A film adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude

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A film adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude

Intent

We have reached an age, where most things are done through TV and

cinema. It is unfortunate many people do not read many books anymore.

People would rather sit for a few hours in a dark room eating popcorn

and watching a screen. In my opinion it is necessary for more books to

be adapted in films. Some people might argue whether a great book such

as Madame Bovary and The Great Gatsby can shine in the same light with

a film adaptation. With the film techniques available and the great

talent this is very possible. I am a strong believer that watching an

excellent movie on Pride and Prejudice or any other literary

masterpiece is equal to reading the book. For this reason I have taken

on the responsibility of adapting chapter 1 of One Hundred Years of

Solitude.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a novel

about a family, the Buendias living in a town called Macondo. The

novel is postmodern. There are many instances where time jumps around.

Along with the postmodernism feel there is also an element of magical

realism. The magical realism is where characters can do things that

are not possible in real life. In example of this is Remedios’s

ability to fly in the air and go away. The elements of postmodern and

magical realism make One Hundred Years of Solitude a difficult novel

to adapt. For this particular paper I have chosen to adapt chapter 1.

Chapter 1 includes flashbacks, magical realism, and the encounters

with the gypsies. I have chosen chapter 1 because it includes the

elements the novel is based on. The title of my film on One Hundred

Years of Solitude is Opportunity. The main reason I have chosen this

title because it is rooted in the last sentence of the novel,

“…Aureliano Babilonia would finish deciphering the parchments, and

that everything written on them was unrepeatable since time immemorial

and forever more, because races condemned to one hundred year of

solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth (Gabriel Garcia

Marquez 448). In this quote, Marquez discusses how civilization with

cease to be if there continues to be the solitude that is outlined in

One Hundred Years of Solitude. Because the Buendia was the first

attempt at a ‘perfect’ world, I have called it Opportunity, since this

family was the first opportunity at the ‘utopia’.

By adapting chapter 1 of One Hundred Years of Solitude I hope to show

that a film can be just as or better than the novel it is based on.

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