The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2004 film)

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The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Directed by	Mary McGuckian
Produced by	Michael Cowan Samuel Hadida Howard G. Kazanjian Garrett McGuckian Mary McGuckian Denise O'Dell
Written by	Mary McGuckian Thornton Wilder (novel)
Starring	F. Murray Abraham Kathy Bates Gabriel Byrne Geraldine Chaplin Robert De Niro Harvey Keitel Pilar López de Ayala
Music by	Lalo Schifrin
Cinematography	Javier Aguirresarobe
Editing by	Kant Pan
Distributed by	Fine Line Features
Release date(s)	22 December 2004 May 25, 2005 10 June 2005
Running time	120 min
Country	Spain United Kingdom France
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Bridge of San Luis Rey is a 2004 drama film directed by Mary McGuckian and featuring an ensemble cast of American and international actors. It is based on Thornton Wilder's novel of the same name. The film was released in 2004 in Spain and 2005 in the U.S. and abroad. Despite praise for its costume design, the film was poorly received by critics [1].

[edit] Background and production

The film and novel are very loosely based on the life of Micaela Villegas (1748—1819), a famous Peruvian entertainer known as La Perichole, whose life was also the inspiration for the novella Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée, an opéra bouffe, La Périchole by Jacques Offenbach, Jean Renoir’s 1953 film Le Carrosse d'or (The Golden Coach), and two earlier film versions: a 1929 silent version, The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929) starring Lili Damita, and a 1944 version, The Bridge of San Luis Rey starring Lynn Bari , Francis Lederer, Akim Tamiroff, and Alla Nazimova.

The 2004 film was shot on location in Málaga, Andalucía, and Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. It is the only one of the three versions made on location.