Love in the Time of Cholera (2007)

Florentino, rejected by the beautiful Fermina at a young age, devotes much of his adult life to carnal affairs as a desperate attempt to heal his broken heart.

Director:

Mike Newell

Writers:

Ronald Harwood (screenplay), Gabriel García Márquez (novel)

Stars:

Javier Bardem, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Benjamin Bratt

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Benjamin Bratt	...	Dr. Juvenal Urbino
Gina Bernard Forbes	...	Digna Pardo
Giovanna Mezzogiorno	...	Fermina Urbino
Javier Bardem	...	Florentino Ariza
Marcela Mar	...	America Vicuña
Juan Ángel	...	Marco Aurelio - 40's
Liliana Gonzalez	...	Marco Aurelio's Wife (as Liliana Alvarez Gonzalez)
Catalina Botero	...	Ofelia Urbino - 40's
Miguel Angel Pazos Galindo	...	Ofelia's Husband
Maria Cecilia Herrera	...	Urbino's Sweet Wife
Luis Fernando Hoyos	...	Urbino Urbino
Carlos Duplat	...	Mourner
Francisco Raul Linero	...	Mourner
Unax Ugalde	...	Florentino - Teen
Liev Schreiber	...	Lotario Thugut

Storyline

In Colombia just after the Great War, an old man falls from a ladder; dying, he professes great love for his wife. After the funeral, a man calls on the widow - she dismisses him angrily. Flash back more than 50 years to the day Florentino Ariza, a telegraph boy, falls in love with Fermina Daza, the daughter of a mule trader. Ariza is persistent, writing her constantly, serenading, speaking poetically of love. Her father tries to keep them apart, and then, one day, she sees this love as an illusion. She's soon married to Urbino, a cultured physician, and for years, Ariza carries a torch, finding solace in the arms of women, loving none. After Urbino's fall, are Ariza's hopes delusional?

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Plot Keywords:

widow | colombia | marriage | 19th century | old man | 

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Taglines:

How long would you wait for love?

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexual content/nudity and brief language

Details

Official Sites:

Official MySpace Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 November 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

El amor en los tiempos del cólera

Filming Locations:

Iglesia de San Pedro Claver, Cartagena, Bolívar, Colombia

Box Office

Budget:

$45,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$1,924,860, 18 November 2007, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$4,607,608, 20 December 2007

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$31,336,389, 5 April 2009

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema,Stone Village Pictures,Grosvenor Park Media

Technical Specs

Runtime:

139 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS DTS Dolby Digital EX

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The melody in the song "Hay Amores" (Bolero) sung by Shakira in this film is based on an anonymous traditional popular song called "La Panaderita" (The little baker woman) from the small town of Torrecilla en Cameros, La Rioja, Spain. Whether intentionally or by pure coincidence is not clear. The lyrics in Shakira's song are totally different, of course.

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Goofs

When Dr. Juvenal Urbino visits Florentino Ariza he asks him what kind of music Ariza likes. "The music of Carlos Gardel", Ariza answers. The time of the action is somewhere between 1890 and 1895. Gardel was born between (the date is not confirmed) 1883 and 1897. So, he was just a kid at that time, and he couldn't be known at all as the famous singer that died in a plane crash in Medellin (Colombia) in 1935, at the age of 48 or 52.

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Quotes

Florentino Ariza: [updating his diary of conquests] Number 2: The widow Nazareth... Wouldn't stop talking about her dead husband... Very disturbing !

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Connections

Referenced in iZombie: Liv and Let Clive (2015)

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Soundtracks

Le Fiacre
Written by Leon Xanrof
Performed by Yvette Guilbert
(c) 1906, Peter Maurice Music Co Ltd / EMI Music Publishing Ltd, London WC2H 0QY
Master courtesy of Pavillion Records, Past CD 9773

User Reviews

Gabriel García Márquez' novel 'El amor en los tiempos del cólera' without the Magical Realism

For devotees of Gabriel García Márquez this unprofessional adaptation of his sweepingly romantic novel 'El amor en los tiempos del cólera' will sadly disappoint. Ronald Harwood's screenplay is a patchwork quilt that attempts to tell the story of longing for love in the manner of a novella/travelogue and despite the presence of some very fine actors in the key roles, director Mike Newell forgets to grasp the atmosphere that makes the original novel ethereal.

Young Florentino Ariza (Unax Ugalde) is a poor dreamer working as a telegraph operator and sees and falls in love with young Fermina Daza (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), daughter of a wealthy mule trader Lorenzo Daza (John Leguizamo) who upon hearing of the infatuation whisks Fermina away as Florentino pledges undying love and fidelity to Fermina. Florentino's mother Tránsito (Fernanda Montenegro), his uncle Leo (Hector Elizondo), and his friend Lotario Thugut (Liev Schreiber) comfort him and try to encourage his mating with another woman, but as Florentino matures (now Javier Bardem) even the long list of sexual encounters cannot turn his mind away from Fermina. Fermina marries Dr. Juvenal Urbino (Benjamin Bratt), travels widely, has his child and ultimately discovers her husband's infidelity. Florentino inherits his Uncle's shipping wealth, becoming one of the wealthy class that would have made him an eligible suitor for Fermina when he originally met her. But time changes everything except Florentino's commitment to Fermina and after the death of Dr. Urbino, he has the chance to realize his long awaited dream of being with the now 70+ year old lover.

The story spans fifty years in an unnamed city in Columbia (here Cartagena) and across the beauty of both South America and Europe. All of the basic elements are in place: the important missing piece is the magic of Gabriel García Márquez's prose. The huge cast is wasted on a script that is less than pedestrian: Javier Bardem tries to make Florentino a credible sympathetic character but is stuck in the mud of his lines; the brilliant Fernanda Montenegro attempts to paste together the pared down role of Florentino's mother; an unremarkable Giovanna Mezzogiorno fails to make Fermina worthy of Florentino's devotion; John Leguizamo is grossly and embarrassingly miscast; fine actors such as Unax Ugalde, Liev Schrieber, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Ana Claudia Talancón, Hector Elizondo and others are little more than cardboard caricatures of the original creations.

One wonders how Newell and Harwood could have strayed so far from the mark of the potential that this beautiful novel promised as a cinematic transition. But what resulted from their collaboration is an overlong, boring, and sloppy version of the original story. Sad to see fine actors wasted in this film. Grady Harp