Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands

In Bahia, Vadinho dies during carnival. He was a gambler, a drunk and a man who beat his wife; Flor mourns him anyway. In time she marries a polite, orderly, dull pharmacist. Then Vadinho comes back: only Flor can see him, and he sits naked at the foot of the bed. The subject is not the ghost but a woman being allowed to want two different lives. The film does not make her choose; it says what Flor needs is the sum of the two, and in 1970s Brazil it frames that openly as a sexual matter. The form is colourful, loud and full of music. The streets of Salvador, the kitchen scenes and the carnival crowds make its texture, and Chico Buarque's song sits inside the narration. The source is Jorge Amado's novel. Bruno Barreto shot it in his early twenties. It sold more than ten million tickets in Brazil and remained the country's most watched film for decades. Sonia Braga gained international recognition from the role. It was remade in America in 1982 as Kiss Me Goodbye, a version that removed the sexuality entirely. José Wilker plays Vadinho and Mauro Mendonça the pharmacist. Who it is for: viewers who like Latin American literary adaptations and films that carry their subject lightly. Who it is not for: anyone troubled by the first husband's violence being softened; the film draws him as an attractive type.