Conference bookie::movies

    
    I enjoyed both the book and the movie, and I recommend taking them in
    in that order...
    
    >>p.s. the title is part of a Spanish saying which my mother could not
    >>remember the meaning of, can someone help?  
    
    The main character Tita is a fabulous, nay, magical, cook whose dishes
    evoke strong emotions in the people who eat them.  This figures
    prominently in several places in the book...  Anyway, the title refers
    to directions from a recipe for a chocolate desert (or was it a mol�?):
    To melt chocolate, bring the water in the double boiler to just below
    boiling. If you let the water boil, the chocolate will cook and
    everything will be spoiled, but if you don't get the water hot enough,
    you'll be forever waiting for desert.  Pretty potent metaphor for a
    novel, eh? :^)
    
    Scott
    

    This movie was great.  
    
    Funny, I thought the few nude scenes enhanced the message of the movie.
    I did not think they were gratuitous at all.
    
    I found myself unexpectedly weeping the last 5 minutes, when Tita's
    great niece is talking about missing the woman who taught her to cook;
    missing the conversations that go on in a kitchen amongst the cooking
    illuminati.  The final scene where the great niece is cooking and all
    of the dead relatives who passed on the art are behind her sent the chill of
    a beautiful truth down my spine.  I miss my grandmother, who taught me
    to cook, the same way.  And I approach her cookbooks with the same
    reverence and awe.
    
    A beautiful movie: funny, magical, and poignant.
    
    I think the expression "like water for chocolate" has a more idiomatic
    meaning in Spanish.  It means that the "time is right and the time is
    now" in an erotic sense.

Re .0: sorry, no foreign-language film Oscar; this *was* Mexico's
selection last year, but it didn't make the Academy's short list.

Having enjoyed this film greatly, I think it's a shame.  However, it
may be eligible for the "regular" categories next year.

    RE: .2  by 29067::A_FROST 
    
    >I think the expression "like water for chocolate" has a more idiomatic
    >meaning in Spanish.  It means that the "time is right and the time is
    >now" in an erotic sense.
    
    Funny, I saw this last night and all I could think of in regards to how
    the title related to the movie was "accept no substitutes", as in how
    the neighbor kept asking for the recipe for this dish or that and Tita
    would always say "It must be made with much love".  Leaving love out of
    life is like substituting water for chocolate.  It may quench your
    thirst, but not your desire.
    
    I thought this was a magical movie and I don't think the nudity was
    gratuitous at all.  I would not hesitate for my son to see it.
    

    I saw this over the weekend, and loved it.  I thought it was very
    different, very funny, very romantic, and that the acting was very good.
    
    Lorna
    

    A friend who is Mexican translated the title for me as follows:
    
The term "Como agua para chocolate" roughly means "Hot to trot" with an
emphasis on passion.  The term comes from making chocolate mexican style. 
A small amount of water is boiled with cocoa, sugar and cinnamon.  Once the
cocoa is dissolved and the the cinnamon has steeped, milk is mixed in.  Sooo,
is somebody is like "agua para chocolate" it means that they are hot.

    
    For those in the MA/NH area who would like to see this movie,
    it's held over for an eighth week at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre.
    I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, especially being fond of Latin
    American literature of the magic realism sort.  There are so
    many interesting things in the cracks between what we see as
    reality and what our minds can conjure up...
    
    Ron 

    My Mexican hairdresser explained the phrase as one frequently used to
    describe a wonderful meal, or a dish that is perfectly prepared.
    
    As with many phrases it probably has multiple meanings, and all of the
    ones provided thus far make the title an excellent and appropriate one
    for the story.
    
    - Dave

    My wife and I saw this movie recently and enjoyed it too.
    
    One question came up:  when Pedro got married why did he move in with
    the rest of the bride's family?  Why not move in with Pedro's family,
    or have them go off and live in their own house?
    
    Was this just a plot device or standard behavior for that generation?
    
      John

This film  is  technically astute and a pleasure to watch.  But its views on
passion  and virtue are odd, and the use of magical food, and the power from
which  it  derives,  are quirky.  To those who have seen the film, here's my
take on it:

Many years  ago,  a  friend  of  mine at Columbia, who was then a student of
Spanish,  Italian  and  the  Renaissance,  took me to a soft-porno film in a
local  Spanish-speaking  movie  house  he often attended.  He translated the
highlights  for  me,  but  it  was still jibberish.  What I remembered was a
stunningly  attractive couple, playing an adult brother and sister pair in a
lavish residence.  They conducted a steamy incestuous affair in the midst of
witchcraft,  treachery  and  jealous rivals.  My friend explained to me that
incest,  presented  in wierd ways as these, was a staple of Latin cinema.  I
was  stupefied.   This  recent film gave the same feeling of bafflement, and
the encounter of a cultural divide.

Brian

    I saw this just recently at Clark U. in Worcester.  I think they should
    have called it the Joy of Cooking.  Not being a cook, myself, I
    couldn't relate.  Loving to eat, however, I still didn't find the
    presentation of the food to be appealing.  In fact, in some cases, it
    looked down right disgusting.
    
    The constant interplay between realism and mysticism I found
    disconcerting.The ending was a farce/slap in the face for having sat
    through the whole thing.
    \
    Not my cup of tea, evidently.  Good title though.
    

    The mixing of "reality" and magic or the supernatural is a staple of
    Latin American literature. See 100 Years of Solitude by Marquez for an
    extremely good example. In this case, the fact that the magic was mixed
    in with reality so casually made this a very good movie, because it
    translates the feeling of such books effectively. Good movie!

    RE: .11  by ISLNDS::RYDBERG 
    
    >I saw this just recently at Clark U. in Worcester.  I think they should
    >have called it the Joy of Cooking.  ...
    
    More like a cross between Joy of Cooking and Joy of Sex.
    

    I still can't believe this didn't get nominated for *anything*!
    
    E Grace

    Does anyone know if this movie is out on video yet?
    
    				thanks,
    				Donna

    
    
    it's ben out on video in the uk for about a month now...
    
    giles
    
    

    
    it's still showing in the theatre here!
    

> Does anyone know if this movie is out on video yet?

	It's out on video now here in the States (though I see it
	also has another engagement at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre!).

	A very interesting film, two thumbs way up!

    Blockbuster has it.  I rented it last night and liked it a lot!  The
    subtitles are very easy to read.  I've been waiting a while for it to
    come out, after reading the book.
    
    I thought the scene where she was riding off to live with the doctor
    was pretty funny with her knitted blanket trailing after her.

    Just rented this last weekend. Thought it was excellent!  But there was
    one part that I just didn't understand (after form feed):
    
    
    
    At one point, after her false pregnancy, Tita (I thought) agreed to
    marry the doctor, while Pedro(?), her would-be lover was recovering
    from his burn wounds.  Then the movie jumped to about 15 years into
    the future, when her sister (Pedro's wife) had died under 'suspicious'
    circumstances, and she and Pedro were free to consummate their
    relationship. 
    
    My question is: what happened to the doctor? Did they marry? If so, how
    could she be 'free'? I thought he was at the banquet, (sitting alone
    and looking very old) and later drove away, alone.
    
    What's the scoop? I'm sure I'm just missing something obvious.
    
    Rodney

    re -.1
    
    Below the form feed...think it would reveal some of the plot.
    
    
    The banquet they were at in the end was the marriage of Pedro's
    daughter? and the Doctors son? (or vice versa)from a previous marraige.
    
    If you recall when Tita's sister had the baby there was some forshadowing
    "they'll make a good couple" or something to that effect.
    
    Tita never married the Doctor. He ended up alone and was only at the 
    wedding because of his son.
    
    Think that's the way it went....

    I saw this Sunday night and thought it was a "nice, little movie".
    I liked the mix of "real" and supernatural/ghost sequences, and 
    like some others, was a little confused at first by what had
    transpired in the years prior to Esperanza's wedding, but caught
    on soon enough.  
    
    I liked the idea of the niece telling the story.
    
    
    
    I didn't like Tita & Pedro dying like that, though.