El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (1999)

Director:

Arturo Ripstein

Writers:

Paz Alicia Garciadiego (writer)
Gabriel García Márquez (novel)

Release Date:

2 June 1999 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Basada en la novela de Gabriel García Márquez.

Plot:

Cada viernes El Coronel se coloca el único traje que tiene y acude al muelle para aguardar la carta que anuncie la llegada de su pensión...

Plot Keywords:

Debt | Poverty | Religion | Mexico | Priest

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Fernando Luján	...	El coronel
Marisa Paredes	...	Lola
Salma Hayek	...	Julia
Rafael Inclán	...	Padre Ángel
Ernesto Yáñez	...	Don Sabas
Daniel Giménez Cacho	...	Nogales
Esteban Soberanes	...	Germán
Patricia Reyes Spíndola	...	Jacinta
Odiseo Bichir	...	Dr. Pardo
Julián Pastor	...	Lugones
Eugenio Lobo	...	Álvaro
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jacobo Atri
Enrique Castillo
Jorge Castillo	...	El cartero
Juana Garza
Mercedes Gironella
Osami Kawano
Eligio Meléndez
Loló Navarro
Leticia Valenzuela

Also Known As:

No One Writes to the Colonel (International: English title)
Pas de lettre pour le colonel (France)
Personne n'écrit au colonel (France)

Runtime:

Argentina:118 min | France:118 min | Mexico:118 min | Spain:122 min

Country:

Mexico | France | Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | France:U | Hong Kong:I | Spain:T

Filming Locations:

Veracruz, Mexico

Company:

Amaranta Films

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Una familia de diez: TV por cable (#1.6)" (2007)

Gabriel García Márquez' short novel adapted to an exquisite film

A sober, reflexive piece, a little miniature which blossoms into a magnificent humane pictorial sequence which goes beyond a mere dramatization for the screen. This quiet little story will hold you enthralled - if you do not have too many problems with the various Spanish accents ranging from Mexican to Peruvian, and Marisa Paredes' more authentic Iberian Peninsular usage! Garcíadiego has accomplished a perfect adaptation from the novel: even the grand maestro García Márquez should be proud of her superb work. And hats off to Arturo Ripstein who has so ably concerted the whole effort into a gem, a ruby, and so refined, so elegant, so sensitive, so touchingly.....

El Coronel - Fernando Luján - is waiting to get his pension, while he continues to live in his ramshackle timber dwelling deep in the Colombian jungle (however, filmed elsewhere, NOT in Colombia) with his fighting cock and his wife (in that order?). And that is all there is to it.

But, oh, so much more.... This film is a rhapsody.

I must see this poetic little piece again as soon as possible. Worth the high side of 8 out of 10, which is very high on my scale.

This is not light commercial Hollywood stuff.