Papa: Hemingway in Cuba | |
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Directed by | Bob Yari |
Written by | Denne Bart Petitclerc |
Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Ernesto Melara |
Edited by | Glen Scantlebury |
Music by | Mark Isham |
Distributed by | Yari Film Group |
Release dates |
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Running time | 109 minutes |
Countries |
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Language | English |
Budget | £100,000 (US$123,000) [1] |
Box office | $4.6 million [2] |
Papa: Hemingway in Cuba is a 2015 Canadian-American biographical film. It was written by Denne Bart Petitclerc, and directed by Bob Yari. The film is based on events from Ernest Hemingway's life in Havana, Cuba in the 1950s, and on a friendship that developed there between Hemingway and Petitclerc, who was then a young journalist. [3] The film received generally unfavorable reviews. [4]
In 1959, young journalist Ed Myers (a character representing Petitclerc) is working for a Miami newspaper. He wants to be a writer and had long admired Ernest Hemingway, then living in Cuba. Myers writes to Hemingway and is surprised when he answers, inviting the journalist to Cuba to go fishing with him. While the Cuban Revolution comes to a boil around them, Hemingway advises Myers on his writing. Myers continues to write articles for his newspaper, reporting on the Revolution.
An early scene from the film depicts rebels allied with Fidel Castro bursting into a street near Havana's Government Palace to confront soldiers loyal to the government of Fulgencio Batista. Hemingway and Myers take cover, with Hemingway guiding Myers through the war zone. They gradually develop a friendship and Myers spends an increasing amount of time with Hemingway and his fourth wife Mary. [5]
Petitclerc had written the screenplay and had begun working on production of the film at the time of his death in 2006. [6]
Production on location in Cuba concluded in May 2014. It was the first Hollywood film to be filmed in Cuba since the 1959 revolution, according to The Hollywood Reporter. [5] The filmmakers received permission to film inside Finca Vigía, Hemingway's residence from 1939 to 1960. The government later adapted it as a national museum. [7] Hemingway wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea at Finca Vigía. [7]
The film's title, Papa, was Hemingway's nickname. He was called "Papa" by his colleagues and admirers, as well as his family. [8] [9]
Papa: Hemingway in Cuba received generally negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 11% based on reviews from 45 critics. The site's consensus quoted Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea (1952) in concluding, "A man can be destroyed but not defeated, although the desultory Papa: Hemingway in Cuba makes one feel as if both can be accomplished by watching a single film." [10] On Metacritic it had a score of 37 out of 100, based on reviews from 17 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". [4]
Joe Leydon of Variety wrote that the film "never transcends the tropes of a formulaic biopic that views its famous subject through the eyes of a worshipful young devotee." [11] Miriam Di Nunzio of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 2.5 out of 4 and called it "A film that is beautiful to look at but lacks clear vision." [7] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave it 2 out 4 and gave the film a mixed review: "Papa gives us sights to revel in. Oddly, what hurts is the clunky, overripe script." [12] Helen Verongos of The New York Times wrote: "Ms. Richardson comforts and coaxes and exasperatedly, bitingly demeans, but she and Mr. Sparks play past each other instead of engaging." [13]
Bacardi Limited is the largest privately held, family-owned spirits company in the world. Originally known for its Bacardí brand of white rum, it now has a portfolio of more than 200 brands and labels. Founded in Cuba in 1862 by the Spanish businessmen Facundo Bacardí Massó, Bacardi Limited has been family-owned for seven generations, and employs more than 8,000 people with sales in approximately 170 countries. Bacardi Limited is the group of companies as a whole and includes Bacardi International Limited.
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle and outspoken, blunt public image. Some of his seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction works have become classics of American literature, and he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.
For Whom the Bell Tolls is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer attached to a Republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As a dynamiter, he is assigned to blow up a bridge during an attack on the city of Segovia.
Margaux Louise Hemingway was an American fashion model and actress. The granddaughter of writer Ernest Hemingway, she gained independent fame as a supermodel in the 1970s, appearing on the covers of magazines including Cosmopolitan, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and Time. Her younger sister Mariel is a well-known Hollywood actress.
A Moveable Feast is a memoir by Ernest Hemingway about his years as a struggling expatriate journalist and writer in Paris during the 1920s. It was published posthumously in 1964. The book chronicles Hemingway's first marriage to Hadley Richardson and his relationships with other cultural figures of the Lost Generation in interwar France.
True at First Light is a book by American writer Ernest Hemingway about his 1953–54 safari in Kenya with his fourth wife Mary. It was released posthumously in his centennial year in 1999. In the book, which blends memoir and fiction, Hemingway explores conflict within a marriage, the conflict between the European and native cultures in Africa, and the fear a writer feels when his work becomes impossible. True at First Light includes descriptions of his earlier friendships with other writers and digressive ruminations on the nature of writing.
San Miguel del Padrón is one of the 15 municipalities/boroughs into which the city of Havana, Cuba is divided. It is on Havana's south-eastern outskirts, stretching from Ciudad Mar to Diezmero and from Reparto Mañana to Caballo Blanco.
George Washington is a 2000 American drama film written and directed by David Gordon Green in his directorial debut. Its story centers on a group of children in a depressed small town in North Carolina who band together to cover up a tragic mistake.
Finca Vigía is a house in San Francisco de Paula Ward in Havana, Cuba which was once the residence of Ernest Hemingway. Like Hemingway's Key West home, it is now a museum. The building was constructed in 1886.
Denne Bart Petitclerc was an American journalist, war correspondent, author, television producer, and screenwriter.
Havana is a 1990 American drama film starring Robert Redford, Lena Olin, Alan Arkin and Raul Julia, directed by Sydney Pollack with music by Dave Grusin. The film's plot concerns Jack Weil (Redford), an American professional gambler who decides to visit Havana, Cuba to gamble in 1958 on the eve of the Cuban Revolution.
Bob Yari is an Iranian-born American film producer and director.
Modelo Brewery, designed by the Cuban architect Enrique Luis Varela, was built in 1948 for Compañia Ron Bacardi S.A. Its address is the corner of 52 and Carretera Central, Cotorro, Havana, Cuba. In 1952, Ernest Hemingway featured Hatuey beer in his book The Old Man and the Sea. When he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the company threw him a party at the Modelo Brewery. Hemingway was a frequent patron of the brewery since it was located near to his home in Havana at Finca Vigía.
Floridita or El Floridita is a historic fish restaurant and cocktail bar in the older part of Havana, Cuba. It lies at the end of Calle Obispo, across Monserrate Street from the National Museum of Fine Arts of Havana. The establishment is famous for its daiquiris and for having been one of the favourite hangouts of Ernest Hemingway in Havana. The bar now boasts a life size bronze statue of Ernest Hemingway positioned in his favourite spot at the end of the bar. On a small plaque hanging in El Floridita, hangs Hemingway's signed quote: "My mojito in the Bodeguita del Medio and my daiquiri in the Floridita".
The Hotel Ambos Mundos is a hotel in Havana, Cuba. Built with a square form with five floors, it has an eclectic set of characteristics of 20th-century style architecture. It was built in 1924 on a site that previously had been occupied by an old family house on the corner of Calle Obispo and Mercaderes in Old Havana. It is a frequent tourist destination because it was home to the popular writer Ernest Hemingway for seven years in the 1930s.
Havana, Cuba, is a host city to numerous events and festivals.
Ernest Hemingway owned a 38-foot fishing boat named Pilar. It was acquired in April 1934 from Wheeler Shipbuilding in Brooklyn, New York, for $7,495.[1] "Pilar" was a nickname for Hemingway's second wife, Pauline, and also the name of the woman leader of the partisan band in his 1940 novel The Spanish Civil War, For Whom the Bell Tolls. Hemingway regularly fished off the boat in Key West, Florida, Marquesas Keys, and the Gulf Stream off the Cuban coast. He made three trips by boat to the Bimini Islands, wherein his fishing, drinking, and fighting exploits drew much attention and remain part of the island's history. In addition to fishing trips on Pilar, Hemingway contributed to scientific research, including collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution. Several of Hemingway's books were influenced by time spent on the boat, most notably The Old Man and the Sea (1953) and Islands in the Stream (1970). The yacht also inspired the name of Playa Pilar on Cayo Guillermo. The opening and other scenes in the 2012 film Hemingway & Gellhorn depict a miniature boat replica.
The history of Cuba during World War II begins in 1939. Because of Cuba's geographical position at the entrance of the Gulf of Mexico, Havana's role as the principal trading port in the West Indies, and the country's natural resources, Cuba was an important participant in the American Theater of World War II, and it was one of the greatest beneficiaries of the United States' Lend-Lease program. Cuba declared war on the Axis powers in December 1941, making it one of the first Latin American countries to enter the conflict. When the war ended in 1945, the Cuban military had developed a reputation of being the most efficient and co-operative Caribbean nation.
Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen is a 2013 documentary film about the 20-year friendship between writer Ernest Hemingway and film actor Gary Cooper. Written and directed by John Mulholland, it is narrated by actor Sam Waterston with actor Len Cariou as the voice of writer Ernest Hemingway.
The Ernest Hemingway International Billfishing Tournament is an annual fishing tournament held in Cuba. The tournament was established by American author Ernest Hemingway in 1950. Regularly held in May or June, it has been described as the "highlight of Cuba's fishing year" and regularly attracts anglers from as many as 30 countries.