How Netflix's One Hundred Years of Solitude used magical realism to make the familiar look bizarre, explained 

The Netflix 16-episodic series One Hundred Years of Solitude Part 1 is now available to stream. The series opens by showcasing a loving couple -Jose Arcadio and Ursula leaving their hometown that doesn't approve of their incest relationship. They decide to build their own small mythical town of Macondo amidst the swamp, a liberal and progressive town outside all the legal and religious institutions.

Several generations of Buendia lineage existed in the town marked by war, insanity, and incest relations.

One Hundred Years of Solitude is based on Noble Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez’s best-selling magical realist novel. Even the author never thought that the tone and the writing could be adapted visually like this. What is magical realism and how does the series make use of it?

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How One Hundred Years of Solitude made magic look real

In One Hundred Years of Solitude, the town is shown brewing with some local legends. Ursula is worried that she will have a child with a pigtail as a result of her incest relationship with Jose Arcadio. This fear of Ursula is portrayed through some dream sequences where she is lying dead on the table from childbirth and her child with a pigtail is being eaten alive by some ants.

The people of Macondo seem fascinated by ordinary things Jose Arcadio calls a block of ice a huge diamond he has ever seen. They are marveled by magnets or a camera thinking the machine can freeze time. Therefore, this unique yet familiar world is twisted wisely aligning with the narrative to attain magic-like shots that sometimes take the show into fantasy or horror.

One Hundred Years of Solitude introduces young Rebeca in the spookiest manner. She is always quiet, resting in a peculiar chair, not sleeping at night. One day they find her eating mud in the backyard of the house.

Claudio Cataño who played Aureliano in One Hundred Years of Solitude admits to Netflix that bringing out these magical elements was a huge challenge.

“I think the scripts and the direction combine both aspects of magic and humanity, of exuberance and realism. From the performing side of it, it was an arduous and exquisite pleasure.”

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One Hundred Years of Solitude Part 1 ended with the death of Jose Arcadio depicted by a magical fall of flowers

The death of the family patriarch Jose Arcadio after being tied to a tree as a result of his madness, is beautifully shot in the series. The yellow color is a color of change when Jose dies the town gets covered with yellow flowers falling from the sky.

Therefore One Hundred Years of Solitude set the tone by making familiar things look strange to us. Another example of a similar scene is when Ursula learns about her son's death and a trickle of blood rolls down from across the town, through the streets, takes a turn and enters Buendia's house, passes through Amaranta's chair and enters into the kitchen where Ursula is sitting. This depicts Ursula's "sixth sense" portrayed visually.

Jose Arcadio once killed a man whose ghost follows him everywhere, even in the new town. His appearance depicts Jose's state of mind and the guilt he is going through. He is shown appearing in the oddest of settings therefore keeping up with the magical tone of the show. He disappears for a while in the between but then reappears signaling the nearing death of Jose Arcadio.

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The showrunners further elaborated on the same that they wanted to bring the essence of the novel in which magical realism is the part of the normal life. Everything was happening on set like the flowers were dropped all over the town without relying much on post. The ghost chasing Jose Arcadio was also shot on location to give it an absurd yet real feel.