Earthquake in Chile (film)
Earthquake in Chile is a 1975 West German television drama film directed by Helma Sanders-Brahms. The film is an adaptation of the Heinrich von Kleist novella The Earthquake in Chile.
Plot
Handsome Jeronimo Rugera is hired to tutor rich heiress Josephe Asteron. They fall in love, yet the church forbids their relationship, and Josephe is hidden in a convent. When the church discovers she is pregnant, Josephe is sentenced to death by decapitation. Jeronimo tracks her down, yet is jailed before he can rescue her. When fate intervenes in the form of a massive earthquake, the two lovers have no idea what is in store for them. Sanders-Brahms uses a voice-over of the first and final sentences of the book, placing them at the beginning and end of the film.Analysis
According to critic Elaine Martin, author of the scholarly article "Rewrites and Remakes: Screen Adaptations of Romantic Works," the film director "erases the uncanny aspect of Kleist's tale and replaces it with a socio-political explanation" and intended to politicize the earthquake narrative's context in a higher degree compared to the original work. For the adaptation Sanders-Brahms uses parallel plotlines that intersect in the end instead of the flashbacks used in the original work. Sanders-Brahms created story segments referred to by Martin as "pre-stories, as it were." Martin states that the new segments "locate" the characters "socially and temperamentally." In addition Sanders-Brahms removed the nineteenth century Prussia context, what Martin calls "the stage that represents Kleist's narrative filter." The author added that the ending of the film is "less sanguine" compared to the novella because the director added a "veiled reference" to the "economic value" of the surviving child. The child is scheduled to inherit the wealth of the parents, who are dead. She further wrote that in the film Don Fernando is "a coolly calculating businessman, shaped by a bourgeois business mentality" instead of a "divine hero."Cast
- Julia Peña as Josephe Asteron
- Victor Alcázar as Jeronimo Rugera
- Juan Amigo as Don Fernando Ormez
- María Jesús Hoyos as Dona Elvira Ormez
- María Vico as Dona Elisabeth Ormez
- Antonio Gamero as Shoemaker Pedrillo
- Raquel Rodrigo as Shoemaker Pedrillo's Wife
- Antonio Requena as Barber
- Ángel Álvarez as Bishop
- José Villasante as Familiar
- Miguel Angel Andes as Dominican
- Fernando Villena as Don Henrico Asteron
- Marisa Porcel as Warden's Wife
- Fernando Sánchez Polack as Warden
- Francisco Ortuño as Mestizo
- María de la Riva as Indian Woman