Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976)

In a small city of Brazil, a woman named Flor marries a man named Vadinho, but once married she finds that he is a good-for-nothing. She works teaching cooking and he takes all of her money... See full summary »

Director:

Bruno Barreto

Writers:

Jorge Amado (novel), Bruno Barreto

Stars:

Sônia Braga, José Wilker, Mauro Mendonça

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 3 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sônia Braga	...	Dona Flor (Florípides) Guimarães (as Sonia Braga)
José Wilker	...	Valdomiro 'Vadinho' Santos Guimarães
Mauro Mendonça	...	Dr. Teodoro Madureira
Dinorah Brillanti	...	Rozilda
Nelson Xavier	...	Mirandão, Vadinho's Buddy
Arthur Costa Filho	...	Carlinhos the Guitarist
Rui Resende	...	Cazuza the Drunk
Mário Gusmão	...	Arigof
Nelson Dantas	...	Clodoaldo the Poet
Haydil Linhares	...	Norminha, Flor's Friend
Nilda Spencer	...	Dinorah, Flor's Friend
Sílvia Cadaval	...	Jacy
Ivanilda Ribeiro	...	Sofia a Servant
Sue Ribeiro	...	Magnólia
Francisco Santos	...	Venâncio, the Priest

Storyline

In a small city of Brazil, a woman named Flor marries a man named Vadinho, but once married she finds that he is a good-for-nothing. She works teaching cooking and he takes all of her money to gamble. After Vadinho dies, Flor marries Tedoror, the owner of a drugstore. Flor is happy with her new husband but misses the love life with her previous husband. When one day the ghost of Vadhino comes back to peruse her.

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Plot Keywords:

upskirt | voyeur | blue panties | sex scene | breasts | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Brazil

Language:

Portuguese

Release Date:

21 June 1978 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands

Filming Locations:

Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Company Credits

Production Co:

Carnaval Unifilm,Coline,Companhia Cinematográfica Serrador

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Bruno Barreto was born in 1955 and this film debuted in 1976 when he was only 20 or 21. Barreto started working on this film at age 19. Considering it was the largest grossing film in Brazil between its 1976 release and 1997, the then 19-year-old did a great job.

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Alternate Versions

Original Brazilian release ran 118 minutes.

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Connections

Remade as Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos (2017)

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Soundtracks

O Que Será (Abertura)
Written and Performed by Chico Buarque

User Reviews

Bruno Barreto made this film at the age of 21

Talking about prodigy filmmakers, Xavier Dolan might feel threatened, at the age of 21, Brazilian director Bruno Barreto's third feature DONA FLOR AND HER TWO HUSBANDS (adapted from Jorge Amado's namesake novel), became the most successful film in Brazilian history, a record it would retain for about 35 years, and it launched its star Sonia Braga onto international stardom, who would reach the apogee in her iconic turn in KISS OF THE SPIDER MAN (1985, 9/10) as the embodiment of the titular spider woman.

Death precipitately befalls during the exotic festivity of a cluster of people dancing and courting a mulatto in a Brazilian town, and the deceased is Vadinho (Wilker), a young man in his early thirties, and the causes of his death are multiple. He is survived by his wife Dona Flora (Braga), and she starts to recollect their seven-year marriage and it turns out Vadinho is a complete good-for-nothing except his amorous sexual desire. He is a chronic gambler, an inherent womaniser, a boozer and whore-monger with a tendency for domestic violence. And Dona is a sultry beauty, but also a religious wife, she puts up with him in spite of all the suffering and abuse, since occasionally she can find the ephemeral satisfaction in their torrid love-making. But in the eyes of others, like Dona's mother and her close friends, who keep grousing about why she is so submissive towards Vadinho's tyranny, their marriage is a total mismatch judging by the face value.

When Vadinho is out of the picture, everyone is hoping for a new bright future for Dona, including herself, she is tormented by his sudden death, but is also looking forward to commencing a brand new chapter of her life. So she marries to a second husband, a middle-age pharmacist Teodoro (Mendonça), the exact opposite of Vadinho, a respectful man with a prospective future, but pedantic and boring, and worst of all, the sex is dreadful, comically marked out by Barreto in their wedding consummation with droll earnestness.

Commendably, the film focuses on a woman's conundrum between two polarised types of men, edifies with the motto "happiness does not equal romance" and then establishes Dona as a token of woman's sexual liberation by creating an imaginary ménage-a-trois situation with no rationale behind it. Barreto affirmatively betrays his young age through mischievousness of twisting the irony of fate and whimsies in engineering its saucy sex scenes with inordinate indulgence. Especially Wilker is not such a hotrod gaging by today's standard, watching him flaunt his flabby body in the buff and ca-noodle Braga again and again only solidifies one thing: she deserves someone much better, and the exploitation of her sex appeal out-paces the requirement for a committed performance, which she invests profoundly in the character development.

As far as the film is concerned, although sometimes verbosely executed, but who can resist its fetching charm of a strange land with all its whistles and bells function in full mode, plus a hindsight of Barreto's young age can only attribute more to his precocious expertise, a creditable achievement indeed.