To the literature of Gabriel Garcia Marquez is being reviewed once again globally after the premiere of One Hundred Years of Solitude in Netflix. The Nobel winner never wanted his masterpiece to be adapted to film, because he considered that seeing it on a screen took away from the exercise of the imagination.
“In cinema the face is the face that you are seeing, The image is so imposing that you have no escapeit doesn’t leave you the slightest possibility of creation,” he once told Caracol Radio.
The writer preferred that his readers “continue imagining my characters as their uncles and my friends and not that they are totally conditioned to what they saw on the screen”.
Previously, for a documentary made by Holy Aylett y Silvya Stevens In 1988, he delved into this idea and clarified that part of the charm of his stories centered on the familiarity generated by his characters and stated: “Literature is literature and cinema is cinema. The offer I make is this: In my books they are novels and they remain as novels”.
However, despite the author’s criticism, several of his publications were made into films and television. In 2007, Hollywood showed interest in Love in the time of cholera1985 book that was inspired by the love story of García Márquez’s parents.
The novel tells the story of Florentino Ariza, a man in love who waited more than 50 years for Fermina Dazaboth were never able to marry due to the differences in their social classes. Fermina married Dr. Juvenal Urbino, but Florentino never gave up his devotion to her, so he waited for Juvenal’s death so he could win her back.
It should be noted that, throughout the story, Florentino has affairs with other women. He lost his virginity as a mature man when his mother sent him a widow so that he could forget Fermina once and for all. This sexual encounter led to many others, and he slept with at least 600 women..
The title of the book refers to the cholera epidemic that occurred on the coast of Colombia during that time, the symptoms of love and illness becoming indistinguishable.
The producer Scott Steindorff read the novel and was enchanted, which is why He tried to convince Gabo to sell him the rights to work on a film. The Colombian’s response was negative for years, because was completely against making an English speaking version of its history.
Steindorff’s request was accompanied by a personal account of his own identification with the character of Florentino Ariza. Finally, When he promised that he would not make a “Hollywood” adaptation, Gabriel García Márquez accepted the deal for USD 3 millionaccording to the newspaper International Herald Tribune.
Although the project initially sought out great faces from the North American film industry, the feature film Love in the time of cholera It ended up having a cast of actors with diverse origins.
The Spanish Javier Bardem gave life to Florentinothe Italian one Giovanna Mezzogiorno played Fermina Dazathe Brazilian Fernanda Montenegro It was Tránsito Ariza, the American Benjamin Bratt had the role of Doctor Juvenal Urbino, and the Colombians Catalina Sandino Moreno y Angie Cepeda They embodied Hildebranda Sánchez and The Widow of Nazareth respectively.
The cast also included John Leguizamo, Unax Ugalde, Ana Claudia TalancónLiev Schreiber, Marcela Mar, Héctor Elizondo, Alicia Borrachero, Indhira Serrano, among others.
The filmmaker Mike Newell (Four weddings and a funeral, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) took on the challenge of directing the film and, according to International Herald Tribune, “recognized that the expectations associated with this screen adaptation” would be too high and he might never be forgiven for trying, yet he decided to press on.
Despite his lack of proximity to Latin American cinema, Newell moved the production to Cartagena de Indiaswhere the feature film was filmed almost entirely, as scenes were also made in Barranquilla y Saint Martha. The premise also forced them to recreate the architecture and clothing of the Caribbean coast of Colombia between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
In the process of adding Colombian elements, Shakira wrote an original song for the film titled “There are loves.” next to the Brazilian Antonio Pinto. The song won Best National Film Soundtrack at the Nuestra Tierra Awards.
“I hope that the music, that which in the book envelops readers without hearing it, responds to the commitment to accompany the image as a message of the times.“said the singer at the premiere held in 2007.
At 19, Shakira met Gabriel García Márquez and he remembered even many years later what that first meeting was like. “He told me to tell him an interesting story.. And I said, ‘But, about what?’ To which he replied: ‘Tell me anything, If you don’t tell me, I’ll make it up‘. “That’s what he did, telling stories, and that’s how he won our hearts.”
While the novel was acclaimed upon its publication in 1985, its film adaptation is not as well remembered. According to the Rotten Tomatoes website, Eric Kohn New York Press he barely got a 26% approval with mostly unfavorable reviews.
“The brave attempt to turn a complex novel into a compelling film is hampered by a conventional literary sensibility, an uneven tone and, above all, for the failure to establish a moving and meaningful connection between its two main actors,” wrote Ian Freer of Empire Magazine.
To Ann Hornaday, of The Washington Post“remains strangely insubstantial when all the feverish passion has subsided. Like a fever, it breaks, passes and is forgotten”.
“Despite its temporal scope, the film’s biggest catastrophe is its dated aura. Newell gives us some fabulous settings and a classic narrative, but none of it manages to involve us in the present”Argued Eric Kohn, of New York Press.
“Literature is poorly used”, stated Lisa Schwarzbaum for Entertainment Weekly on Love in the time of choleraa film that once again exemplifies why, until today, it is so complex to capture the literature of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in the audiovisual format.
