Professor’s short story turned into movie

The French film L’Appartement (The Apartment) is based on a short story written by an associate professor of Spanish at TAMIU. The movie is a part of La Vie En France, a French Film Series brought to the campus for the first time.”L’Appartement is a story about love,” Dr. Jose Cardona-Lopez, writer of the short story, said.Cardona-Lopez’s first idea for the story was brought up in 2002 in Bogota, Columbia, his home country. He explored the relationship between a woman and a man. L’appartamente was written from Cardona-Lopez’s imagination. None of his life experiences were added to the short story. It was originally written in Spanish.”It’s based on a Spanish-written short story,” Cardona-Lopez said. “The story was translated to French.”Independent director and producer Luis Gerardo Otero is a friend of Cardona-Lopez from Colombia. They met many years ago. Otero moved to France then later returned to Colombia and ended up in France again. Otero was interested in Cardona-Lopez’s work and requested three short stories to be sent for review. Otero chose The Apartment. Cardona-Lopez explained the movie is different from the story. The director added more to the movie version.The movie is about a man, Benoit, who remembers joyful days with Natalia. While each was searching for an apartment in Paris, they fell in love. When Benoit finds an apartment, he instantly invites Natalia to move in with him. Together they experience months of great happiness and strong passion. Natalia feels that true love also demands true freedom. The relationship crashes into a surprise. Cardona-Lopez has written three short stories: La Puerta del Espejo, Todo Es Adrede, and Siete y Tres Nueva and a novel, Sueños Para Una Siesta. As a fiction writer, he has also published the critical study, Teoria y Practica de la Nouvelle. Aside from the short stories and novel, he has published essays and articles in numerous magazines and journals. He reads his work in universities in the United States and Colombia. Otero produces and directs his own movies. According to Cardona-Lopez, Otero makes his movies experimental, independent, and poetic.”His movies are born in music, literature, painting, sculpture, and other forms of art,” Cardona-Lopez said. “For (Otero), a movie is a collective agent of enunciation, and a vehicle of thinking and resistance.”It’s reassuring to us as students to see a faculty member’s written work to be put into a film,” John Perez, a freshman biology major, said. “It’s good to see Dr. Cardona-Lopez’s contributions to our society outside the university.”The film will start at 7 p.m. on May 30 at the Center for the Fine and Performing Arts recital hall. L’Appartement is 45 minutes long. Le Chignon d’Olga will show afterwards. A discussion panel will follow each film. The French Film Series is brought by Dr. Annette Olsen-Fazi, professor of French. Olsen-Fazi obtained two grants to bring the series to the campus.”I hope people go see the movie,” Cardona-Lopez said. “Dr. Annette Olsen-Fazi is doing a very good program for French movies.”