Original Sin was filmed almost entirely in Mexico, which makes for an atmospheric and authentic stand-in for off-limits Cuba. Since Cuba and Mexico were both colonized by Spain in the 16th century, they share architectural styles and the romantic and slightly doomed colonial feel that permeates the movie. Fortunately, Mexico's lush tropical coastlines also resemble Cuba's Caribbean physical landscape.
Cristofer wanted a look for the film that would capture both the sultriness of the landscape and its echo in the shadowy, sensual movements of the film's unpredictable main characters. He chose Rodrigo Prieto, one of Mexico's most talented young cinematographers, to help him translate the story into equally haunting visuals.
Prieto was immediately intrigued. "When I read the script, I knew that I had to do the movie," he recalls. "The intimacy of the story and the Cuban backdrops made it ripe with visual possibilities."
Cristofer and Prieto designed an elaborately fluid look for the film, with meticulously choreographed camera movements. The director was admittedly influenced by the remarkable classic 1950s films of Max Ophuls, particularly Lola Montes and The Earrings of Madame D., both of which melded romantic stories with revolutionarily elegant camerawork in which the camera actually seemed to be alive.
To pull off this stylized camerawork, Cristofer and Prieto used state-of-the-art equipment, which often led to a humorous juxtaposition of high tech tools in antique locations — such as when a huge, long-armed Swiss Crane was wheeled into the 16th century Parroquia del Sagrario Catedral in Tlaxcala, one of the first churches built by the Spanish in the new world of Mexico.
Meanwhile, production designer David J. Bomba was faced with the awesome task of finding appropriate interior and exterior locations throughout Mexico to double for three cities in Cuba — Santiago, Cardenas and Havana. "Michael Cristofer and I started by deciding what the color palette would be for the film — exteriors that were light-reflective, and interior colors that would give the impression of being cool in the tropical heat of Cuba," notes Bomba.
The production team discovered an astonishing number of locations ranging over hundreds of miles in Mexico, beginning with an abandoned hacienda on a former sugar cane plantation in the tiny village of Oacalco, about 30 minutes outside of Cuernavaca in the state of Morelos. Known as the Hacienda Oacalco, it was transformed by Bomba and his team into Luis' magnificent terraced coffee plantation residence. The Hacienda itself was dripping with legend and lore — including the fact that it was once home to the lover of the great Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata and the rumor that a former owner made "a deal with the devil" and never returned from a nearby mountain.
Other locations included the 16th century Hacienda de Cortes in Cuernevaca (where Luis and Julia's wedding scene was filmed), the charming 19th century Teatro Xicohtencatl (which stands in for the theatre Luis and Julia attend), the historical city of Pueblo, and the walled, tropical city of Campeche in the Yucatan.
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