Donna Flor e i suoi due mariti

When I first saw it, it was one of the most sexiest movies I had ever seen. Sonia Braga back in the late seventies was a beautiful woman and now as a 57 year old she still has that look. After seeing the movie I wanted to see more of Brazil, so much I went to Rio. I was not disappointed. From very rich ex-patriot Germans to super poor mixed race Brazilians, it was an eye opener. Brazilian women were so sexy in dress and manner but don't let the eye candy fool you. There character was top rate. As one Brazilian woman put it, "We dress like this because we celebrate life and sex, but to get these pants off a wedding ring is the key."

If you hear of a movie wherein a deceased man's spirit sticks around and keeps an eye on his lover, you'd probably think of "Ghost". It turns out that another one was Bruno Barreto's "Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos" ("Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands" in English). The title character is a culinary teacher in 1943 Bahia whose uncouth husband dies, except that his ghost won't leave.

In addition to the story, the movie gives on a feeling of 1940s Brazil: the music, the clothes, and the general mindset. I've never read the source novel - and probably never will, given how long it takes me to get through books - but the movie is one fine piece of work. Sônia Braga, José Wilker and Mauro Mendonça put it outstanding (and funny) performances. I recommend it.

The hardworking "Flor" (Sonia Braga) marries the dashing Klaus Kinski lookalike "Vadinho" (José Wilker) but quickly discovers that he is a bit of a philanderer and a complete waste of space. Then, as if by magic, he dies and is conveniently buried with nose blockers so he can't smell his own rotting corpse in the coffin in the ground! That's an early sign of what's to come in this dark and quite entertaining romantic comedy that has shades of "Blithe Spirit" to it. That's because once he has started to push up the daisies, she marries the kindly and decent pharmacy owner "Teodoro" (Mauro Mendonça) who promises to be faithful to her and her alone. The snag with that particular arrangement is that quite rapidly she realises that though solid and reliable, his sexual prowess is less than energetic. Yep, after a while she starts to miss her absent "Vadhino". Well, guess what. He must have been watching her from the netherworld as he almost immediately he appears, usually stark naked, ready to resume his husbandly duties. Quite literally an horny little devil on her shoulder! He turns up at all the wrong times, causes no end of mischief and in the end, poor old "Flor" doesn't really know which way to turn as her husband thinks she's gradually losing the plot and her scheming apparition is enjoying every minute of it! It's maybe not a film for the more politically correct amongst us, as the wandering hands of "Vadhino" know few bounds, but once we appreciate that he is really just the latest in a long line of local Lotharios who is shallow and thoughtless, yes, but ultimately means no-one any harm then we can settle down to enjoy a series of faintly ridiculous scenarios set in a small town community where chauvinism is as much the currency as the Cruzeiro. There's a suitably jolly score to accompany these antics and a clear message about the grass not always being greener - especially if you are slowly decomposing underneath it. It's maybe a little long and it does recycle itself in the middle, but it is still, an enjoyable romp through a Brazilian way of life that lives by the seat of it's pants.

In the dawn of the Sunday of the Carnival of 1943, in Salvador, the thirty-three years old Valdomiro 'Vadinho' Santos Guimarães (José Wilker) dies, with many internal organs not working well. The widow, the teacher of culinary art Dona Flor (Florípides) Guimarães (Sônia Braga), misses him and remember their lives together along seven years of marriage. Gambler, Bohemian, hard-drinker, "bon-vivant", but also good lover, Vadinho left Flor in the honeymoon, after the consumption of his obligations, to gamble in a casino and spend the rest of the night in a brothel. But he knew how to treat and love Flor, and in the end she made peace with him. After his death, Flor marries Dr. Teodoro Madureira (Mauro Mendonça), a good husband and hard- worker, with a great culture and player of oboe in a local orchestra. Teodoro gives a comfortable and very stable life to Flor, but without passion in his love, having boring sexual intercourse with her. After one year of marriage, Flor misses so much the sex life with Vadinho that she includes him in her sexual life. "Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos" is a delightful transposition to the cinema of the greatest best-seller of the Brazilian literature, having more than two millions readers. The naive and metaphoric story of a woman in the 40's, in the interior of Brazil, who has a repressed sexual life in her second marriage, and fantasizes thinking in the love of her former husband, is indeed a classic in Brazil. Sonia Braga in the beginning of her career, with her very Brazilian type, is magnificent in the role of Dona Flor, and José Wilker is the personification of the "Brazilian loafer" of the 40's, wearing white suit, asking for money to his friends, spending the money in gamble, women and booze, and having a woman to support him. This movie was awarded in the "Festival of Gramado (Brazil)" in 1977, and was nominated to the Golden Globe of 1979 in the category Best Foreigner Movie. This movie was recently released on DVD in Brazil. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos"

If actress Regina Duarte is the "girlfriend of Brazil", Sonia Braga is and will always the eternal "Gabriela", who yesterday turns 70 years old. It shone in Brazilian cinema in "Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands" (1976), an absolute success in Brazil, remaining for three decades as the most watched Brazilian film in theaters (over ten million viewers), a film that elevated the Brazil to the first world of international cinema, after the country winning the Palme d'Or in Cannes (1962) with "Keeper of Promises - the given word", a film by Anselmo Duarte.

Others relevant national titles in her career includes "A Dama do Lotação" (1978, directed by Neville D"Almeida), "A Moreninha" (1970, directed by Glauco Mirko Laurelli), "O Casal" (1975, directed by Daniel Filho) and "Eu Te Amo" (1981, directed by Arnaldo Jabor). Before the TV series "Gabriela" (1975), Sonia had acted in other series at the Globo Network.

In the seventies, she appeared as a hippie ("Irmãos Coragem, 1970) and as a emotionally confused girl (Selva de Pedra, 1972) until the explosion with the title character of the television adaptation of the novel "Gabriela, Cravo e Canela", written by Jorge Amado, a landmark of Brazilian TV that becamed her in a television big star and revolutionized her image - it's important to say that!

"Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands", also an adaptation of a book written by Jorge Amado transformed Sonia in an international star - in the Baftas she was nominated as most outstanding newcomer and the film had a Hollywood version, " Kiss Me Goodbye" (1982, directed by Robert Mulligan) with Jeff Bridges, James Caan and Sally Field, who was at the height of her success with the Oscar received for "Norma Rae" (1979, directed by Martin Ritt). Later, Sally and Sonia would act together in the series "Brothers and Sisters" (2006-2011).

Courageous, in the middle of eighties, she left Globo TV and migrated to the USA after the success and Oscar nominations earned by "The Kiss of the Spider Woman" (1985, by Hector Babenco). In Hollywood she appeared in "The Milagro Beanfield War" (1988, directed by Robert Redford), "The Burning Season" (1994, directed by John Frankenheimer) and "Moon Over Parador" (1988, directed by Paul Mazursky), besides shining in six episodes of "Sex and the City" (1998 -2004), when she played a lesbian envolved with Miranda (Kim Cattrall). In the USA, recognized for her talent, she was nominated three times for the Golden Globe (once for "Kiss of the Spider Woman") and once for the Emmy for "The Burning Season".