Bittersweet chocolate (film)

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Movie
German title Bittersweet chocolate
Original title Como agua para chocolate
Country of production Mexico
original language Spanish
Publishing year 1992
length 113 minutes
Rod
Director Alfonso Arau
script Laura Esquivel
production Alfonso Arau
music Leo Brouwer
camera Steven Bernstein ,
Emmanuel Lubezki
cut Carlos Bolado ,
Francisco Chiu
occupation

Bittersweet chocolate (Original title: Como agua para chocolate ) is a drama film by the Mexican director Alfonso Arau . It was based on the successful novel Bittersweet Chocolate by Mexican writer Laura Esquivel , who also wrote the screenplay for the film. The film tells the love story of Tita and Pedro, who are not allowed to marry because, according to family tradition, Tita, as the youngest girl, is destined to look after her mother in old age. The feelings that Tita cannot live out are incorporated into the dishes she prepares. The plot takes place partly in the time of the Mexican Revolution and makes use of the stylistic devices of magical realism . The main roles were played by Lumi Cavazos and Marco Leonardi . The film received good reviews and also achieved high grossing. The international success, including in the USA, supported the rising Mexican film industry , for Arau it means the opportunity to go to Hollywood. Bittersweet chocolate won 21 film awards, including ten Premio Ariels .

action

It all begins with the birth of Tita, Elena's third daughter, in 1895 in a hacienda in Mexico on the banks of the Rio Grande. Elena comes down in the middle of the kitchen on a table from which Nacha, the cook, wiped all the things for food preparation down with her elbows to make it free for the woman to give birth. She becomes the midwife. The birth is accompanied by a surge of Elena's amniotic fluid, the salt of which is obtained after drying. Tita's father died of a heart attack a short time later when he heard the rumor that he had not fathered all of his daughters, but that one was from a mulatto. Because Elena then dries up the milk, Nacha also nurses the child. Tita grew up in the kitchen and was introduced to Mexican culinary art. Nacha becomes her real mother.

In 1910 the three sisters Tita, Rosaura and Gertrudis lived on this farm with their mother Elena. Elena has decided that, as the youngest daughter, Tita is not allowed to marry, according to family tradition, because she should look after her mother in old age. But Tita fell in love with Pedro and Pedro with her. When he officially asked for Tita's hand with his father, Elena refused. But she offers him marriage to Rosaura, the eldest daughter. Pedro accepts so that he can always be close to Titas. On the eve of the wedding, Tita cries into the batter of the wedding cake. This leads to the fact that all guests who eat from the cake have to think sadly about lost love happiness in their life. They even vomit together on the banks of the Rio Grande. So great feelings can also be conveyed through food. Pedro is postponing the consummation of the marriage to Rosaura for as long as possible, also under the citation of an alleged poisoning by the cake. Elena suspects something and distrusts Tita, especially since Pedro now lives on the farm as Rosaura's husband.

When Pedro gives Tita a bouquet of roses, officially as thanks for preparing the wonderful dishes every day, Elena surprises her and orders the roses to be thrown away. But Tita prepares a quail dish with the rose petals. She puts all her desires for Pedro into it. Only Rosaura, who of course has a difficult relationship with Tita, is not reached by the erotic magic of the food. Gertrudis gets so hot that she even sets the shower house on fire while she is showering. She flees naked into the open arms of the revolutionary leader Juan de la Garza ( Mexican Revolution ), who, seized by the rose scent of the food, leaves a close battle and takes Gertrudis on his horse, whose gaze had already charmed him at an encounter shortly before. Elena rejects her runaway daughter by claiming that she is in the brothel. Tita secretly sends her things after her. Elena suspects that Tita might be behind the events and wants to chastise her with the riding whip. Then she learns that Nacha has just died in the kitchen and lets go of Tita.

Tita is the obstetrician when Rosaura's first child is born. Because Rosaura has no milk to suckle the child, the miracle happens that the virgin Tita shoots milk into the breast so that she can take care of it. This creates a very close relationship between Tita and the child. When Rosaura takes the baby, he screams. Elena is this a thorn in the side. She sends the young family across the border into Texas to see relatives to separate them from Tita. When Tita learns that the child died there because she could no longer suckle it, she rebels against her mother Elena and blames her for the death of the child. She flees into the dovecote and no longer speaks.

Elena has her mentally ill picked up by the American doctor John Brown, who she knows, and brought to his home in Eagle Pass, Texas. John, who has a son from a previous marriage, patiently looks after Tita. Tita gets to know his life in Texas, including his grandmother's philosophy of life, according to which all people carry a bundle of matches that, when ignited individually, provide the soul with energy. To ignite it, you need the breath of a loved one and a flame as oxygen, that could be good food, music, tenderness, words or sounds. Tita feels that a match that was lit in her was often blown out. But John warns against lighting all the matches at once. This leads to a brightness in which a bright tunnel can be seen, which immediately brings the soul to union with its divine origin. When the Mexican housemaid Chencha from her home farm brings her an oxtail soup that she has prepared herself, Tita speaks again. John proposes to Tita, which she accepts out of respect for John's good character.

While John is giving a reception with Tita and some friends in Texas, Elena's hacienda is attacked by highwaymen who rape all women. Elena dies in the process. Back at home for the funeral, Tita finds in a box, the key of which her mother always wore around her neck, the information that Elena had a secret love affair with a mulatto. This is the father of Gertrudis.

Rosaura has a second child, the girl Esperanza. Because she is so weak, Tita takes care of the daughter in the kitchen again. She becomes the caregiver for the child again. Full of horror and contempt, Tita hears from Rosaura that her niece is about to suffer her fate: She is not allowed to marry and should look after Rosaura when she is old. As she cooks, Tita thinks that all those rotten and rotten words Rosaura uttered about her daughter's future should stay with her. From then on, Rosaura is plagued by lazy belching and gas. Nobody can stand being around them. Rosaura asks Tita for help and Tita promises to only cook food that does not have flatulence properties. When John officially comes to ask for Tita's hand, Rosaura and Pedro accept it. But Pedro secretly matches Tita and seduces her, who is only too happy to comply. She gets pregnant.

Then the ghost of Elena appears to Tita and curses her and her child for their alleged immoral life. At the New Year's Eve, rebels suddenly appear on the hacienda. Gertrudis and her husband are the leaders. Tita is very happy to see her sister again, with whom she has a close relationship, also because Gertrudis loves eating Tita's delicacies so much. Gertrudis frees her from the moral scruples about her relationship with Pedro. She points to the injustice that was done to her in the past. Pedro learns that he is going to be a father and they dream of leaving. But their responsibility does not allow that. Now Tita can face the next appearance of her mother Elena strengthened. She wants to expel them from the court. But Tita reminds Elena that she did not take seriously the moral concept that she so ruthlessly advocates. Then the spirit disappears. But he still causes Pedro to burn himself around the campfire and Tita is no longer pregnant.

Tita takes care of Pedro. He gets well again thanks to the healing power of a Mexican cactus, the recipe she got from Nacha, and the knowledge of John, who knows how to use it from his grandmother. Tita admits to John that she stands between him and another man, whom John immediately identifies as Pedro. She loves this man, but she loves him too. She feels comfortable and safe around him. John would still want to marry her, only her love is important to him. Rosaura, who now also knows about the close relationship between Pedro and Tita, wants to expel Tita from court, with Elena's words, dressed in Elena's dress.

Many years later in 1934, at the wedding of John's son to Esperanza, the daughter of Pedro and Rosaura, it was revealed that Tita never married John. Meanwhile, Rosaura has died of digestive problems. Pedro now proposes to Tita 22 years after the first. Again it turns out that Tita has put all her love into the wedding court, so that everyone turns to one another in love and desire. After the guests have left, Pedro Tita leads them to their former secret meeting place, to the bed in the barn, romantically staged with lots of candles, to which the appearance of Nacha played a part. While they are passionately sleeping together, Pedro dies of the fire that Tita has kindled in him. Desperately, she succeeds in lighting her emotional bond of matches (see above) by eating additional matches. Both see the clear tunnel. The fire becomes real and engulfs the hacienda.

The story of her great-aunt Tita is told by Esperanza's daughter, who introduces the film at the beginning and also ends it, which can be heard off-screen over and over again. Only Tita's cookbook could be saved. Now she tries to cook like her mother Esperanza and her great-aunt Tita. Both stand behind here as an apparition and look benevolently at their beginning.

background

Alfonso Arau initially did not want to film his wife Laura Esquivel's novel Bittersweet Chocolate himself, because he found it to be emotional and feminine and thought a director would be better suited to filming the material. He got to read the individual chapters of the novel while it was being made and actually only wanted to act as the film's producer . After being unable to find a suitable director in several interviews, he decided to give in to his wife and shoot the film himself if she would help him with the shoot. Laura Esquivel was often present on the set . The film was shot in Ciudad Acuña and Piedras Negras in Mexico and Eagle Pass , Texas in the USA.

Horst Peter Koll points out the meaning of the original title "Como Aqua para Chocolate", translated as "Like water for chocolate": In Mexico, hot chocolate is prepared with water, not milk. "Like water for chocolate" is a popular phrase that characterizes someone who is highly expectant, highly excited.

The style of the film with the camerawork by Steven Bernstein and Emmanuel Lubezki was characterized by soft images and warm colors. His theme with a woman looking for emotional and sexual fulfillment also drew the audience's attention. Bittersweet chocolate was commercially successful outside of Mexico, particularly in the United States, where it was the most commercially successful foreign film by 1997, with revenues of $ 21,665,500. The film was also shown in Canada , Germany , Spain , Argentina , France , Great Britain , Australia and South Korea and other countries and thus had an unusually high reach for a Mexican film at the beginning of the 1990s.

Awards

Bittersweet chocolate was the big winner at the Mexican Film Prize Premio Ariel in 1992. He won ten prizes, including the main Golden Ariel prize , which Alfonso Arau accepted. A Silver Ariel went to Mario Iván Martínez as best actor, Regina Torné as best actress, Margarita Isabel as best actress in a small role, Claudette Maillé as best supporting actress, Emmanuel Lubezki as best cameraman, Alfonso Arau as best director and Laura Esquivel for best screenplay . In addition, the film won awards for the best production and the best sets. In the same year Alonso Arau received the audience award at the Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara . At the Tokyo International Film Festival in 1992 Lumi Cavazos won the award for best actress and Emmanuel Lubezki and Steven Bernstein the award for best cinematography. At the Sudbury Cinéfest , Bittersweet Chocolate was recognized as the best foreign film.

In 1993, Bittersweet Chocolate received the Audience Award at the Gramado Film Festival in Brazil . Lumi Cavazos also received the award for best actress and Claudette Maillé for best supporting actress. At the Premios ACE in New York City in the same year, the film was awarded as best film. In addition, Alfonso Arau received the award for best director and Mario Iván Martínez received the award for best leading actor. Bittersweet chocolate was also nominated for best foreign film in 1993 for the Golden Globe and Goya , but did not receive the award.

In 1994, Bittersweet Chocolate was recognized for Best Foreign Film at the Independent Spirit Awards and the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards . In this category he was also nominated at the BAFTA Awards , but missed the award.

literature

  • Carl J. Mora, "Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a Society, 1896-2004: Reflections of a Society, 1896-2004." Mcfarland & Co Inc, 2005. ISBN 978-0786420834

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Carl J. Mora: "Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a Society, 1896-2004: Reflections of a Society, 1896-2003." Mcfarland & Co Inc, 2005. Page 218.
  2. ↑ Filming locations on imdb.com, accessed September 8, 2010
  3. ↑ Bittersweet chocolate. Retrieved July 11, 2020 .
  4. ^ Carl J. Mora: "Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a Society, 1896-2004: Reflections of a Society, 1896-2003." Mcfarland & Co Inc, 2005. p. 216.
  5. ↑ List of awards on imdb.com, accessed September 8, 2010