Like many people, my introduction to the writing of Gabriel Garcia Marquez was his novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” which I read in the early ‘70’s, after it became available in English translation. His style was dubbed that contradiction in terms: “magical realism.” When I found “Love in the Time of Cholera” on my favorite “must read” table in my favorite, alas, now defunct, bookstore in Paris, in the 90’s, it was a “must purchase.” On Amazon I’ve reviewed “One Hundred…” in 2011. I have not yet reviewed “Love…” the book; possibly the movie will suffice. Amazon recommended it to me since the actor, Javier Bardem, who played the adult Florentino Ariza, was also in “Goya’s Ghosts.” I very much admired his performance in that movie, as well as this one. Mike Newell did an excellent job directing it. The movie was released in 2007.
Persistence, tenacity, and finally love consummated. The movie commences with Dr. Urbino’s death, who had so skillfully taken the very youthful Fermina away from the truly smitten Florentino. With Urbino’s death, Florentino can again make his pitch to Fermina, which she cruelly rejects, if for no other reason, its gauche untimeliness: the same day as the funeral! No “decent interval” for the smitten. Then the movie flashes back to their youths, in Cartagena (Columbia) in 1879. Unax Ugalde plays the youthful Florentino. Giovanna Mezzogiorno brilliantly plays Fermina.
It is a familiar tale: youthful obsession, the “writing of too many letters already,” Florentino swearing eternal fidelity and everlasting love, which is trumped by parental opposition, due to his lack of status in society. The good Dr. Urbino is a much more convenient match for the rough-hewn father, seeking societal advancement. Eventually Fermina succumbs to fatherly pressure. Somewhere in the background, as the title implies, there is cholera, “more unpredictable than war, she grabs hold, then let’s go.”
Florentino vows to remain a virgin, and will hold out ‘til Fermina is his. Like a lot of New Year’s Day resolutions…hum… and this one is first shredded on a paddle wheeler. Solace for the lovelorn is provided by philandering, and Florentino is suddenly notching bedposts, documented not as Jack Nicholson once did, by the slideshow in “Carnal Knowledge,” but in a logbook. A good thing too, since it would have taken more than one carrousel. Four figures weren’t obtained, but he got more than half way there. When Fermina finally “sees the light,” will he really tell her that he is still a virgin? And will she believe him, even when he really is a virgin to love?
Yet another familiar theme. The daughter is revolted that her mother might be in love “at her age.” The only thing Fermina regrets about her age now is that she doesn’t have the strength to give her daughter the beating she deserves!
I was truly stunned by the performance of Giovanna Mezzogiorno as Fermina, and the amazing skills of the make-up department. It took two actors to play Florentino, but she managed to play Fermina from teen-ager to 72. Flat amazing for a woman who was actually 33 when the movie was filmed. And there were nude scenes, with youthful breasts and those of 72. Body doubles? Who knows? Whatever, it was skillful, and there was always the same face. At 72 she provides that familiar lament that you will not like what you see. Au contraire, for a being who knows that wrinkles convey the true experience to be treasured, whereas smooth skin only conveys possible potential. Being a schoolmaster is attractive to some, finding a soulmate who has experienced life can be far more attractive to others.
A theme for the new “roaring ‘20’s.” 6-stars.
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Top reviews from other countries
aleazim
Un envoi rapide et soigné, je n'ai pas eu le temps de regarder le film....
Reviewed in France on June 25, 2017