Gabriel García Márquez (1927-)
Some of Gabriel García Marquez' novels and short stories are perfect examples of magic realism and do illustrate how it works. His masterpiece Cien años de soledad (A Hundred Years of Solitude) is considered by most scholars and critics to be the most influential work of the movement.
In fact, Gabriel García Márquez is one of the most eminent writers of all times. As a Nobel Laureate (1982) he is a master of the novel and short story, a screen-writer and journalist. He fits in many types of lesson plans for students. I introduced García Márquez in an earlier unit that I developed a couple of years ago, so please refer to it in order to get general and biographical information. (7)
One of the themes I failed to mention in detail in that earlier unit, "Spanish Cultures through Film and Literature," in part because it was not really relevant there, is the fact that Gabriel García Márquez grew up with his grandparents and fell under the spell of his grandmother, Tranquiliana Iguarán since she was always "telling fables, family legends and organizing her grandson's life according to the messages she received in her dreams." (8) As Gabriel states "she was a source of the magical, superstitious and supernatural view of reality." (9)
It would be difficult, almost impossible to talk about film adaptation in Latin America and not mention García Márquez, since he has worked closely with cinema all his life. In 1955, he studied film at the Experimental Center of Cinematography Di Cinecittà , where he met Cuban Julio García Espinosa and Argentine Fernando Birri, who later would be considered the founders of the Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano (New Latin American Cinema). This brief stay in Rome allowed him to share long hours at the moviola with film maker Cesare Zavattini from whom he learned the art of narrating with images, a technique García Márquez would use later on as part of his work in Mexico City. Many are of the idea that numerous 1960s Mexican films were written by him, who like other intellectuals of the time wrote scripts under a pseudonym. One of the works he in fact signed is the beautiful Tiempo de Morir (Time to die, Mexico, Arturo Ripstein, 1966) a film he wrote with Carlos Fuentes and was directed by a twenty-one-year-old Arturo Ripstein. In fact, I initially planned to use this film in the unit, but I am afraid it is not part of the magical realism trend I want my students to learn about. (See Apendix 1 for a list of films in which Gabriel García Márquez has been involved in, in different capacities and/or as the screen writer).
In 1986, García Márquez, Birri and García Espinosa founded the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión de San Antonio de los Baños (International School of film and Television of San Antonio de los Baños), in Cuba. The project is consecrated to support and finance the film career of young Latin American, Caribbean, Asian and African students.
In the development of the unit, we will deal with three different film adaptations: the first one, Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes is a 90 minute long adaptation of a very short story; Con el amor no se juega is a collection of three short episodes made for television written by Gabriel García Márquez in collaboration with some other young writers. Finally, Edipo Alcalde, is a film adaptation of an adaptation García Márquez wrote of Sophocles' classic play Oedipus the King.
Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes
A short story that García Márquez wrote in 1968, "Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes" ("A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"), tells about a poor old angel that falls in the courtyard of a house during a storm. Pelayo and Elisenda, the owners, mistreat this prodigious being by placing him in the chicken coop exhibiting him as a circus attraction. Many villagers visit and pay to gawk, thinking the angel will be able to perform miracles to solve their problems. A new phenomenon, a woman with a spider body, will arrive to eclipse the angel's fame and prominence. The angel survives wandering through the courtyard of the house and, after a harsh winter, new feathers grow and he can finally leave the house and fly away.
Story
Even though the story seems to be accessible and uncomplicated, it carries complex themes such as spiritual appearances, the concept of faith, unbelief, ignorance, disobedience (spider-woman), and opportunism. The narrator is omniscient and yet he controls all the characters thoughts and feelings.
The story is a social critique of parochial behaviors toward the unfamiliar. García Márquez plays with different levels of critique. He presents characters such as Pelayo, the know-it-all neighbor, or Father Gonzago who represent different points of view, according to their social group, but who finally fail to understand the angel.
Film Adaptation
The film script is a collaboration of García Márquez with Fernando Birri, (often called the father of "New Latin American Cinema") who directs the film and plays the old man. There is a major mistake of approach in the adaptation: the angel secretly removes his wings, destroying the film's (and the story's) essential mystery. Even though later on a final turn tries to change the tide, it is too late to do so. The film ends up being too realistic and not so magical, which spoils the beauty of this four-pages-long story.
Con el amor no se juega
Don't Play with Love is a film of three episodes, each a 30 minute adaptation for television of a Gabriel García Márquez story.
1. "El espejo de dos lunas" ("The Two Way Mirror," Mexico, Carlos García Agraz, 1990) Susana is a young Mexican woman who is about to marry the son of a prominent family. She discovers a man inside the mirror of a set of furniture from the 19th century they have bought before the wedding. She begins a romance with this apparition, Nicolás, a Lieutenant in the Mexican-American war.
2. "Ladrón de sábado" ("Saturday Thief," Mexico, José Luis García Agraz, 1991) A thief breaks into a mansion finding a lonely woman whose husband is away. The woman finds herself strangely attracted to him.
3. "Contigo en la distancia" ("Far Away with You," Mexico, Tomás Gutierrez Alea, 1991) A love letter reaches its addressee 35 years late. The letter, written in 1954 could have changed Ofelia's life. She finally finds her love and discovers how invincible true love is.
Edipo Alcalde
Edipo Alcalde (Oedipus Mayor) is a quite close adaptation of Sophocles' classical tragedy Oedipus the King, which is as well an adaptation of the classic myth. García Márquez swapped ancient Thebes and the myth's characters for today's Colombia.
In the unit we will not work with the texta screenplay—since it would be almost impossible to find it, and it would be more interesting to focus on the mise-en-scène and the beautiful cinematography, as well as the cultural aspects. .
Edipo Alcalde was never one of those scripts commissioned by the producers to well known writers looking for prestige for their film. In this case, it was García Márquez who was the main project initiator and the most enthusiastic supporter. The script merges three of the author's main obsessions: Oedipus the King (Sophocle's tragedy, the text itself, one of his favorite plays), plagues and the violence in Colombia (due to the political clash that began in 1948 with the brutal confrontation between guerrilla groups and the Army). These three themes have influenced the writer and are present in many of his works.
Film Adaptation
Edipo is sent to a town of the Colombian Andes. He must try to reconcile the opposing interests of the groups that keep violence alive. On his way to assume his position as mayor, Edipo and his military escort arrive at a crossroads at the precise moment that Layo's kidnappers are fleeing from town. In the shootout that follows, Edipo inadvertently fulfills Layo's prophetic nightmare "to die murdered at the hands of his own son." In the subsequent criminal investigation, the new mayor meets Yocasta, Layo's wife, and falls in love with her, thereby becoming "son and husband of the woman who gave him birth, and father and brother of the son he will have with her". Edipo has fulfilled his destiny. Layo's death exacerbates the political conflicts and Edipo discovers his own origin. Oedipus Rex is now Edipo Alcalde.
This adaptation contains sex scenes, nudity, violence and intense scenes and themes, for this reason, we will work with fragments of the movie.
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