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While the on location filming of "Love in the Time of the Cholera" is still going on, Cartageneros remember former movie productions that got realized in the walled city of Cartagena. Stars like Robert de Niro, Marlon Brando, Jean Seberg or Klaus Kinski have worked in Cartagena on different productions. Italian actor Salvo Basile ("Once Upon a Time in the West", "Chronicle of a Death Foretold", "The Mission", "Burn") fall in love with Cartagena and became resident after the making of "Burn" in 1969.
While the Cartagena based story of "Romancing the Stone" with Michael Douglas actually was filmed in Veracruz, Mexico the most famous movie introducing Cartagena was "The Mission": Filmed on location on the Iguazú Falls between Argentinia and Brazil and in the Old Town of Cartagena de Indias. Anyhow: If you ask Cartagena's residents about films made in Cartagena the first movie that comes up is "La Quemada", better known under the Brazilian title "Queimada" or the English translation "Burn".
"Queimada" was filmed in 1969 with Marlon Brando and Evaristo Marquez a "a nonprofessional Colombian" -as stated by the new York Times review- as main characters. Indeed Evaristo Marquez was no actor at all, but a poor villager who replaced Sidney Portier! The Italian production was directed by Gillo Pontecorvo, who became famous as director of "The Battle of Algiers". But filming was not easy: NYT critics Vincent Canby wrote 1970: "In the course of its production, "Burn!" (originally titled "Queimada") turned into a kind of mini "Cleopatra." There were stories of illnesses, reports of feuds and rumors of romances. The location of sites near Cartagena, Colombia, became so rugged that shooting was shifted to North Africa. The film went over its schedule and over its budget, but this can only explain some minor technical failings."
A sign on the building on the corner of Calle Amargura and Calle Ladrinal -between Plaza San pedro Claver and Parque Bolivar- reminds of "La Quemada": After the filming several crew members transformed the fictive bar to a real one: The owners and names have change often since then, in between there have been the "Hardock Café", Pizzerias and more.
Some crew members of "Love in the Time of the Cholera" got to know Cartagena already during the filming of "The Mission" in 1985. The movie got 7 Academy Award Nominations (including best picture), Chris Menges got the Oscar for Best Cinematography. The cast included Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons, directed by Roland Joffé. Though the story was settled in the Mission area between Argentinia, Paraguay and Brazil a major part of the production was filmed in the historic Cartagena.
Two years later the Werner Herzog ("Fitzcarraldo", "Aguirre: The Wrath of God") came to Cartagena for the filming of "Cobra Verde", based on Bruce Chatwins novel "The Victory of Ouidah". This movie was filmed in Ghana and different Colombian locations: Cartagena, Cali and in the Guajira.
"Chronicle of a Death Foretold" -based on the novel "Crónica de una muerte anunciada" by Gabriel García Márquez- was filmed in Cartagena and Mompox. Francesco Rossi so far was one of the few directors to convince the Colombian writer to sell the rights for screen adaption.
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Cartagena
