cholera?

no.36 Love in the Time of Cholera

So didn't live up to my expectations. Not that I didn't enjoy it, or the performances. Javier Bardem can't do anything wrong. He inhabits every ounce of Florentino Ariza. He's so stiff, timid, his vocal cadence holds the pulse...he fucks like an old man even when he's 25. Bardem pulls Florentino off the pages with a rip and a tear. What can't that man do? Seriously? His understanding and ability to capture the frailty and glow of the human spirit is overwhelming.

As for everything else, well, it was okay. Costumes were great. Makeup was pretty good, too.

The one scene I was super happy with was understated in the novel; one paragraph and two lines of dialogue. When the couple has finally found themselves alone, on their voyage, in her quarters. It's so subtle in the text, seeing it on screen made such an impact, I don't know how I was able to read so little into it, literally. Yeah, this is not an easy read, it's SO compact, dense. I think every great Latin/South American author is intense, complicated, thoroughly enjoyable, but they make you work for it.

"Maybe it's time to ask ourselves, with our strong desire to live, what to do with the love that has been left behind without a master?"

It's such a beautiful line and he knocks it out of the park.