Rodrigo Amaro The romance between Gabriela, a beautiful rural woman (Sonia Braga) and a Turkish businessman (Marcello Mastroianni) that confronted the prude society of Bahia, in the beginning of the 20th Century, presented in this film explodes in sensuality, and a little bit of humor but all of that wasn't enough to make me give a thumbs up for it at the ending.Many tiny little plots around the main story ruined the film; the excessive sex scenes between the main stars are quite the same thing repeated over and over; and things built up and disappear out of nowhere. Throw your rocks on me because I'm from Brazil and I've never read the book written by Jorge Amado, one of Brazilian greatest writers so I can't construct my point of view comparing both medias. But what I did saw was a film that was quite good during its forty, fifty minutes, then it was just tiresome, annoying, with nothing much to say, and nothing much to show. What was the point anyway? A love relationship only based in sex? What was the reason of Gabriela cheating on his beloved husband? Everything is too much trite and director Bruno Barreto didn't know exactly what he was doing here, this wasn't material for him, and probably he was just trying to repeat the success of his previous adaptation of Amado's book "Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos" (1976) which had the highest box-office performance of all time around here, holding the record of most seen film for almost 20 years, losing its place to "Titanic" (1997). The supporting cast has some good moments here (specially Ricardo Petragalia playing the teacher); Mastroianni impressed me a little but I still want to know if his voice was dubbed or he really speak Portuguese mixed with Spanish, something almost inaudible to hear. Braga displays lots of sensuality and nude scenes, things that worked a lot here in the 1980's, now it's just silly.Overrated in all senses, this film almost made it through being a good film. The excess in story, soundtrack, direction and the lack of a higher purpose ruined the experience for me. 5/10

takseng There is the contrast between the Syria of Nacib's father and the Brazil of our movie's present. In Syria, barkeeper Nacib tells us, they kill and mutilate sexy women, and he declares his sympathy with that kind of treatment, but it seems that Brazil is a woman's country.Gabriela is a fantasy of a completely unaffected, natural woman, who rises out of poverty and without education, but is completely confident of who she is with a marvelous natural grace, and is frankly open in her sexuality and lust for her employer Nacib, played by Marcello Mastroiani. But the pure femininity, I would like to call it innocence, of Sonia Braga's Gabriela, prevails. Such a character is probably only a man's fantasy, but it seems that nowhere more than Brazil would such a creature exist. And how Brazilian that not only is Gabriela, without comment, of unknown and obviously mixed race origins, but so is Nacib, who tells, after constant times of being called "Turk", that he is actually Italian, born of Syrian father and Italian mother.Although this movie is fairly explicit sexually, it doesn't dwell on its sex scenes. It is its passion and Braga's beauty make this the sexiest mainstream flick I've seen, a heat-wave.

Lawrence This 1983 remake of Gabriela, directed by Bruno Barretto, features THE most sensuous performance of Sonia Braga on film--interesting, considering she was in the 1976 original film, also as the title character. But Barretto does things the previous director did not do, and nails the story, as well as casting, also interestingly, Marcello Mastrioanni as the Syrian Nacib who is entranced by Gabriela's obvious femaleness. In what is very likely the most sensuous scene in filmdom--or certainly one of them--he has her over a first floor window. You can actually feel the room temperature rising around you when this coupling is going on.What it is that Barretto nails is the spirit of Jorge Amado's novel--that which captures the uncontrolled and uncontrollable desires of a woman who, as uneducated as she is, rules men with her looks. Nothing new there, but there's no other film like the 1983 Gabriela for "fleshing out" (you will, I am sure, pardon the pun) this concept.The Mastrioanni-Braga chemistry is white hot and that's true not only for the coupling they do, but also for the arguments they have. Only when there is passionate love can there be passionate arguments, and they are definitely here, no question, making this a film that grabs you by the throat, and by the privates, and squeezes in a gentle way, until all you can finally do is gasp. And with good reason.This is truly ripe for a DVD release. Where is it?????

kipper-5 Sonia Braga and Marcello Mastroianni are well-matched in this comedy set in the coastal town of Ilheus, Brazil, in the 1920's. Mastroanni is a paunchy, tired bachelor barkeeper who hires Braga, fresh out of the drought-stricken backlands, to be his cook. He is delighted to find, after she has cleaned herself up, that she is not only a terrific cook but also terrific in bed, and that she sees him as a very cute, studly young guy. But when he stubbornly tries to make their domestic arrangements into something more respectable, things start going downhill. Will our boy wise up in time?From Jorge Amado's novel, Gabriela: Clove and Cinnamon. Music composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim and arranged by Oscar Castro-Neves. Beautiful photography by Carlo di Palma. Lots of delightful small-town character humor.This is the role that put Sonia Braga on the map when she played it on Brazilian TV in 1975. She was a sensation, and Gabriela was one of the highest-rated novelas ever aired in Brazil.