Gabriela, Cravo e Canela (1983)

Director:

Bruno Barreto

Writers:

Jorge Amado (novel)
Bruno Barreto (writer)

Release Date:

16 November 1984 (Finland)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Plot:

In 1925, Gabriela becomes cook, mistress, and then wife of Nacib, a bar owner in a small Brazilian coastal town runs by the local colonels...

Plot Keywords:

Female Nudity | Female Frontal Nudity | May December Romance | Nudity | Based On Novel

Cast

Sonia Braga	...	Gabriela
Marcello Mastroianni	...	Nacib
Antonio Cantafora	...	Tonico Bastos (as Antonio Cantáfora)
Paulo Goulart	...	João Fulgêncio
Ricardo Petráglia	...	Prof. Josué (as Ricardo Petraglia)
Lutero Luiz	...	Cel. Manoel das Onças (as Luthero Luiz)
Tania Boscoli	...	Glória (as Tánia Boscoli)
Nicole Puzzi	...	Malvina
Flávio Galvão	...	Mundinho Falcão
Jofre Soares	...	Cel. Ramiro Bastos (as Joffre Soares)
Maurício do Valle	...	Cel. Amâncio Leal
Nildo Parente	...	Maurício Caires
Ivan Mesquita	...	Cel. Melk Tavares (as Yvan Mesquita)
Luiz Linhares	...	Cel. Jesuíno Mendonça
Emile Edde	...	Poeta Argileu (as Emile Eddé)

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

Brazil

Language:

Portuguese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Parati, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Company:

Sultana

Movie Connections:

Version of "Gabriela, Cravo e Canela" (1960)

Soundtrack:

Mexerico

Terrific story, terrific movie

Gabriela, Clove & Cinnamon was the novel which marked Jorge Amado's break from pure class warfare--he received several Stalin prizes in his early career!--and embrace of the joys of Brazilian humanity. Sonia Braga has starred in adaptations of three of Amado's novels, all of them magnificent (the other two are Dona Flor and Tieta). I won't say she is here at her sexiest--Sonia Braga is sexy any time she's on screen--but this is one of her best movies, helped much by the other players, among them, curiously, Marcello Mastrioanni as the Syrian immigrant who hires Gabriela as cook and quickly finds himself in a deeper relationship. The plot here involves attitudes toward women and their sexuality, an eventual welcome breakdown of the double standard. and progress of law and order in a society too often ruled by lawlessness and custom. Amado dies without getting a Nobel Prize for Literature: Gabriela and the other two films mentioned convincingly demonstrate why he should have won it.