Remembrance of my sad whores - DVD

Film: El Sabo (Emilio Echevarria) has a big wish: the night of his 90th birthday, the journalist wants to spend in the arms of a beautiful virgin. In fact, the brothel owner Rosa Cabarcas (Geraldine Chaplin) manages to find the right girl for El Sabo: a young seamstress (Paola Medina), whom the old man calls Delgadina in reference to one of his favorite songs. But instead of spending a passionate night with his birthday present, the man just watches the sleeping beauty. There is something special about the girl that El Sabo is trying to figure out. As he recalls his past, in which he has had many women, experienced much pleasure but never felt true love, a very special bond develops between him and Delgadina, completely devoid of words. But when the old man fears that Rosa has sold the girl's innocence to another suitor, the notion triggers feelings hitherto completely unknown in El Sabo...

Memories of My Sad Harlots is based on the novel of the same name by Nobel Prize winner in literature Gabriel García Márquez. Danish filmmaker Henning Carlsen has conjured a quiet drama from the original, which runs just over 100 pages, and its lightness captures the spirit of the book very well. The images, wonderfully captured by Alejandro Martinez, are beautifully accompanied by the music of Oscar-nominated composer Javier Navarrete (Pan`s Labyrinth), allowing the story to unfold adequately on all levels. As a mixture of drama, very restrained humor, sensitive eroticism and yearning passion, the look back at a life without love turns out to be a great declaration of love for life.

Particularly in the second half, the production has some hangs, whereby the mixture, which in itself is very balanced, no longer seems quite so harmonious. But thanks to the good actors and the appealing visual language, the novel adaptation works quite well even in these rather weak moments. Lovers of quiet, almost poetic arthouse cinema and those viewers who were thrilled by the book will definitely appreciate the film's unagitated staging and beautiful images. Recommended!

Image + Sound: The beautiful images captured by cinematographer Alejandro Martinez come through well on the DVD. With an atmospheric color scheme and decent overall sharpness, the clean picture leaves an overall good impression. The same goes for the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, where the beautiful score and dialogue in particular dominate the audio proceedings. An overall rather restrained, but very coherent conversion.

Extras: Except for the trailer, the DVD has no bonus material to offer.

Conclusion: Remembrance of My Sad Harlots is a very successful adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez's novel, mixing drama, light humor and eroticism into a whole worth seeing. For arthouse lovers who like stories immersed in beautiful images, despite a few minor hangs and despite the lack of extras, definitely recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp