cuba without the fanaticism of the pro- and anti-Castro camps. Previously, "Life, beautiful, under Cuba's kingfish."
* Later at Intersections: A note to commentators, who have been vigorously debating the case of Elvira Arellano in previous posts.