O Amor nos Tempos de Cólera (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:

caribbean sea | widow | marriage | old man | funeral | 

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Taglines:

How long would you wait for the one you love?

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

M/12

Did You Know?

Trivia

As the film's adaptation began to take shape, screenwriter Ronald Harwood and producer Scott Steindorff consulted with the author Gabriel García Márquez to ensure the film would reflect the spirit that lives in the book. "Of the first draft of the script, García Márquez said, ''The problem is that you and the writer have done too true of an adaptation'' you need to depart from the book,'' Steindorff remembered. "He has a great sense of humor, so we laughed and laughed.

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Goofs

When the Widow Nazaret takes refuge in the Ariza home and has a drink with Florentino's mother, the mother reaches over as if to replace the cork in the decanter but doesn't do so; in the following reverse shot, the cork is in the decanter, but upon cutting back to the original angle it is again out.

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Quotes

Fermina Urbino: Florentino Ariza is not a human. He is a shadow.

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Connections

Referenced in HBO First Look: The Making of 'Love in the Time of Cholera' (2007)

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Soundtracks

Maria Tere
Written by Rafael Martinez Escalona
Performed by Bovea y sus Vallenatos
Published by Edimusica Ltd. adm by Sunflower Music Inc.
Master courtesy of Sunflower Entertainment Co., inc. o/b/o Discos Fuenters Edimusica SA

User Reviews

Vulgar and Empty

This was a vulgar and empty film. There was no content, only "emotions," for most of it, and very flat characters. It was exploitative in the extreme, so much so that emotional intensity the film was striving for ended up seeming a bit like a joke, and had no actual pull.

If you take away all of the psychology from characters and reduce them to "basic emotions" such as love, pain, sadness, fear, etc., but those emotions are not motivated by the story, then what you have is an empty spectacle, a bit like a live show at Disneyland. Not to mention the painful and unintentional mix of gritty realism and artifice, such as characters aging at different rates, having glued on mustaches that look like they're going to fall off, having an old head and a young body in a nude shot, or one character having a New York accent while the rest have Spanish accents (why wasn't the film in Spanish to begin with)?

Lots of gratuitous titties, done in an offensive way. And anachronisms such as the use of the word f**k in 1890, as in "your father f**ked everything in sight!" Ridiculous. In its favor the film has nice cinematography and some good costumes, and I think some of the actors made a valiant effort, but I still have to give it a 1 for being so condescending to its audience and for ruining the Marquez novel.

Details

Official Sites:

Official MySpace Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA Mexico UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 March 2008 (Portugal)

Also Known As:

O Amor nos Tempos de Cólera

Filming Locations:

Iglesia de San Pedro Claver, Cartagena, Bolívar, Colombia

Box Office

Budget:

$45,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$1,915,000, 18 November 2007

Gross USA:

$4,607,608

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$31,575,877

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, Stone Village Pictures, Cholera Love Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

139 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS DTS Dolby Digital EX

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1