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Like Water For Chocolate (Alfonso Arau, 1992)
Laura Esquivel's sexy, yummy novel captures magical realism in a totally original way: through recipes which appeal to love and sex. It's a wonderful idea and translated quite well by Arau. TIMEOUT: This has nothing to do with Arau as a director of this film, but I love to relate the connection to The Wild Bunch. In The Wild Bunch, the main guy was the sadistic Mapache (Emilio Fernandez, left}, who directed dozens of films, my favorite being his adaptation of Steinbeck's The Pearl. Arau (right) played Mapache's lieutenant in The Wild Bunch, and his directorial claims to fame, at least in the U.S., are Like Water For Chocolate and A Walk in the Clouds.
I seem to recall that when this film was released in the U.S., it set a new record for most money grossed by a foreign-language film. Of course, its record was destroyed later by Life is Beautiful and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. At least, I think that's the truth. The novel pretty much covers a lot of history, culture, sex, family trees, recipes, and concepts of what the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico was during WWI, the Pancho Villa era. It also pretty much assures you that Mexicans believe in ghosts, and I'm not all that sure that they don't believe in them any more than any culture, and I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with their "official religion". My students still believe in ghosts en masse, so that tells me something right there. However, every single ghost which appears as a ghost here is a terrific plot device. Remember, one of my fave books/stories is A Christmas Carol.
The novel/movie is so concerned with cooking as a personal expression that it almost rivals Babette's Feast as the greatest film ever made about food and its effect on families and love. Of course, this film is less of a mystery than the wonderful Babette's Feast, even if I probably give them the same rating. One thing which is probably sure is that this movie has more fire, sweat and sexual desire than most. That's why I like it so much. The women in this movie seem to all take the initiative sexually, no matter how repressed their mama seems to be. I say, good for them.
Laura Esquivel's sexy, yummy novel captures magical realism in a totally original way: through recipes which appeal to love and sex. It's a wonderful idea and translated quite well by Arau. TIMEOUT: This has nothing to do with Arau as a director of this film, but I love to relate the connection to The Wild Bunch. In The Wild Bunch, the main guy was the sadistic Mapache (Emilio Fernandez, left}, who directed dozens of films, my favorite being his adaptation of Steinbeck's The Pearl. Arau (right) played Mapache's lieutenant in The Wild Bunch, and his directorial claims to fame, at least in the U.S., are Like Water For Chocolate and A Walk in the Clouds.
I seem to recall that when this film was released in the U.S., it set a new record for most money grossed by a foreign-language film. Of course, its record was destroyed later by Life is Beautiful and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. At least, I think that's the truth. The novel pretty much covers a lot of history, culture, sex, family trees, recipes, and concepts of what the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico was during WWI, the Pancho Villa era. It also pretty much assures you that Mexicans believe in ghosts, and I'm not all that sure that they don't believe in them any more than any culture, and I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with their "official religion". My students still believe in ghosts en masse, so that tells me something right there. However, every single ghost which appears as a ghost here is a terrific plot device. Remember, one of my fave books/stories is A Christmas Carol.
The novel/movie is so concerned with cooking as a personal expression that it almost rivals Babette's Feast as the greatest film ever made about food and its effect on families and love. Of course, this film is less of a mystery than the wonderful Babette's Feast, even if I probably give them the same rating. One thing which is probably sure is that this movie has more fire, sweat and sexual desire than most. That's why I like it so much. The women in this movie seem to all take the initiative sexually, no matter how repressed their mama seems to be. I say, good for them.