Customer Reviews

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands [VHS]

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Dona Flor is the film version of internationlly acclaimed Brazilian author, Jorge Amado's masterpiece! It is a beautiful story of a Bahian woman and her first husband who is arrogant and abusive but at the same time passionate and sexy. He dies. Her second husband is a good provider and loves her but lacks the passion and charm of the 1st husband. When the first husband's spirit comes back to Dona Flor she soon realizes that she can have everything she ever wanted. It is a beautiful story and Sonia Braga's performance is brilliant as usual! The cinematography shows great views of the fasinating city of Salvador. Well worth watching! E um dos melhores fimles do Brasil!!!! E uma maravilha!

A wonderful movie from beginning to end. Don't let the subtitles keep you from watching such a brilliant movie.
Sonia Braga is a wonderful Brazilian actress, once again displaying her sensual side in this movie about a loving wife torn between her gigolo husband and a loving devoted husband.
I never get tired of watching this classic.
And if you haven't read the book. you must!

"Dona Flor & Her Two Husbands" gives a wonderful and often charming glimpse into one woman's life--and affairs of the heart--in 1940's Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. If you're an aficionado of all things Brazilian, you'll love "Dona Flor," from the Bahian Carnaval to moqueca to candomble (NOT voodoo) to a great shot of the Pelorinho at the film's close. Not for the sensually inhibited, "Dona Flor" is highly entertaining.

Remaster version of the most successful film in Brazil history. New York Video really has respect for his clientele. The image quality is optimal, taking in account the year the movie was released. It is in enhanced 16x9 Widescreen. The soundtrack by Chico Buarque has been remastered in Dolby. No scene has been cut. No censure. New York Video presents the complete Re-release version as was presented in Brazil. In optional English or Portuguese language with optional English subtitles.

I first rented this movie in the 1980s from Blockbuster. It was so different, such a surprising delight, I watched it again about 10 years later. Different from anything I saw before or since.

I would like to see this on DVD, then I would purchase a copy. I discovered Sonia Braga in this movie. She was demure, then glowing with repressed eroticism, very sexy and then naked with her two husbands. Definitely not for those who cannot deal with open expressions of multidimensions of the sensual - music, samba, touch, dance, food, color, pastels, alleys, crooked walls etcetera.

Someone said it is amateurish etcetera. Definitely not 21st century production values, but it is a work of art.

This movie is the most well-known Brazilian movie abroad. The now world known actress, Sonia Braga, plays the part of a beautiful woman from the state of Bahia in Brazil who desires a homey lifestyle but who fell in love with and married a scoundrel who cheats on his wife, gambles her money away, and even hits her. (The Bahian setting is important because this mainly black state has a strong vodoo tradition.) Jose Wilker does a great comedic job in playing the role of the no-good,but highly sexual, husband.

Dona Flor loses here husband to his excesses, but finds that she is still much in love with him in spite of his faults and continues to have erotic dreams involving her now deceased husband.

Dona Flor eventually remarries, this time to a man who is the homey type, but who is sexually unimaginative in the extreme. In order to deal with her sexual frustration in her second marriage, she has to call on the spirit of her first husband with some very erotic and comedic results. The movie is very sexy and charming. Dr. Patrick L. Cooney, Ph.D. in sociology

I always thought Nora Epron stole the idea of incorporating recipes into the story's narrative for her novel Heartburn from Jorge Amado's sly 1977 book about a virtuous but sensual Bahia cooking school teacher hopelessly besotted with her philandering, gambling husband. Here it is beautifully translated to screen with our heroine, Dona Flor, portrayed by the beautiful Sonia Braga and set in Brazil in 1943 complete with period costumes, beautiful food and period music.

The story lesiurely unfolds as the viewer comes to understand why it is Dona Flor loves her sexy Vadinho and puts up with his abuse. After he drops dead during a Carnival samba dressed in drag and wearing a large fake male organ, Dona Flor is inconsolable. Celibate and desperately missing sex, she finally remarries. This time her choice (to her mother's delight) is a solid middle-class pharmacist, a good man, loving husband and bassoon player. However, on her honeymoon, Dona Flor discovers to her dismay that something is missing in the bedroom. Act 3 of our story takes a mystical bent with the undead Vadinho suddenly appearing naked in her bedroom and only Flor can see him. Death has not changed Vadinho, he still goes around to his old haunts, helps out his gambling friends and favorite prostitutes, all the while trying to make it with his wife who still retains her sexual longings.

The movie diverges from the book at the ending and although both work for Dona Flor whom we come to love, I prefer the book ending which resolves the dilemma by demonstrating Flor's emotional growth and good character. However, find the movie if you can and/or read the book, it is a funny tale with great recipes. Now if I only had a plate of those crabs with dente oil and onions.

This is one of my all time favorite foreign films from Brazil. Brazil is much more liberal than the USA. I know it cut out some of the more raunchy parts, yet still has some. Children under 18 should not be allowed to see this film unless parents watch it first and decide how liberal they want to be. Knowledge of Portuguese and Spanish is almost a must because the subtitles just give you a gist of what is said. But since I speak Spanish and some Portuguese I understand it well.

Dona Flora is based on the novel by Jorge Amado and directed by Bruno Baretto. The 1978 film, stars Sonia Braga, well known in the United States. Set in the 40s in a small town in Brazil is the main character, a beautiful sensual woman named Dona Flora who teaches cooking classes. The young woman is married to Vlahinho who is notorious as the real villain you love to hate. He is a swindler, a drunk, a pervert, a liar, a gambler, a wife beater and, according to Dona Flora, a great sex partner.

The movie opens with a colorful and musical town carnival where Vlahindo frolicks with his raunchy displays and drops dead. Missing him, Dona Flora imagines how wonderful her lovemaking was. We are then taken back into the world of Vlahindo, his scheming charming ways, with the ability to con the Father of the church. We see how blatent his flirtatious escapades such as grabbing the rear ends of women while they listen to his wife in her cooking demonstrations. We also learn about his addiction to gambling, and beating Dona Flor for money. But, she loooovvves him!

Dona Flora remarries the pharmacist, someone a complete departure for Vlahindo. Teodoro is well-mannered, reputable, plain and somewhat older. But as time goes by, in a ghostly fashion, Vlahindo show up frequently, always in the nude and Dona Flora succumbs to his playboy sexual antics.

This is an entertaining film, and similar to many Latin foreign film, there is lots of nudity and sex scenes that are more restrained with nudity more frequent. There is fun and music and an array of characters that add to the fun.

Similar to this that I recommend La Vida Conyugal (Married Life), is another Latin film, where a women has sex with other men in hopes that she can urge one of them to kill her husband.
......Rizzo

A true classic of Brazilian cinema, with a great director, great actors, beautiful music and most importantly, true to the book