What Is A Magic Realist Film?——Introduction of a Magic Realism Film Column

When we talk about a river, the furthest a European reader can stretch his imagination is to something as big as the Danube, 2,790 kilometers long. It’s unlikely that he’ll imagine, unless you describe it to him, the reality of the Amazon, which is 5,500 kilometers in length.

By Gabriel García Márquez

Just as Márquez implies, Latin America embodies multicultural diversity, a rich tapestry of history and volatile political climate, all of which converge to give rise to ‘magic realism’. Works of magic realism draw magical elements from legends, folk stories, supernatural phenomena, unusual human behaviors as well the imaginative exaggeration of artists to reflect national history or social reality. In essence, magic realism employs magical elements to make a point about reality.

The term ‘agic realism’ finds it origins not in the field of literature or film, but in the realm of artistic critique of 1920s Europe. German critic Franz Roh first coined and applied the term ‘Magisher Realismus’ to the works of post-expressionist artists from the Weimar Republic, such as Otto Dix, George Grosz, and Carl Franz Radziwill. These artists later became categorized under the movement of New Objectivity by critics. In Roh’s view, magic realist works of art are a rebellion against expressionist ones and a new perception of objective reality. They served as reflections of the objective world and every detail of it with as little emotional investment as possible. Thus, magic realism is different from surrealism, and is not merely an identical representation of reality. Rather, it offers new perspectives on visualizing daily mundanities, by which their intrinsic essence surfaces amidst seemingly emotionless images.

Under the influence of Franz Roh, Arturo Uslar Pietri, a Venezuelan novelist and literature critic, introduced the term to the realm of critique of Latam novels in his 1948 work Venezuelan Literature and Writer (Letras y Hombres de Venezuela). He uses the term to refer to the local trend in writing that romanticized reality and highlighted characters’ charm through mundane details. Latam writers at that time seemed to realize that ‘realism’ itself could not reveal the multi-layered reality of South American society, but served to simply depict the facade of social norms, thus affirming and reinforcing them instead, which wasn’t what they wanted.

In 1949, while residing in Paris, Alejo Carpentier from Cuba published The Kingdom of This World (El Reino de Este Mundo) and Miguel Ángel Asturias from Guatemala published Man of Maize (Hombres de Maíz). The two publications marked the inception of the magic realism genre. The golden era of Latam literature followed, as evidenced by globally popular works by Juan Rulfo, José Donoso, Mario Vargas Llosa, and the most famous among them, García Márquez. His big novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de soledad) epitomizes the genre, blurring the boundaries between perception and illusion, memory and future, and reality and myth. Its profound influence extended its reach to a wider audience, solidifying its status as a classic work of magic realism.

Magic realist literature features an imaginative mixture of nuanced rural lives and whimsical myths, all presented in a style that is as accurate as a news report. This doesn’t mean the aim of magic realism is to construct fictional characters or worlds, but it is to explore our often overlooked and mysterious connections with others and the world around us. Enigmatic beings in Latin American culture serve as the inspirations for magic realist creations, laying the foundation for the emergence of films of this genre.

It is easy to mistake magic realist films for those fantasy movies produced by Hollywood, as both feature some supernatural elements. However, according to the core of magic realism coined by Franz Roh, a magic realist film is also a reflection, revelation, and critique of Latin American society. Highlighting its wildly imaginative nature, films in this genre are rooted in the culturally distinctive reality and history of the continent. Latin America had nurtured civilizations such as the Maya, Inca, and Aztecs, and had gone through centuries of brutal colonial rule before each state achieved national independence in the 19th century. Each era has left its mark on cultural products like literature, poetry, frescos and so on. Therefore, the greatest magic of Latam magic realist films stem from the richly layered culture from different historical periods.

Next, let’s explore 6 magic realist films from different countries and time periods: Pedro Páramo‎ (1967), Eréndira‎ (1983), Sur (1988), Como agua para chocolate‎ (1992), El abrazo de la serpiente‎ (2015) and Todos os Mortos‎ (2020). Through the analysis of these works, we can gain a deeper understanding of Latin American cinema and its connection to magic realism, as well as the trajectory of Latin American film history since the 1950s. It's important to note that not all of the selected works are direct adaptations of magic realist literature. Some adaptation attempts have fallen short, while others that are not adaptations may still embody certain magic realist features. So, we cannot perceive all magic realist films as magic realist literature adaptations, nor can we equate Franz Roh’s take on magic realism with that of literature critics.

Alejo Carpentier’s interpretation of magic realist literature applies to magic realist films as well: “…an unexpected alteration of reality (a miracle), a privileged revelation of reality, an unaccustomed or singularly favorable illumination of the previously unremarked riches of reality, an amplification of the measures and categories of reality…” Now based on the principle of ‘alteration of reality’, we can categorize the aforementioned works together, for they reveal Latin American history and society in a way that transcends realism and features unique aesthetics and appeals.