Amor e Dedinhos de Pé

We are in Macao in the epoch of the Portuguese occupation: a young man is a "bon-vivant", he has no respect for anybody, his life is a continuous race of alcohol, bets and paid sex. But he made a mistake: he mocked a young lady, not attractive at all, and he felt in disgrace with the high society of Macao and he was recommended to leave the town. Then he wanders around and contracts a disease quite similar to leprosy that specially affects to feet and toes and produces several wounds and a stinky smell. But the miracle becomes: the same ugly lady gets charge of him with the opposition of her family and the society.

The melodrama has undergone significant changes since John Stahl and Douglas Sirk days . Now they call a spade a spade, and ,mainly in the first part ,crude language and hints at VD are not spared the viewer.

The hero is not a bon-vivant as the French say : the bon-vivant is not necessarily nasty .Francisco is a boor ,a male chauvinist who takes contempt for women to new limits;in the scene of the ball , he sadistically humiliates the poor wallflower :later on, she will tell him that his words ruined other people's lives ,not only hers.Part of the young jet set ,he's idle and uses the girls as preys and the natives as slaves (he is not the only one for that matter).The wedding turned into a farce backfires on him and he will begin a descent into hell .

In "the magnificent obsession " (Stahl,1935) and its superior remake by Sirk (1953) , a playboys studies medicine to be able to operate a woman who became blind because of his happy-go-lucky attitude ; here , the humiliated woman returns good for evil ,and she takes in her home (at personal expense) the fallen dying playboy who has turned into the last ,lonely and wretched .

In the American works, a character says that return good for evil,without expecting anything for oneself is risky and that a man was crucified for that . Still,Victorina acts out of pity ,there's never a hint at religion,although the washing of the feet will remind you of the Holy Scripts ;If religion intervenes ,it's in a negative way : both aunts,holier-than-thou spinsters ,have it in for their niece ,and the catholic priest seems to be out of a Bunuel movie ,at the beck and call of the European bourgeoisie who lives in Macao.

Victorina 's metamorphosis is stupefying :from the ugly"future spinster" (recalling Belle Davis' roles in early melodramas) who is male high society's laughing stock to the attractive elegant woman of the last pictures .But she has always been a candid soul ,and Ana Torent 's playing is splendid .Perhaps thanks to her dad's godfather (Jean-Pierre Cassel) ,she realizes that "the essential is invisible to the eyes ",and when she heals the pain , it's not a Christian panegyric ,it's a rebellion against a stilted selfish society .

Besides ,the ending is pure sin ,as the despicable aunties see it ,perhaps because they were deprived of love all their petty life.