The story, Love in the time of Cholera, is a story of tenacious love packed full of metaphors that tell of a young man’s (Florentino Ariza) lifelong passion for a beautiful woman (Fermina) who he fell in love with at first sight. Unfortunately, his first love marries another man because of his of higher status and family pressures.
I watched the movie version of Love In The Time Of Cholera which is the movie is adapted from the novel of the same title.
The story begins when Fermina's husband, in his seventies, falls off a ladder and dies. Meanwhile, Florentino, now an old man himself, is in bed with a young woman when he hears the bells of death and realizes that is it none other than Fermina's husband for whom he has been waiting for to die for many years. He abandon's his current bed mate and goes directly to Fermina's house after her husbands funeral. He tells her that he still loves her and has been waiting years for this opportunity to gain her hand. Of course, she promptly throws him out and tells him not to come back.
Now the viewer or reader has to find out the story behind all this love and drama. We are taken back in time to hear the story from the beginning. A story of a failed romance between Florentino Ariza and Fermina. It is told of how he meets her as a young man, working as a telegraph messenger, and how one day he is dispatched to deliver a telegram to a new household in town. The head of this new household is an ambitious, rough domoneering man named Lorenzo who resides his young daughter, Fermina. It was love at first sight for Florentino. They catch each others eye and secretly begin exchanging letters, falling in love through their correspondence. Florentino eventually asks Fermina to marry him, and she says yes. Inevitably, her father finds the letters they have been writing and forbids the two to have any further contact. He decides to take Fermina away to their relatives village to keep her from Florentino. Of course, Florentino is too low in status to meet Lorenzo's high standards and Lorenzo tells Florentino to stay away forever. Lorenzo then continues his plan for Fermina to become a member of the upper class by marrying her off to a more suitable man. In spite of the forced separation, Florintino and Fermina continue to communicate. The years pass, and Florentino is now a bit older, but he still obsessively waits for Fermina's return. When Fermina finally does return, Florentino follows her to the market and reveals himself. However, Fermina who is also now several years older also, has second thoughts about Florentino, deciding to tell him that she is no longer in love with him. Florentino is distraught and heartbroken. Bad news for everyone. One day, Fermina becomes sick, and her father fears it is the prevalent disease of cholera. He sends for a doctor, Juvenal Urbino, to examine her. Juvenal examines her and says that she doesn't have cholera and will get better soon. During that visit, Fermina has caught the doctor's eye and he asks he fathers permission to pursue her. Of course the doctor meets the father's standards and he gives him his blessings. Fermina is initially cold to him and but is eventually coerced and in time consents to marry the doctor. Meanwhile, Florentino's life is a mess and his clingy mother has prevailed on Florentino's uncle to send him away with a job so he will get on with his life and hopefully forget his true love. As Florentino travels by river boat to his new job, he is ambushed by a young woman who effectively rapes him, forcing him to (finally) break his self imposed vows of virginity and faithfulness to Fermina. He is astonished by the sex, is soon overcome with guilt and returns back home. Meanwhile, Fermina has married Juvenal and has gone on a long honeymoon to Paris. Florentino finds out and he is distraught again. By chance, young woman seeks shelter at Florentino's home. Florentino winds up in bed with her, and begins to realize that sleeping with random women he doesn't care for fills some of the emotional void that his love for Fermina has created. Fermina eventually returns, and although Florentino sees her from time to time, there is no chance of winning her. He decides to raise his status by going to work for his uncle. As he works and grows older, he still write love letters for illiterate lovers and inappropriately for business correspondence. while at work. By this time Florentino has slept with hundreds of women, none of which he seems to care about. In one of his conquests, he seduces a young married woman. He begins to fall for her, and of course her husband finds out and murders her. Looking for love in all the wrong places, Florentino sets himself up for a broken heart but none the less continues his evergoing female sexual conquests. Pobre hombre Florentino...
Fermina's relationship with Juvenal is not doing well either. It is boring and lacks passion. Dr. Juvenal has an affair, and of course this causes problems with their relationship. Fermina leaves to visit her rural relatives again. Florentino becomes president of the river boat company after his uncle retires. Fast forward to the present day in the movie and after Juvenal dies in the accident (as shown in the beginning of the film ) and Florentino is thrown out, Florentino continues to write to her. Eventually her attitude towards Florentino shifts and they begin to see each other a bit. They journey and finally have a relationship at over 50 years from when they first met.
This story transcends borders mostly because of it's universal message and paradigms. Florentino and Juvenal represent men of different status who are opposite in many ways. This sets up the conflict. The conflict defines that Florentino's life is is about the relentless pursuit of lost love and Juvenal's life is about stability and doing everything the "right"or properly accepted way. This is what makes the story interesting and spices it up with real world meaning. Dr. Juvenal represents the pillar of society who has the right job, the right position in society, but is passionless and filled with the monotony of conforming while Florentino is a low status, holds on to his emotions and who beds as many women as possible to fill his empty, meaningless life. At the end, as Juvenal lays dying, he says to Fermina, "Only God knows how much I loved you". This statement is interesting because Fermina indeed has no idea how much he loved her, yet he gave her fifty years of stable marriage. Florentino slept with hundreds of women he cared little for yet always loved Fermina intensely. The story exposes the life choices we all have to make with our lives, and which never are clearly black or white.
The class struggle is what Paulo Freire strove to eliminate through education. This, of course is admirable - and equal education for everyone certainly would level things then and now. However it seems, as long as we have a complex government structure with many people, there will always be be some sort social stratification. Striving for social status seems to be a central theme of the story and it appears that if both men were of equal status in their younger years, would be no story because Florentino would have been approved by Fermina's father and they would have lived happily every after - maybe.
Comments about the movie
The critics say it is a drama, but to me, it lies somewhere between a drama, comedy and an art film. In other words, it seems to have no identity. I still enjoyed the story and the funny parts of the movie for sure - but the part that Florentino plays reeks of an immature boy who is attached at the hip to his mother and refuses to grow up. While It is an entertaining story, it is not believable to me that someone would hang around for 50 years in the name of love. The music and the location shooting in Columbia was great and I saw some beautiful scenery.
Cholera as the underlying theme is interesting, but could have been developed more effectively in my opinion. It would be also interesting to have integrated the underlying poverty and suffering experienced by the peasants who and seeing more of how it affected everyone in this love drama. I personally feel it is futile and a waste of your life's time to wait 50 years for anyone.
I liked the acting but Ferinma's cousin who is played by Catalina Sandino Moreno (who starred in Maria, full of Grace) has a great character's personality would have made a better lead actress. She is charming, fun and attractive. Personally, I might wait a (few) years for her... if I were Florentino.
One other thought- the use of English with the Spanish accent doesn't cut it for me. It should have been in Spanish with English subtitles. Other than the funny lines and scenes there certainly was some excellent and thoughtful writing in the movie.
At the end, in a letter to Fermina, Florentino writes:
“Age has no reality except in the physical world. The essence of a human being is resistant to the passage of time. Our inner lives are eternal, which is to say that our spirits remain as youthful and vigorous as when we were in full bloom. Think of love as a state of grace, not the means to anything, but the alpha and omega. An end in itself.”
The separation between physical age and the essence of your being is interesting to me in that while your physical being may get old and deteriorate your spirit can remain constant. It is only when you let your physical age control your spirit that you begin to wither away.
From last week
Candace researched Contemporary or post modern music because she loves music and enjoys learning the types of effects music can have a time, or a people.
Susan wrote about Rigoberta Menchu who is an indigenous Guatemalan, from the K'iche' Maya ethnic group. She dedicated and put her life into publicizing the plight of Guatemala's indigenous peoples during and after the Guatemalan Civil War.
Kim wrote about deaf sign languages which are the natural languages developed by Deaf people and used in everyday life. She said that in many countries, the Deaf sign languages are barred in schools for the deaf and are used mainly outside the classroom and within the Deaf community.
Kathy wrote about Félix Rubéen García Sarmiento also known as 'Rubén Darío'. He was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-American literary movement known as Modernismo (modernism), flourishing at the end of the 19th century.
Melissa wrote about Carlos Fuentes who is a Mexican novelist, playwright, essayist and journalist. His most famous international breakthrough came in 1962 with the novel La Muerte de Artemio Cruz or The Death of Artemio Cruz. The Death of Artemio Cruz was very different from any prior work because it was written in first, second, and third person narration.
Michelle discussed Luisa Valenzuela’s writings which push the boundaries, question the elite social structures, and does it with a feminist perspective. She said that her style is distinguished by a decidedly feminist slant in contrast with the male dominated world of literature.
Sara chose to research the Bracero Program because she found it interesting and wanted to learn more about if it and if it could be used more efficiently in today's society.
Shannon, like myself, also wrote about the life of Caser Chavez. One thing found she interesting is the legacy of Chavez. His birthday March 31 is formally observed in 8 states.
I missed that one...
Stacy, in writing about the UFW, feels that labor unions are one of the strongest and necessary forces for the working people, fighting for their rights and protecting against exploitation.
Theresa wrote about Rigoberta Menchu, an activist, whose achievement was pursuing peace and justice for indigenous and poor people that she to once suffered growing up.
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