Like Water for Chocolate (Spanish: Como Agua Para Chocolate) is a 1992 Mexican film in the style of magical realism based on the popular novel, published in 1989 by first-time Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel. It earned ten Ariel Awards including the Best Picture and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film became the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the United States at the time. The film was selected as the Mexican entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 65th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
Video Like Water for Chocolate (film)
Plot
The story is about a girl named Tita, the youngest of three daughters. Their mother, Elena, insists on upholding the family tradition that the youngest daughter has the duty of caring for her mother until she dies. When Tita meets a boy named Pedro they quickly fall in love. Pedro goes to Tita's house and asks her mother if they are allowed to marry. Elena forbids it and instead suggests he marry Tita's older sister Rosaura. Pedro decides to accept and Tita is devastated. After the wedding, Pedro tells Tita that he only married her sister so that he will be able to stay close to his true beloved.
Within the family structure, Rosaura is the second-oldest, two years Tita's senior. Oldest is Gertrudis, who was created by an affair with another man. Last is Tita, who is always fighting for her rights. Each daughter represents something within the Mexican revolution. Rosaura is representing the upper class, the people who get things handed to them and have nothing to worry about. Gertrudis represents people who are actually in the revolution, since she runs away and joins it. Tita represents the people who are left fighting for their rights, who are given nothing in return.
Before her sister's wedding, Tita is preparing the food with Nacha, and some of Tita's tears get mixed in with the batter. This results in an emotional riot in which everyone feels devastated and longs for their one true love. After Pedro gives Tita some roses, she uses the petals to prepare a sauce. As they are eating dinner everyone feels an intense passion and Gertrudis even sets the shower on fire with her passion.
Tita was born on a kitchen table and spent most of her time with Nacha. She knew the smells of the kitchen and learned how to cook at a young age. In the kitchen Tita is able to connect with Pedro. She states that when she puts all of her passion into her food, and after Pedro eats it, it is like she is entering his body in a sexual way. That has always been how the two connected. They did not need to touch physically, as Tita is an expert in the kitchen and able to make others feel what she feels when she prepares food.
When Rosaura has a baby boy, Elena becomes more suspicious about Tita and Pedro, and sends Pedro and Rosaura away to a different state to keep Pedro away from Tita. The baby then becomes sick and dies. Everyone blames Elena because she sent them away and they were not able to care for the boy the way Tita did. Tita then becomes extremely sad due to the loss, and is sent away where Dr. John Brown heals her. They begin a relationship and plan to marry shortly thereafter. However, Elena dies and Pedro and Rosaura come back. Pedro is still in love with Tita even after finding out that she is going to marry Dr. Brown.
When Dr. Brown leaves on business, Tita sleeps with Pedro. After an alarming false pregnancy, Tita tells Dr. Brown and he supports her decision to call off the wedding. Years later, Rosaura dies of digestive problems and her daughter, Esperanza, marries Dr. Brown's son. After the wedding Tita and Pedro make love, but Pedro died of being too happy all at once. Tita then swallows matches which results in the entire house catching on fire. Esperanza goes back to the house's ruins and finds a cook book with recipes and the story of Tita's and Pedro's forbidden love story.
Maps Like Water for Chocolate (film)
Characters
- Lumi Cavazos as Tita
- Marco Leonardi as Pedro
- Regina Torné as Mama Elena
- Mario Iván Martínez as Doctor John Brown
- Ada Carrasco as Nacha
- Yareli Arizmendi as Rosaura
- Claudette Maillé as Gertrudis
- Pilar Aranda as Chencha
- Farnesio de Bernal as Cura
- Joaquín Garrido as Sargento Treviño
- Rodolfo Arias as Juan Alejándrez
- Margarita Isabel as Paquita Lobo
- Sandra Arau as Esperanza Muzquiz
- Andrés García Jr as Alex Brown
- Regino Herrera as Nicolás
- Genaro Aguirre as Rosalio
- David Ostrosky as Juan de la Garza
- Brígida Alexander as Tia Mary
- Amado Ramírez as Pedro's father
- Arcelia Ramírez as Esperanza's daughter
- Socorro Rodríguez as friend of Paquita
Themes
Gender: Differing gender roles and values are central to the de la Garza family. The film complicates the roles that tradition expects Tita, Getrudis, and Rosaura to play. Tita, a maternal caretaker, breaks tradition; Gertrudis embodies the duality of the male and the female; and Rosaura, an upholder of the traditional female role, fails to fulfil it. Rosaura strives to be a the traditional female matron. She marries her sister Tita's one true love Pedro and adopts the role of wife. Her primary duties are to cook, to clean, and to take care of her children. The problem is that she cannot cook, cannot clean, and cannot nurse her own baby. Next to bend her gender is Gertrudis, offspring of an illicit affair between Mama Elena and her paramour. We know from early on that Gertrudis does not fit the ladylike mold. She is a tomboy, openly disagreeing with her mother and her traditional values. She encourages Tita to court Pedro even though he is married to their sister. When Tita's emotions enter into the rose petal dish she serves the family for dinner, Gertrudis eats and becomes so aroused that her body begins to steam. She runs to the outhouse, her heat setting it on fire, and departs home on the back of a horse ridden by a soldier of the Mexican Revolution. When Gertrudis mysteriously returns one night, we learn that she is a soldier fighting in the Revolution. Married to the man on the horse, she now commands her husband's troops. Tita is her sisters' opposite. She is a caretaker and family cook. Everyone loves her cooking and Tita miraculously serves as nursemaid to Rosaura's baby, since Rosaura is unable to produce milk. (When Pedro and Rosaura move away, the baby dies because Rosaura could not nurse it.) The differing gender roles give each character depth and significance, highlighting the opposites at work in each sister . In doing so the film displays strong women breaking barriers and redefining what it means to be a female.
Tradition is central to this movie. Tita, Gertrudis and the Mexican Revolution itself all fight against it. The movie's main conflict is a family tradition which forbids the youngest daughter from marrying so that she will be free to take care of her mother. This requirement sets up a battle between Tita and her mother, Mama Elena. Tita struggles to live her own life; Mama Elena fights to keep Tita at home. So fierce is Mama Elena's desire to uphold tradition that she orders her oldest daughter, Rosaura, to marry Pedro, Tita's one true love. Gertrudis, the middle child, and offspring of an illicit affair between Mama Elena and her lover, runs away from home and joins the people fighting to end the dictatorship and corruption afflicting the common folk of Mexico. Tired of the tradition that only the wealthy landowners had wealth and power, the people revolted, fighting for the workers of the land. Gertrudis' battle against the government parallels the battle between Tita and Elena. Both fight for change. In the war Gertrudis becomes a leader of an all-male rebel group. The men both listen and respect her. Gertrudis challenges tradition and becomes a successful leader. Tita's challenge to tradition will also be successful and portends successful change for Mexico.
Breaking Traditions: While tradition serves well to help pass down a family's customs or even cultural customs, often times tradition can often be viewed negatively and tear families and society apart because of how it can mistreat those in society who deviate from tradition. Mexican culture has in fact long expressed this coerced marriage rule in which women opinions are left unconsidered, and as a result these traditions lead to the mistreatment of women. This mistreatment also happens in the de la Garza family where the family tradition prevents the main character, Tita, from marrying Pedro due to the rule that the second daughter must not marry. Thus, breaking this specific tradition is a main theme within the film. One way this is represented in the film is through the character of Mama Elena as her oppressive and tyrannical force to Tita. Her character displays how corruptive traditions such as forced marriage hinders others and tears groups apart as Mama Elena does to Tita to prevent her from marrying Pedro. However, with the help of Tita's magical cooking that eventually breaks the family free from tradition, Tita and her sister, Gertrudis, not only break barriers and the gender roles in their society, but it also helps to establish a tradition to start treating each other equally.
Filming locations
- Ciudad Acuña, Mexico
- Eagle Pass, Texas
- Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico
Reception
Like Water for Chocolate received positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91%, based on 32 reviews, and an average rating of 7.5/10.
The American release of this film is quite shorter than the original Mexican version. In the original release, you see the main character Tita return home to take care of her dying mother; in the American release, this complete sequence is removed and instead Tita only returns home for her mother's funeral.
Awards
Ariel Awards
The Ariel Awards are awarded annually by the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences in Mexico. Como Agua Para Chocolate received ten awards out of 14 nominations.
Golden Globe Awards
See also
- List of submissions to the 65th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
- List of Mexican submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
References
External links
- Como agua para chocolate on IMDb
- Like Water for Chocolate at Box Office Mojo
- Like Water for Chocolate at Rotten Tomatoes
Source of article : Wikipedia
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