32/35
In the timeless city of Macondo, seven generations of the Buendía family navigate love, oblivion, and the inevitability of their past and destiny. It is Netflix’s most expensive Latin American project to date, with Colombian groups and indigenous communities building props and sets for the series. 100 Años de Soledad is one of the great pinnacles of Spanish-language literature. Its style is unrivaled and its scope is beyond imagination. Its characters are so well-drawn that any screenwriter would have no problem writing them for the screen. But the seemingly insurmountable problem in adapting the novel was its length. Compressing a hundred years of family and national history was an impossible task. Nearly 60 years after its publication, the novel has found a cinematic home on Netflix. Only streaming can do it justice, and the first two episodes are truly promising. Excellent cinematography, art direction, and respect for the characters. The voiceover is necessary to let García Marquez’s wonderful prose emerge from time to time. The plot evolves smoothly with richness and depth. I love it, and I was a little skeptical about the possibility of transposing the magical world of GGM to the screen. Wall, so far, is a success in my opinion. “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is one of the biggest TV and streaming premieres of this month. Check out our December calendar for more!