A Mulher Que Inventou o Amor

Doralice (Aldine Müller) has sex with the butcher and discloses to her roommate and friend (Heloísa Raso). Her friend tells that she is a prostitute and convinces Doralice to prostitute with her in a fleshpot. Doralice dreams on getting married and is an enthusiastic fan of the soap-opera actor Cesar Augusto. But she becomes a famous prostitute known as The Queen of Moaning in Pleasure. When she meets the wealthy Doctor Perdigão (Rodolfo Arena), she becomes his mistress and quits prostitution. Perdigão gives a fancy apartment to Doralice and financially supports her. Then he decides to turn Doralice into a refined woman and her mentor (Lola Brah) changes her name to Tallulah. When Dr. Perdigão has to travel for four months, Tallulah stalks and has a love affair with Cesar Augusto. Later he rejects her and Tallulah has sex with other men until the return of Perdigão. But the unrequited love of Tallulah will lead to a tragedy.

"A Mulher que Inventou o Amor" is a sexploitation film directed by Jean Garret with the sexy and gorgeous Aldine Müller in the lead role. The story is a complete mess, entwining the most different styles. Doralice, the lead character, has no development and the viewer only knows that she dreams on getting married. The encounter of Doralice and Dr. Perdigão in a church is a rip-off of Luis Buñuel style. The conversation between Tallulah and a client in the fleshpot is a jingoism maybe to please the censorship and the military dictatorship. The idea of transforming Doralice in Tallulah comes from Pygmalion. Tallulah might be a tribute to Tallulah Bankhead. The pretentious conclusion with Tallulah stabbing her love and walking alone of the street with a banner written "Love Is Be Faithful Till the End" has the intention of giving an intellectual touch to this film, very common in the 70's. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "A Mulher que Inventou o Amor" ("The Woman that Invented Love")

Pornochanchada (sexploitation comedy genre of Brazilian cinema in the 70's and 80's) that flirts both with the grotesque and the pathological, this is arguably one of the most well filmed movies with such a content in the history of cinema! What Jean Garret and his crew do with light, shadow, cinematography (by Carlos Reinchembach), camera moves, and so forth is awesome. Really beautiful job! Besides that, while having a quite conventional pornochanchada story (this recurrent plot: the girl is not virgin anymore and, then, turns to be a prostitute, but also develops a freak sexual deviation), the script is full of ironies. The extraordinary work by Garret here may be exemplified the best by some partcular parts of the film: The opening scene with the manikins, the butcher's scene, the bride's dress scene with the poster, the travelling with transitions from a door to another, the contrast between red and white in the end. Important (but less interesting in my opinion, although with some funny moments) is the evolution of the character from a passive object who serves the pleasure of men towards a woman who does whatever she wants and also makes men do what she wants.