El coronel no tiene quien le escriba
Mexico,
1999, 118 min
Shown in 2000
CREDITS
- dir
-
Arturo Ripstein
- prod
-
Jorge Sánchez
- scr
-
Paz Alicia Garcíadiego
- cam
-
Guillermo Granillo
- editor
-
Fernando Pardo
- cast
-
Marisa Paredes, Fernando Luján, Salma Hayek, Ernesto Yáñez, Odiseo Bichir, Rafael Inclán
- source
-
Latina, Atletas No. 2, Country Club C.P. 04220, 8045 Mexico D.F., Mexico. FAX: 525-549-1820
OTHER
Adapting from one of Gabriel García Márquez’s finest works, Arturo Ripstein confirms his standing as Mexico’s foremost auteur with this deeply moving tale of an old couple’s painful memories and false hopes. In a small, coastal Mexican town in the late ’40s the Colonel, a retired army official, and his asthmatic wife Lola are going through hard times, scarred by the death of their only son and struggling to avoid eviction from their home. Weakened from ill health, Lola maintains a pragmatic view of the situation, while the Colonel blindly sets his hopes on two dreams: that his pension will suddenly arrive after 27 years, and that his son’s fighting gamecock will bring untold riches. Supporting characters, including Salma Hayek as the son’s ex-lover, add to the script’s recognition that life is a complex flow of events in which every person has a reason for his or her actions. For Ripstein there is neither good nor evil, only the interaction of contradictory emotions under the inexorable hand of fate. Guillermo Granillo’s skilled lensing develops the film’s dense visual style, creating an atmosphere of pathos and decay out of shabby, dimly lit interiors, but the show belongs to Spanish actress Marisa Paredes and her performance of hurtful dignity and quiet rage.
—Leonardo Garcia Tsao, Variety
FACTOID #343
Director Sally Potter was the first person to be honored with the Festival’s Satyajit Ray Award. In 1993 she was interviewed onstage and her new film Orlando was screened. In 2005, she turned the tables by interviewing Peter J. Owens Award recipient Joan Allen.
