Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands 1976

Dona Flor’s husband Vadinho drops dead while dancing in a street carnival. Only Flor expresses remorse after his death. Flor’s friends and family see Vadinho’s death as a chance for Flor to find happiness after the misery brought on by his spendthrift ways and near-total lack of respectability.

Roughly the first half of the film recounts Flor’s marriage to Vadinho in an extended flashback. Vadinho is a great lover who admires his wife’s respectability, but he enjoys protracted foreplay until she begs him to continue. Not only is he generally an inattentive husband who would rather go to the casinos and whore houses, but he beats Flor and steals the savings she made from her cooking school. Despite this, his seductiveness changes a formerly inhibited girl into a wife who experiences carnal joy regularly.

The second half follows Flor’s meeting with Teodoro Madureira, a respectable but extraordinarily dull pharmacist, his courtship of her, and their marriage. Flor’s friends consider Teodoro the exact opposite of Vadinho. Teodoro belongs to Bahia’s upper circles, dresses elegantly, and treats Flor like a lady. What Flor’s friends do not know is that Teodoro is also the opposite of Vadinho in one more respect: in bed, Teodoro is as lacking as Vadinho was accomplished. Flor finds herself unfulfilled, and wishes for her late husband to return.

On the anniversary of Vadinho’s death, the nude spirit of Vadinho reappears to Flor in the nude and explains that she called him to share her bed.

“share her bed”

Only Flor can see and hear the nude spirit of Vadinho, but he still manages to create chaos through his spiritual presence at casinos. She protests because she is now remarried and has pledged to be faithful to Teodoro, but after Vadinho laughs during Teodoro’s pathetic attempts at love-making that night, Flor gives in and lives happily with both husbands.

The last two shots depict Flor in her new marital bliss. A shot toward the end of the film shows Teodoro lying in bed next to Flor, who kisses him on the cheek. The camera then pans to the left to show Vadinho on Flor’s other side and she kisses him on the cheek too. Then (presumably the next day) as a large crowd exits Sunday Mass, Flor links arms with both Teodoro and Vadinho, the latter completely in the nude without shame. Flor is seen to be very content.