The news that ""One Hundred Years of Solitude" is about to be remade into a drama" is like a stone stirring up thousands of waves, shaking the fan circle of movie fans.
If you write a waist cover for "One Hundred Years of Solitude", I am afraid that you will not be able to write its honors: Márquez's pinnacle work / a literary work that reproduces the picture of Latin American history and society / A masterpiece of magic realism...
Such a huge masterpiece, who dares to adapt it?
The rights were bought by the wealthy company Netflix, which plans to launch Spanish-language dramas in 2021. Whether the adaptation is successful or not, this is a brave attempt to attract much attention.
In fact, this is not the first time that Márquez's work has been adapted, and the same famous work as "One Hundred Years of Solitude", "Love in the Time of Cholera", was adapted into a movie as early as 2007.
Under the careful supervision of director Mike Neville, the film is almost a collage of the plot of the novel, revolving around a love that spans more than half a century.
In Colombia at the end of the 19th century, florentino, a telegrapher, lived a life of poverty and peace with his mother. He was a literary and artistic youth who loved to write poetry and was full of romanticism.
A casual letter sent him to the businessman's daughter Fermina fell in love at first sight and fell into a feverish unrequited love. Fermina was touched by his fiery love letters and gradually developed a fondness for him.
However, the good times did not last long, and the merchant soon discovered the strange appearance of his daughter. In his precisely functioning mind, marriage should be used to bring about class transfer. He cut off the connection between his daughter and the poor boy and took her on a long journey.
During her time in her hometown, Fermina received letters from Florentino, who repeatedly told his loyal heart. Back in the city, Fermina and Florentino meet by chance in the bazaar, believing that he is not the perfect apparition she imagined, and rejects him in disappointment.
Dr. Urbino broke into Fermina's life, a more favored son-in-law of a businessman: well-off, courteous, socially high, and prestigious. Fermina eventually married the doctor and began a carefree married life.
Florentino, on the other hand, fell into the extreme clarity of love that he could not love, and he vowed to love Fermina alone for the rest of his life. He never married, had 622 lovers, and had a corrupt private life.
After waiting for more than half a century, he finally waited for the doctor's death, visited Fermina again, and reiterated his heart and love to her. Two 70-something old people, will they still have a chance to come together in this life...
There is no need to deliberately point out the question, and the audience can understand the meaning of the title.
The first layer is: love and the background of the love story, which occurs when cholera is rampant, love when the plague spreads.
The second layer is: love is like a plague, as fast and furious, as life and death.
The biggest good thing about the movie probably comes from the original work itself, on which it depends.
The melancholy and hot tropical landscape, the land of Latin America where magical reality coexists, the entangled fate of the three protagonists... All are visualized, and the time and space in the book are extended.
Although the appearance of the lead actor is far from the description in the book, the superb acting skills add a lot.
Fermina, played by Giovanna Messoz, is not particularly bright and moving in appearance, but her noble and cold temperament is properly favored. Fermina was never a girl who blindly fell in love, and she always looked at her lover with a judgmental gaze.
The reunion after returning to the city completely dispels Fermina's love illusion, and she calmly and resolutely breaks up with Florentino. It's hard to figure out how deep her feelings for the doctor and her first love really are, but like her father, she can always make the right choice to make herself comfortable and dignified.
Javier Baden performed Florentino's obsession and madness. There is only one love above the waist, but there are more than 600 love below the waist.
Whether it is his frivolity and confusion in the face of his lover, or the loyalty and purity of his lover, he can convince the audience. He said that he had reserved his virginity for Fermina, and on a spiritual level, it was no lie.
Benjamin Blatter plays the doctor, probably the most acceptable role for fans. Because compared with the first two, the image of the doctor is more normal. He only needs to grasp the proper gentlemanly demeanor and self-sustaining style of doing things, and he can easily assume this role.
The adaptation of general online texts into TV series will cause many readers to be upset; not to mention the super big IP of "Love in the Time of Cholera". Its shortcomings are also obvious.
Cramming a 400-page novel into a 2-hour movie is no easy task. The plot of the movie retains only the main branches of the book, and the story is told in a sloppy manner, and the foothold is the love triangle.
But more of the idle writing in the book cannot be shown in the film, such as: parrots carefully trained by doctors, chess players, hot air balloon trips, and so on. These details just construct the social environment of Colombia in a single stroke.
Thus, films that retain only the storyline in a flash of light face a key problem: there is no sense of magic realism.
How to present the streets full of hungry rats, cholera in the city like a slaughterhouse, but the pedestrians who come and go still have hope to live in peace? How to visualize the tidal lust and classical sorrow in the book?
The world organized with words has too much room for imagination to be copied in the reader's mind; the world constructed with the lens is intuitive and flat, and it is determined beyond question. These two are different art forms.
If the text is not perfect, the space given to the director is even greater; the text is too delicate, and no one can rush to adapt it and take care of the flattery. Therefore, third-rate novels can often be adapted into first-class films and television, but the film and television works of first-class novels are difficult to walk everywhere.
Perhaps, we should ignore the depth of literature and look at "Love in the Time of Cholera" as a simple love movie.
They didn't get married at twenty because they were too young; by eighty they still couldn't get married because they were too old.
This story may not be so romantic, but it is about a lifetime.