The film, composed by all the talents making it, does a terrific job of capturing the essence of the book. Fantastic work! Congratulations to all! As much as I believe that cinema has the potential to be the most powerful and greatest art, it can only come very close to greatness when the job is an adaptation of the most magnificent novel ever written. The same is true when trying to adapt Shakespeare or convey the power of any genius' work like in films about van Gogh, Pollock, Zola, etc.
From my point of view, I felt that the challenge in adapting the book was, for the most part, one of ellipsis, i.e. what do you keep and what do you remove? The scenes and lines of dialogue in the film taken directly from the book create a tapestry of brilliant surgery, if not "the perfect essence" of the book, certainly a brilliant essence or cinematic interpretation.
But unfortunately for me, one who has been tortured for twenty years by the sting of the book's many poetic details and minutia, it is hard not to gasp at what is missing. Before viewing the film, I prepared myself for a 138 minute distillation of an incredibly rich and detailed prose manuscript of 348 pages. I thought then, and I realize now, that it would take a ten or twelve hour filmed version of the book to sate my twenty-year damaged psyche, but I am not so deranged as to hold it against a two hour film adaptation of the masterwork. The film stands by itself. It is a magnificent work. Maybe it couldn't be better. It just doesn't capture all of Marquez. It can't. An American audience, even an educated, worldly one, is still formed and informed by our Puritan society. People don't make movies in Hollywood about coveting another man's wife, dumping your fourteen year old lover (resulting in her suicide) to pursue the woman you really love, and so on, and so on... The film had to make comprises to get an 'R' rating and not cause our repressed and fearful media, and good white Christian core to flip out. Compromise drives Hollywood. Compromise drives the business of movies. Compromise does not play a role in world of Marquez's characters.
I believe and hope that, very soon, the film and book will become organically linked as closely as any film and book can be. It may even create a bond as strong as the Puzo/ Godfather/Coppola connection. I certainly hope so. It could create an artistic and cultural advance which is so vital for humankind, and becoming more difficult to achieve in an impossible-to-believe world of re-emerging fundamentalists who are hell-bent on pummeling us all back into the stone age.
I applaud all of principals who made this wonderful movie.
Bravo!
Viewers of "Love in the Time of Cholera" will gain more insight into what love really means.
From my point of view, I felt that the challenge in adapting the book was, for the most part, one of ellipsis, i.e. what do you keep and what do you remove? The scenes and lines of dialogue in the film taken directly from the book create a tapestry of brilliant surgery, if not "the perfect essence" of the book, certainly a brilliant essence or cinematic interpretation.
But unfortunately for me, one who has been tortured for twenty years by the sting of the book's many poetic details and minutia, it is hard not to gasp at what is missing. Before viewing the film, I prepared myself for a 138 minute distillation of an incredibly rich and detailed prose manuscript of 348 pages. I thought then, and I realize now, that it would take a ten or twelve hour filmed version of the book to sate my twenty-year damaged psyche, but I am not so deranged as to hold it against a two hour film adaptation of the masterwork. The film stands by itself. It is a magnificent work. Maybe it couldn't be better. It just doesn't capture all of Marquez. It can't. An American audience, even an educated, worldly one, is still formed and informed by our Puritan society. People don't make movies in Hollywood about coveting another man's wife, dumping your fourteen year old lover (resulting in her suicide) to pursue the woman you really love, and so on, and so on... The film had to make comprises to get an 'R' rating and not cause our repressed and fearful media, and good white Christian core to flip out. Compromise drives Hollywood. Compromise drives the business of movies. Compromise does not play a role in world of Marquez's characters.
I believe and hope that, very soon, the film and book will become organically linked as closely as any film and book can be. It may even create a bond as strong as the Puzo/ Godfather/Coppola connection. I certainly hope so. It could create an artistic and cultural advance which is so vital for humankind, and becoming more difficult to achieve in an impossible-to-believe world of re-emerging fundamentalists who are hell-bent on pummeling us all back into the stone age.
I applaud all of principals who made this wonderful movie.
Bravo!
Viewers of "Love in the Time of Cholera" will gain more insight into what love really means.