| Director : | Arturo Ripstein |
| Screenplay : | Paz Alicia Garciadiego |
| Cinematographer : | Guillermo Granillo |
| Edition : | Fernando Pardo |
| Cast : | Marisa Paredes, Fernando Lujan, Salma Hayek, Ernesto Yanez, Odiseo Bichir, Rafael Inclan |
| Production : |
Producciones Amaranta Atletas # 2, C.P. 04220 Mexico, D.F.,
Mexico Tel.: 5 544 54 25 Fax: 5 549 0751 |
| World Sales : | Christa
Saredi Staffelstrasse 8, 8045 Zurich, Switzerland Tel.: 1 201
11 51 Fax: 1 201 11 52 |
| Col., 120min., 1999 |
|
No One Writes to the Colonel
Directed by: Arturo Ripstein Starring: Marisa Paredes, Fernando Lujan, Salma Hayek Running time: 118 minutes My rating (5 star scale): **1/2 Spanish with English subtitles Don't be fooled by Salma Hayek's name in the credits, this is an art film. Ripstein is a great director (Deep Crimson) and (Divine) for examples of his best work. And in this film he works from a story by a great writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Unfortunately, the film is flat. The Colonel is waiting for his pension. He has waited for decades and no one really believes it will come. His wife is slowly dying and their poverty isn't helping. Their son died in fight over his battlecock (cock fighting is the major preoccupation of their small town). His lover, the local prostitute, sneaks food to the elderly couple who are too proud to ask for or accept charity. All their hopes rest on the fighting cock whose victory in the November fights could give them the money they desperately need. This sounds like the makings of an intense film with deep character development. But that doesn't happen. We see the surfaces of these characters but never get beneath. Their lives are full of tragedy, but we really don't care. Instead of getting emotionally involved. we remain cold observers. I can't believe this is what Ripstein was striving for and I can't understand what went wrong. Perhaps as a lifelong admirer of Marquez, he found it impossible to impose his own artistic vision on the great writer's work. |
http://www.interlog.com/~jenoff/colonel.htm
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