slapsticky

Mr. Gutiérrez Alea, who died in 1996 after enjoying a comeback with “Strawberries and Chocolate” (1994) and “Guantanamera” (1995), may have been the richest talent in Cuban films, a “serious comedian” who was able to move beyond the slapsticky farce of “The Twelve Chairs” into the far greater introspection and melancholy of “Memories of Underdevelopment.”