Gabriela

Second film of Sonia Braga for director.Bruno Baretto, after the hit "Dona Flora and Her Two Husbands" Ms Braga carries the film, not Marcelo Mastroanni. A film that openly discusses corruption in Brazil.

Sonia Braga and Marcello Mastroianni are well-matched in this comedy set in the coastal town of Ilheus, Brazil, in the 1920's. Mastroanni is a paunchy, tired bachelor barkeeper who hires Braga, fresh out of the drought-stricken backlands, to be his cook. He is delighted to find, after she has cleaned herself up, that she is not only a terrific cook but also terrific in bed, and that she sees him as a very cute, studly young guy. But when he stubbornly tries to make their domestic arrangements into something more respectable, things start going downhill. Will our boy wise up in time?

From Jorge Amado's novel, Gabriela: Clove and Cinnamon. Music composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim and arranged by Oscar Castro-Neves. Beautiful photography by Carlo di Palma. Lots of delightful small-town character humor.

This is the role that put Sonia Braga on the map when she played it on Brazilian TV in 1975. She was a sensation, and Gabriela was one of the highest-rated novelas ever aired in Brazil.

Gabriela, Clove & Cinnamon was the novel which marked Jorge Amado's break from pure class warfare--he received several Stalin prizes in his early career!--and embrace of the joys of Brazilian humanity. Sonia Braga has starred in adaptations of three of Amado's novels, all of them magnificent (the other two are Dona Flor and Tieta). I won't say she is here at her sexiest--Sonia Braga is sexy any time she's on screen--but this is one of her best movies, helped much by the other players, among them, curiously, Marcello Mastrioanni as the Syrian immigrant who hires Gabriela as cook and quickly finds himself in a deeper relationship. The plot here involves attitudes toward women and their sexuality, an eventual welcome breakdown of the double standard. and progress of law and order in a society too often ruled by lawlessness and custom. Amado dies without getting a Nobel Prize for Literature: Gabriela and the other two films mentioned convincingly demonstrate why he should have won it.

Gabriela is a great romance by Jorge Amado, a great Brazilian writer. In 1975 it was adapted to TV novel. It was very successful and we could see a young Sonia Braga at the beginning of her career. Years later we could see Sonia again but she was not young anymore. But her talent was much better. The movie only shows sexy scenes and the political history was on the second hand unfortunately. But there was a present for us. We could see in a short time a great Brazilian actress called Maria Zenaide, with her beautiful eyes making a little participation. On the other hand we could see her again and we could ask where are the great actresses of Brazil ? Unfortunately Brazil is a country with no memory and only shows what the directors think are good. Thanks God we can see Maria Zenaide making educacional commercial and she still sings Brazilian Songs though her band Grupo Avelloz, with good singers and musicians: Will Tom and Teresa Carvalho(both from Dama de Paus band), Jorge Som and Chaguinha Lima(from Siri Atômico band).

Here's a film to see in the 21st century that is entertaining almost exclusively for its time-capsule quality, a tour back through time and Brazil, a Latin pot-boiler with a cook who's always simmering. The full-on sexy scenes with Sonia Braga add to the uninhibited foreign flavors.

The original title is "Gabriela, Clove & Cinnamon." No question she's a spicy dish, seemingly always ready & willing and never wearing (hot clingy) foundations under her dress. Hired as a house-cook, she becomes appreciated by the male locals, too, when she begins to bring a loving lunch (of food) to Nacib. Her presentation - and not the food - becomes a little too delicious for the male patrons and Nacib finds it necessary to reduce her exposure a bit.

Not quite sure about Marcello Mastroianni's appearance as Nacib except to get financing and generate some foreign box. Nevertheless, he's OK, even though his cook (Braga), then mistress, then wife to prevent the other locals from making her THEIR mistress eventually proves hard to manage ... and to keep satisfied. Finally, the duplicity common to females elevated from even the lowest social strata takes hold and generates conflict.

This film also is a look at a Latin male culture that is variously leering and lewd and legally lax in a way that makes 80's Brazil seem like much longer ago. One reviewer called this film a "male fantasy." At first maybe, surely, with Gabriela's happy, quick smoldering readiness ... but it becomes phantasm more than orgasm as Nacib finds her increasingly difficult to keep happy (like letting her go to the circus instead of a local society lecture). His desire is for her to be regarded as his wife instead of merely youth'ish house-help and wife-mistress. In the end ... well, you'll have to see.

And wasn't Mastroianni in another film called "Wifemistress?" (Yes.) It's better and more sophisticated - and maybe more sexy (in the uncut international version) with perhaps one of the loveliest and first and most natural non-porn displays of the vulva in film. It's a film that currently is difficult to find - cut or uncut.