FILM : Dreamy Reality Infuses ‘Erendira’

In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s writing, flowers rain from the sky during drought--a beautiful tease for the thirsty--and whores transform themselves into apparitions who fly away from their ruined beds.

It’s this magical realism, where the fantastic mingles easily with the mundane, that marks much of Latin American literature, of which Marquez is a leading figure. When such lyrical imagination becomes visual, it is turned into a movie like “Erendira,” written by Marquez and based on a passage from his masterpiece, “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” and two of his short stories, especially “The Incredible and Sad Tale of Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother.”

“Erendira” (which screens Friday night as the finale for Saddleback College’s foreign film series) is true to Marquez’s literary vision. The novelist and director Ruy Guerra give the 1983 film a sense of submersion in a dreamlike landscape that readers get from his more personal writing. “Erendira’s” finest accomplishment is its often elegant approximation of Marquez’s style.

With that, however, there is also some frustration. Lacking the expanse of a novel or even a short story, where the way Marquez writes becomes as compelling as what he writes about, the movie’s imagery can feel disconnected from the story. That can be confusing, a refracted look at Marquez’s wonderful conceits.

The beginning of “Erendira” is surreal and dangerous. A wind is blowing through the home of Erendira’s grandmother (Irene Papas), who mixes orders to the beautiful 14-year-old girl with poetic ramblings. The heavy breezes signal the ill winds to come as Erendira (Claudia Ohana) accidentally sets the house on fire and her grandmother proclaims that it will take a lifetime to pay off the debt.

Her grandmother, deranged beyond evil, decides Erendira must become a prostitute, and the two embark on a cross-country journey, setting up shop like a carnival wherever there are men with pesos.

Erendira’s tragedy is thorough, but she does find some solace and hope in Ulysses (Oliver Wehe), a boy who falls in love with her and follows her caravan. They plot to kill the grandmother.

The visual touches are “Erendira’s” most striking quality, but Papas’ performance is also startling--she’s operatic in her madness, a diva of wickedness.

What: Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Ruy Guerra’s “Erendira.”

When: Friday, May 1, at 7 p.m.

Where: Saddleback College’s Science and Math Building, Room 313, 28000 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo.

Whereabouts: Take the Santa Ana (5) Freeway south to Avery Parkway and head east to Marguerite Parkway. Head north on Marguerite.

Wherewithal: Free.

Where to Call: (714) 582-4788.