Tieta of Agreste

Read the novel. Watch the movie. Note the world of difference. I don't care how gorgeous Sonia Braga looks, this movie isn't even the ghost of the novel on which it was based. One of the most disappointing adaptations of a fine piece of literature since Kon Ichikawa's "Enjo".

Entertaining movie, good story, great locations, and at 46, Sonia Braga is charming and looks GREAT! The story is good, with some scenes sticking in my mind: The helicopter dropping gifts and causing a great fight. The contrast between the two sisters. The scene at the beach with Miss Braga au natural. She looks HOT. Not many 46 year old women can look so good with no clothes at all. The prolonged fight over the installation of the factory. The various amorous alliances. This is, after all, a Brazilian movie. :-) All in all, a very entertaining couple of hours. And, yes, great music. Maybe it won't hold the interest of the average American movie goer, but for the rest of us.... we are charmed.

Just as this plot portrays a big city person from San Paulo, revisiting her native small town in the brazilian Nordeste, Tornatore's character in "Star Maker" is a person from Rome visiting rural villages in Sicily. The small village dynamics are not the same as in a big city.

Jorge Amado shows us a common trait in Brazilian psyche. The strong influence of that lush country in its inhabitants. Actress Sonia Braga (born 1950) is a perfect choice; she still represents that role in "Dona Clara" (2016) "Dona Flor e os seus maridos" (1976),"Gabriela,cravo e Canela" (1983) "Tieta do Agreste" aka "Tieta do Brasil" (1996) Nature-based freedom and sensuality stem from the main character; who seems to be a creature born from the wilderness and whose barely tamed natural instincts clash with a social façade. A civilized pose shown as hypocrite, unable to resist its own nature. "A luz de Tieta" is the ideal song by Caetano Veloso that denounces that hypocrisy in a quick rhythm, like a stream that washes away that makeup in an ectasy of joy and freedom.

She's a woman who has been neglected by her family. Making some mistakes in her youth made her leave home and search a new life on her own. Later on, back in the town she was born, she finds the chance of having again her family love and though it seems to be too late, they show her it'll never be. The magic, rhythm and colur of this film is outstanding. Sonia Braga is amazing in this performance and the characters of the story are really appealing. Definitely a must-see movie.