Gabriela is a very sexual heated movie that has obvious and underlying themes of change and progress. This progress comes in many forms and really shapes the entire movie. Gabriela herself is a woman of change, she fled the drought and shows up in a new town covered in mud and looking for a job that could help her progress in her life. Here is where she meets mister Nacib. In his eyes she’s the perfect woman, beautiful, skilled in the culinary field, and willing to negotiate her own costs. All things considered, she is a pretty modern day woman for 1925. She loves becoming his mistress and does not seem enthused by the idea of marriage. Nacib is the one who wants to marry her and look proper in front of his gentleman friends which is the point that causes so much tension and drama for Nacib and the people of this time.
At this time period it is more about how people see you and perceive you than anything else, hence by this drama of “crimes of passion” comes into play. From the beginning of the movie you see a man walk in on his wife and a dentist and shoot them both. It’s a scandal throughout the town because some people seem to believe that he was in the right to do what he did and that it makes him a man. Others believe that it was wrong, in the movie it is the manly political crowd who believe that he was in the right to do what he did. No one even attends these people funerals when they are brought through the street; everyone just gawks at their dead bodies being carried through the streets. Besse talks all about this social change in Brazil and how it was not brought about because people cared that these women were being shot but because they cared about the social structure of the family and what good it could do for politics and the stability of normal life. This entire movement to get crimes of passion outlawed took years in the real world but this movie condenses it down so people can really get the feel for the affect that this had. The movie portrays quite well that it was not about women’s well being but about politics. In the end the man who killed his wife and the dentist is charged with murder as compared to let off the hook because he was just in a fit of passion or rage. This is the social changed that happened during this time.
Nacib is at first ridiculed for not killing Gabriela when he finds her in bed with another man but when he proves that the marriage was false to begin with, he is now socially accepted by society again. It then is evident that he can keep Gabriela as a mistress but not as a wife and he will be allowed to fit into the society that he so desperately wants to be a part of. Overall, this movie depicts this particular social change very well and shows the attitudes of the people involved very nicely.
This is a nice review fo the movie, and points to its central issue. But remember, you need to specifically and explicitly engage at least two of the readings each week to analyze the the film!
ReplyDeleteI like the points that were brought up surrounding the main theme of this film. You did a good job describing the fact that the political structures of the society created a central conflict within the town. I would have liked you to mention as well, that the generalization of women was held to a lower standard surrounded by a society that was extremely male oriented. Also, that law enforcement was not a concern or use. The people took matters into their own hands without any worry of consequence. Whether it be to murder or to commit adultery. Knowing that during that time you could be killed for the act of adultery and that because of societal ways/sexual discrimination, no law enforcement was going to save you .
ReplyDeleteI agree that the movie does a good job of explaining the social changes that Latin America was undergoing during this time period. And I too felt that the point was well made that society cared less about the women and more about the mans status in society.
ReplyDeleteThis film still amazes me how men are willing to kill a woman in order to redeem their already poor reputation. In Latin America, men were pigs and continued to be pigs. They knew from their bar talk that men were sleeping with one another wives, but took shock in knowing that their own wife had cheated on them. It is encouraged in that society to take more than one woman at a time, but women are punished for the indecency of the marriage. Good job on pointing this out.
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