They filmed the unfilmable.
I first read 100 Years of Solitude, by Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, when I was a young teen. I re-read that book many times in the following years. I consider it one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, its author rightfully earning the Nobel-prize in literature.
The genre of the book is often described as “magical realism”: real events, realistic stories interwoven with magical elements. The history of the Buendía family and the fictitious town of Macondo feel real, tangible, rooted in fact in actual Colombian history. Yet many of the characters and events acquire supernatural qualities. Among them the old gypsy, Melquiades, whose nearly undecipherable writings foretell the century-long journey of the Buendías and the town they found.
I shared my thoughts on 100 Years, some cosmic perspective and, well, cats of course with Gemini. This image was the result.
As such, 100 Years of Solitude seemed unfilmable. Until it wasn’t. Netflix, bless their souls, financed a Colombian production, a two-season streaming series of 16 episodes and it is… absolutely superb. I don’t know how they did it, but they captured the spirit of the book with near perfection.
I just finished watching the final episode and I am moved. It’s been decades since I last read the book, so I forgot just how much sorrow, how much suffering, how much pain and petty evil was hiding behind the magic. At times, what I was watching felt almost unbearably sad, yet I kept watching because… because, well for starters, I knew the outcome of course, but also because the series achieved that ultimate measure of success, creating characters you can care about, characters who were believable, who were credible, complex human beings…
What a remarkable series it was. Every once in a while streaming services manage to create masterpieces, films or series of lasting cultural value. 100 Years is one such example.