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The Early Comedies of Tomás Gutiérrez Alea

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Humor in Latin American Cinema

Part of the book series: New Directions in Latino American Cultures ((NDLAC))

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Abstract

When Tomás Gutiérrez Alea1 began his filmmaking career, he alternated between serious, usually short, documentaries and hilarious, full-length fiction for the screen. Later, as he became more successful, acquired more resources, and articulated more clearly to himself and others his goals as a committed artist, Titón (as his friends called him) preferred to place within each of his films a dialectic of reality and entertainment. In his lifetime, he directed many important comedies, all of which display this back and forth between Brechtian distance and Chaplinesque empathy. His full-length comedies also fall into two groups. First came three black-and-white comic masterworks that combine hilarity and satire (Las doce sillas [1962; The Twelve Chairs], La muerte de un burócrata [1966; Death of a Bureaucrat], and Los sobrevivientes [1978; The Survivors]). The second group, filmed in color, exhibits irony attenuated by romance, and encompasses Hasta cierto punto (1983; Up to a Certain Point), Cartas del parque (1989; Letters from the Park), the short Contigo en la distancia (1991; Far Away), Fresa y chocolate (1994; Strawberry and Chocolate), and Guantanamera (1995; in English under the same title). His most important comedy would have to be Fresa y chocolate, an international success, only second in fame and importance to his serious, classic masterpiece, Memorias del subdesarrollo (1968; Memories of Underdevelopment).

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Authors
  1. Diane E. Marting
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Juan Poblete Juana Suárez

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© 2016 Diane E. Marting

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Marting, D.E. (2016). The Early Comedies of Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. In: Poblete, J., Suárez, J. (eds) Humor in Latin American Cinema. New Directions in Latino American Cultures. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-54357-8_5

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