Cartagena's close-up

Like the hero of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel, who waits half a century for his true love, this historic Colombian port has had to bide its time. Now, with the release of Love in the Time of Cholera, and as the country shakes off its violent past, Cartagena is back in the spotlight. Intrigued, Colin Barraclough wanders the ramparts, listens to the balladeers and develops a taste for tiny corn pancakes

How the film - finally - got made in Cartagena

COLIN BARRACLOUGH
November 10, 2007

Hollywood's take on Love in the Time of Cholera may anger literary purists on its release next Friday. "We'll certainly take some black eyes," admits British-born director Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral ), "partly for doing it in English, but mostly for having tried in the first place - a lot of people believe you shouldn't touch holy work."

Marquez, near-deified by admirers of South American literature, has long resisted turning his novels into cinema. It took three years of wooing before Stone Village Pictures producer Scott Steindorff, an American who made his money as a real-estate developer in Las Vegas, finally wrested a deal from Marquez for the film rights to his 1985 novel.

Initially planning to shoot the movie in Brazil, Steindorff now says he's grateful that Colombian authorities persuaded him to switch to Cartagena.

"Colombia's Vice-President, Francisco Santos, asked us to take a look at Cartagena," Steindorff said. "Mike Newell and I went down, and we loved it. It's one of the most romantic cities in the world. It has this charm and beauty - and it's the authentic location for the story."

Newell, too, was reluctant to shoot in a city with such obvious logistical difficulties. "When Scott told me we were going to Colombia, I thought: 'drugs and guns,' " he said. "Curiously, though, I never felt any danger. Of course, we always had a team of security people with us [very common for filming in South America.] It was my first time in Latin America, yet I felt very safe." Shooting in Cartagena, allowed the director to choose locations that closely matched Marquez's novelistic settings. The plot, loosely based on the story of Marquez's own parents, follows an incurable romantic, Florentino Ariza played by Spain's Javier Bardem), who loses the love of his life, Fermina Daza, (played by Italy's Oscar-nominated Giovanna Mezzogiorno), but devotes the following half-century preparing for the day he might once again have her. Cartagena has hosted a number of major film shoots in the past, including the 1968 thriller Burn, starring Marlon Brando, and the Academy Award-winning The Mission. Grace Kelly even filmed Green Fire there in the 1950s. As the first major film shot in the city since the 1980s, however, Love in the Time of Cholera will probably generate a significant buzz.

"People are intrigued with Colombia, and particularly with Cartagena," Steindorff said. "This film is going to be important for the city and for the whole country."


Location HIGHLIGHTS


Teatro Heredia Carrera 4, 38-10, Plaza de la Merced; 57 (5) 664 9631. With its ornate gold-leaf interior and excellent acoustics, this stunning theatre provided Newell with a location for a poetry competition. Now the home of Cartagena's ballet company, it has also hosted the Miss Colombia pageant and Marquez's 80th birthday party.

Convento de San Pedro Claver Plaza de San Pedro Claver; 57 (5) 664 4991. Named for a 17th Jesuit monk canonized for his ministry to Colombia's slave population, this monastery, open as a museum, provided a key location: Fermina Daza, the story's leading lady, elects to be married there to punctilious doctor Juvenal Urbino (Benjamin Bratt).

Casa del Marques de Valdehoyos Calle de la Factoria. Built to be the city's largest private residence by the slave-trading Marquis of Valdehoyos, and now a government-owned centre for cultural events, the building features in the movie as the home of Lorenzo Daza, Fermina's father.

Escuela de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts School) Calle de las Bovedas, Plaza San Diego. Cartagena's colonial-era Fine Arts School building provided two locations: Its exterior served as the college where Florentino Ariza picks up America Vicuna, while scenes from Fermina Daza's school were filmed in the interior. Music students formed the choir singing in the film's funeral and Christmas Eve mass scenes.

Fuerte de la Tenaza (Tenaza Fort) Las Bovedas. Forming part of the Old City walls, this fort provided the location for the boat dock where Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza depart on their honeymoon cruise.