Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands

Like so many other foreign-born directors before him, Bruno Barreto emigrated to Hollywood in order to fulfill his dream of making crummy romantic comedies and genre pictures. However, he made his name with vibrant portraits of Brazilian society, like the 1976 sex comedy Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. A young Sonia Braga plays Florípides, the sensual wallflower wife of a rakish scoundrel named Vadinho, a man so committed to debauchery that he visits a cathouse and a casino minutes after consummating his marriage. Soon after her husband’s untimely death in the early morning hours of Carnival, Florípides remarries to Vadinho’s opposite: a sober, pretentious pharmacist—and a lousy screw.