Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1978)

Dona Flor

I loved this movie when I saw it on the big screen years ago. It may never be put in DVD format. It was a wonerful film but not a box office hit. It's a lot of fun to watch. So if you still have a VHS player go for it. October 30, 2008

Haven't Seen It, Yet.

I'd love to own this film but refuse to buy anything on VHS. Even if it is a Sonia Braga film. April 16, 2008

Colorful, musical, and ghostly!

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. .....Marrianne Rizzuto

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.
August 27, 2007

Joie de vivre encapsulated

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. January 12, 2006

The Best of Both Worlds!

I really enjoyed this movie. At first I thought that her two husbands were Vadinho the gambler and drunk, and Vadinho the loving husband. He was bascially two different people himself. I would have left him if I was her, though but I understand that in that time women didn't leave their husbands. Also in that time, it was not uncommon for men to have mistresses. After Vadinho's death, I was happy that Doña Flor decided to remarry, but I thought that she could've found someone more interesting than Teodoro. He's a nice guy and all, but he's just so boring. She was used to the wildlife with Vadinho, and it was a shock to her when she married Teodoro. I think that's why she gave into Vadinho when his soul returned. And since she was the only one who could see him, there was no harm in having realtions with him once again, and in the future. She was happy with both of them. She was getting the best of both worlds. I highly recommend this movie to all movie goers. November 26, 2002

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