Chronicle of a Death Foretold (film)
Encyclopedia
Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a drama film
directed by Francesco Rosi
adapted by Tonino Guerra
from the eponymous novel
by Gabriel García Márquez
. It stars Rupert Everett
, Ornella Muti
, Anthony Delon
and Gian Maria Volonté
. The film premiered at Cannes film festival in May 1987.
city in the banks of the Magdalena River
. Santiago Nasar is his best friend, who has been murdered three decades ago. Being bothered by this accident for a long time, Cristóbal attempts to recreate the event and communicates with those close to Santiago. Their memories take them to the time of the crime.
On the day he was eventually killed, Santiago Nasar had a dream about birds that his mother mistakenly took as good omen of good health. Six months before, a handsome, young foreigner arrives to the town. His name is Bayardo San Román. Little is known about him except that he is very rich and in want of a wife. Bayardo is soon smitten by the extraordinary beauty of a local girl, Angela Vicario. She is uninterested in his advances, but Bayardo does whatever it takes to win her approval by showering her with gifts. The next time Bayardo sees her, she is selling tickets of a lottery at a town event. He buys all of the raffle tickets and wins a music box, which he then has delivered to her house as a gift. Bayardo asks Angela what house she likes best, and she replies that she likes the one that belongs to the widower Xius. The widower insists that the house is not for sale, but Bayardo keeps offering more and more money until Xius gives in.
When Angela protests to her parents that she does not love Bayardo, her mother dismissed that idea, telling her that love could be learned. Pressured by her family, she yields and the couple get married with a lavish party. On the wedding night, Bayardo discovers that Angela is not virgin and returns her to her bewildered family. Angela is beaten by her mother until she is forced to confess who was the man who took her virginity. She says that it was Santiago Nasar. Angela’s twin brothers are forced by local custom to avenge the honor of the family, taking Santiago’s life.
The murder takes place the day after the wedding, when the town is in turmoil waiting for the visit of the bishop who is crossing the city by the river. The twin brothers Pablo and Pedro Vicario are reluctant to commit the crime, but they have no other choice, they must kill the man who took her sister’s honor. They are quite open about their intentions and the rumor about what is about to occur spreads to the town. The twins, with knives wrapped in newspaper, wait for Santiago to appear in the store of Clotilde Armenta who gives them rum
, hoping to make them so drunk they cannot do anything. Eventually, many people learn of the murder plan, but nobody does anything to stop the brothers, or warn Santiago. People in the town are divided into three sides. Those who think that the brothers are kidding, people who know what is going to happen and think that the tragedy must be stopped, and local authorities who fail to exercise their duties and prevent the murder to occur. It seems that people chose to keep Santiago in the dark and allow the tragedy to happen.
Flora, Santiago’s girlfriend, is upset and humiliated when she learns the accusation and about the death threats. When Santiago comes to see her, she is furious. She tells him that she hopes they kill him, and she goes into her room and locks the door. Flora’s father tells him that the Vicarios want to kill him. Santiago leaves the house, and starts to head home. When Santiago appears by the plaza, he is prevented by Clotilde who yells at him to run for his life. Santiago is unarmed, so he tries to find refugies in his house. But his mother, locks the door because she thinks that he was inside. The Vicario twins stabs him and kill him in the town main square.
There is no evidence that Santiago has taken Angela’s virginity. They were never seen together. It is widely believed in town that Angela was protecting the real culprit. However, in the criminal and after the murder, even when she was questioned again 27 years later from Cristóbal, she never changed her story, that Santiago Nasar was her "author".
Angela, who up until her marriage was not in love with Bayardo, falls hopelessly in love with him after the tragic wedding night. From then on and for many years, she writes love letters to him weekly, but she never hears from him. Then, halfway through a day, Bayardo comes back into her unexpectedly. He leaves a trace with the unopened letters she has sent him, Angela follows them and they are reunited.
) as the man she falls for, and the then unknown Rupert Everett.
which Anthony Delon attended with co-stars Rupert Everett
and Ornella Muti
. The film was a critical success in Latin America and Europe but was snubbed by critics in France.
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Francesco Rosi
Francesco Rosi
Francesco Rosi is an Italian film director. He is the father of actress Carolina Rosi.-Biography:After studying Law, but hoping to study film, Rosi entered the industry as an assistant to Luchino Visconti on La Terra trema...
adapted by Tonino Guerra
Tonino Guerra
Tonino Guerra is an Italian poet, writer and screenwriter who has collaborated with some of the most prominent film directors of the world.-Biography:Guerra was born in Santarcangelo di Romagna....
from the eponymous novel
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a novella by Gabriel García Márquez, published in 1981...
by Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
. It stars Rupert Everett
Rupert Everett
Rupert James Hector Everett is an English actor. He first came to public attention in 1981, when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film Another Country as an openly gay student at an English public school, set in the 1930s...
, Ornella Muti
Ornella Muti
Ornella Muti is an Italian actress. She was born in Rome as Francesca Romana Rivelli, to a Neapolitan father and Russian mother. Her maternal grandparents immigrated from Leningrad , Russia, to Estonia...
, Anthony Delon
Anthony Delon
Anthony Delon is a French-American actor, and son of actors Alain Delon and Nathalie Delon .-Selected filmography:* Poliss...
and Gian Maria Volonté
Gian Maria Volontè
Gian Maria Volonté was an Italian actor. He is perhaps most famous outside of Italy for his roles as the main villain in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More.-Early life:Volonté was born in Milan, and graduated in Rome in 1957...
. The film premiered at Cannes film festival in May 1987.
Plot
Cristóbal Bedoya, who is also called "Cristo", is a medical doctor. He has been away from home for 27 years. Currently he comes back to his hometown, which is a small ColombianColombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
city in the banks of the Magdalena River
Magdalena River
The Magdalena River is the principal river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of its lower reaches, in spite of the shifting sand bars at the mouth of its delta, as...
. Santiago Nasar is his best friend, who has been murdered three decades ago. Being bothered by this accident for a long time, Cristóbal attempts to recreate the event and communicates with those close to Santiago. Their memories take them to the time of the crime.
On the day he was eventually killed, Santiago Nasar had a dream about birds that his mother mistakenly took as good omen of good health. Six months before, a handsome, young foreigner arrives to the town. His name is Bayardo San Román. Little is known about him except that he is very rich and in want of a wife. Bayardo is soon smitten by the extraordinary beauty of a local girl, Angela Vicario. She is uninterested in his advances, but Bayardo does whatever it takes to win her approval by showering her with gifts. The next time Bayardo sees her, she is selling tickets of a lottery at a town event. He buys all of the raffle tickets and wins a music box, which he then has delivered to her house as a gift. Bayardo asks Angela what house she likes best, and she replies that she likes the one that belongs to the widower Xius. The widower insists that the house is not for sale, but Bayardo keeps offering more and more money until Xius gives in.
When Angela protests to her parents that she does not love Bayardo, her mother dismissed that idea, telling her that love could be learned. Pressured by her family, she yields and the couple get married with a lavish party. On the wedding night, Bayardo discovers that Angela is not virgin and returns her to her bewildered family. Angela is beaten by her mother until she is forced to confess who was the man who took her virginity. She says that it was Santiago Nasar. Angela’s twin brothers are forced by local custom to avenge the honor of the family, taking Santiago’s life.
The murder takes place the day after the wedding, when the town is in turmoil waiting for the visit of the bishop who is crossing the city by the river. The twin brothers Pablo and Pedro Vicario are reluctant to commit the crime, but they have no other choice, they must kill the man who took her sister’s honor. They are quite open about their intentions and the rumor about what is about to occur spreads to the town. The twins, with knives wrapped in newspaper, wait for Santiago to appear in the store of Clotilde Armenta who gives them rum
Rum
Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...
, hoping to make them so drunk they cannot do anything. Eventually, many people learn of the murder plan, but nobody does anything to stop the brothers, or warn Santiago. People in the town are divided into three sides. Those who think that the brothers are kidding, people who know what is going to happen and think that the tragedy must be stopped, and local authorities who fail to exercise their duties and prevent the murder to occur. It seems that people chose to keep Santiago in the dark and allow the tragedy to happen.
Flora, Santiago’s girlfriend, is upset and humiliated when she learns the accusation and about the death threats. When Santiago comes to see her, she is furious. She tells him that she hopes they kill him, and she goes into her room and locks the door. Flora’s father tells him that the Vicarios want to kill him. Santiago leaves the house, and starts to head home. When Santiago appears by the plaza, he is prevented by Clotilde who yells at him to run for his life. Santiago is unarmed, so he tries to find refugies in his house. But his mother, locks the door because she thinks that he was inside. The Vicario twins stabs him and kill him in the town main square.
There is no evidence that Santiago has taken Angela’s virginity. They were never seen together. It is widely believed in town that Angela was protecting the real culprit. However, in the criminal and after the murder, even when she was questioned again 27 years later from Cristóbal, she never changed her story, that Santiago Nasar was her "author".
Angela, who up until her marriage was not in love with Bayardo, falls hopelessly in love with him after the tragic wedding night. From then on and for many years, she writes love letters to him weekly, but she never hears from him. Then, halfway through a day, Bayardo comes back into her unexpectedly. He leaves a trace with the unopened letters she has sent him, Angela follows them and they are reunited.
Cast
While many of the actors are unknown to American audiences, Chronicle of a Death Foretold has a cast of international European stars. The film displays the talent of the veterans Irene Papas and Gian Maria Volontè. However, the casting was notable for its use of upcoming young European actors: Ornella Muti, as the beautiful and mysterious Angela Vicario who motivates the drama, Anthony Delon (son of Alain DelonAlain Delon
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon is a French actor. He rose quickly to stardom, and by the age of 23 was already being compared to French actors such as Gérard Philipe and Jean Marais, as well as American actor James Dean. He was even called the male Brigitte Bardot...
) as the man she falls for, and the then unknown Rupert Everett.
- Ornella MutiOrnella MutiOrnella Muti is an Italian actress. She was born in Rome as Francesca Romana Rivelli, to a Neapolitan father and Russian mother. Her maternal grandparents immigrated from Leningrad , Russia, to Estonia...
- Angela Vicario - Rupert EverettRupert EverettRupert James Hector Everett is an English actor. He first came to public attention in 1981, when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film Another Country as an openly gay student at an English public school, set in the 1930s...
- Bayardo San Román - Gian Maria VolontéGian Maria VolontèGian Maria Volonté was an Italian actor. He is perhaps most famous outside of Italy for his roles as the main villain in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More.-Early life:Volonté was born in Milan, and graduated in Rome in 1957...
- Cristobal Bedoya - Anthony DelonAnthony DelonAnthony Delon is a French-American actor, and son of actors Alain Delon and Nathalie Delon .-Selected filmography:* Poliss...
- Santiago Nasar - Lucia BoséLucia BoséLucia Bosè, born Lucia Borloni , is an Italian actress, who was at the height of her fame during the period of Italian Neorealism, the 1940s and 1950s. She is the mother of famous Spanish singer Miguel Bosé.-Life and career:...
- Placida Linero - Irene PapasIrene PapasIrene Papas is a Greek actress and occasional singer, who has starred in over seventy films in a career spanning more than fifty years.-Life:...
- Angela’s mother - Sergi Mateu - young Cristóbal
- Vicky HernándezVicky HernándezVicky Hernández is a Colombian movie, theater and TV actress.-Film:*2005 Les Gens Honnêtes Vivent en France *2004 Perder es Cuestión de Método, de Sergio Cabrera*2004 El Cristo de Plata*2000 Proof of Life, de Taylor Hackford - prod...
- Clotilde Armaneta - Alain CunyAlain CunyAlain Cuny was a French actor.He was born René Xavier Marie in Saint-Malo, Brittany, and studied medicine for a while before entering the film industry as a costume and set designer. Cuny started acting in the 1930s...
- widower Xius - Carolina Rosi - Flora Miguel
Reception
The film was released as the opening film at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival1987 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*Yves Montand*Danièle Heymann*Elem Klimov*Gérald Calderon*Jeremy Thomas*Jerzy Skolimowski*Nicola Piovani*Norman Mailer*Theo Angelopoulos-Feature film competition:...
which Anthony Delon attended with co-stars Rupert Everett
Rupert Everett
Rupert James Hector Everett is an English actor. He first came to public attention in 1981, when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film Another Country as an openly gay student at an English public school, set in the 1930s...
and Ornella Muti
Ornella Muti
Ornella Muti is an Italian actress. She was born in Rome as Francesca Romana Rivelli, to a Neapolitan father and Russian mother. Her maternal grandparents immigrated from Leningrad , Russia, to Estonia...
. The film was a critical success in Latin America and Europe but was snubbed by critics in France.