A movie

A movie dripped in the essence of love

"Like water for chocolate"

(Mexican)

 

There is magic in love, right? Has that magic ever taken a hold on you? Have ever drifted away or ever flew in the magical air of love? Ever jumped in the lake of love? If you are unaware of the magic of love, then watch the Maxican movie - Like water for chocolate. This movie will introduce you to that magical feeling.

This movie is a complete story of love. It has the faith of a soul and the frenzy of a body. This movie has a strong fragrance of love, which slowly wraps around you and makes you crazy; just like love. Yes, in this film many things will happen because of love that may seem impossible to believe.

A lover named Pedro gives the love of his life Tita a white rose so that no one would suspect his or her relationship, and Tita presses this white rose so tightly to her chest that it turns into the color of love, red. Tita is excellent in culinary skills and so she uses this rose in a dish. When served, the exotic smell of it takes a hold on all. Not only Pedro and Tita, her two sisters and even her mother seemed to be caught in the hangover of this scent. They eat this dish as though they are taking part in a love sport. They eat this dish as though they are sharing a slow kiss with someone. When eating this dish, one of Tita's sister, Hardis eats a whole petal. She is caught in a sudden frenzy. She could no longer sit, as though her whole body is set on fire... And so she starts running bothered by this fire, so much so that she tore away her clothes as she ran. This scene looks like a scene of salvation... salvation found from love.

There is a question in the world, is there salvation in love?

Yes, if you put aside love from the social data and setups by the world, then in its complete and true form love has salvation, it makes one fly, it makes one drift away, it takes one higher above all. This is that love, and it has been filmed with the same fire and light.

To stop this fire of love Hardis wants to take a bath, but even her bathroom get's wrapped around in this fire. A drop of water touches her burning body and evaporates and reaches to a heroic soldier who is plastered by it.  He is drawn towards Hardis, who sits on his horse with him despite her bare body. It is said that this fire had made them run for years, and nobody could find where they went.

Tita was not her father's daughter, but a mark of her mother's lover. Her mother's husband died from the shock of it on the day Tita was born, but it remained a secret. For their whole life their mother had tied them in a tight rope of family ideals. The tradition says that the youngest daughter is to never get married, as she is supposed to take care of her mother her whole life. Pretext to that Tita's mother does not allow Tita to marry Pedro.

Pedro is then told to marry Tita's older sister, Rosaura. He accepts this proposal, but only so that he could stay closer to Tita. Responsibility of the wedding preparations is given to Tita, but she is not able to hold herself together. When she is preparing the wedding cake, a drop of her tear rolls down and mixes with the cake batter. On the wedding day the cake is served to the guests and the newly wed couple, and everyone starts crying when they eat the cake. A mesmerizing scene.

The scene was as though love was being slaughtered and the whole universe was crying at that. Tita's mother could not control herself either. She cries hard holding the picture of her lover. That night, poor Tita is thrown into the storm of her mother's anger. Her mother says- to spoil the wedding of the lover Tita must have had mixed something in the food; but she knew nothing of the real truth.

Tita is sad, because the cook Nacha who loved her as a mother would, had died. With her sister and Nacha gone, Tita is now all alone. On that lonely night, she started knitting a Shawl, but it is never fisnished. Not on that night, and not on any other night that came.

Even though Pedro married Rosaura, his heart would only beat for Tita. They do not meet physically, but their union is nothing less than a divine event. Just like as Rosella gives birth to a child, but Pedro's love filled eyes had seen Tita's body, and so milk came out of Tita's breats. Tita is the real mother of the son Roberto.

Tita's mother's hard gaze falls upon this union too, and so Pedro and Rosaura are sent far away. Milk is still spilling out of Tita's chest. This departure kills little Roberto. The news made Tita so sad that she loses her sanity. She is locked in the cage of chickens and day by day is dissolving in sorrow.

At the time of Roberto's birth Doctor Brown had fallen for Tita, and when he heard about Tita living in a cage made for chickens, he brings her to his home. Tita sits there wrapped in that incomplete Shawl; a Shawl that's length goes on for miles. Tita's health gets better with the help of Doctor Brown's care and medicines; but her heart was still broken. The heart that had gone cold made her mute.

Seeing this, the Doctor makes matchsticks in front of Tita is his laboratory and tells her how important fire is. He tells her that we are all born with a matchstick inside us, the only difference is that we cannot lit it ourselves. Some heat reaches to Tita, but she only got completely well when she drank the hot soup made by her friend Chencha.

Tita's mother is killed in a bandit attack. Now everyone meets on Tita's farm. Pedro, even Tita's eloped sister arrives with her soldier. Wedding preparations are being made for Tita and Doctor's wedding, but Tita becomes pregnant with Pedro's child. Ghost of Tita's mother starts troubling her, but one day Tita pushes away the ghost by saying that she has no right to speak of Family Ideals as she had never taken those ideals for herself and so she must leave Tita alone in peace. Hearing this, the ghost of Tita's mother disappears forever and so does Tita's imaginary pregnancy. Tita then refuses to marry the doctor; as doctor's friendship had brought back her peace but since she still loved Pedro, marrying the doctor would have had been a fraud.

Rosaura then gives birth to a daughter, whom she wants to stay unmarried forever just like Tita, but later the daughter is tied in a knot of love marriage with doctor's son. Rosaura dies way before the marriage takes place. Twenty years later, Pedro proposes to Tita- "Marry me Tita, I won't be able to die if I'm not united with you." Drowned in love for a whole night, Pedro takes his last breath. Holding his hand, Tita wraps herself in that never ending Shawl.

The matchstick burning within them burns everything, just as nothing can withstand the fire of love.

The characters in the film are involved in such an unknowing behavior, it seems as though only someone in love could be this way. This is a divine story of romance. Or maybe the correct way to say this would be that romance is divine.

Throughout this movie, you will get gosebumps and will touch the highest point of fantasy; and all this would double after each scene.

 

This movie has 25 awards and 12 nominations.

It is based on a Novel by - Laura Esquivel

Directed by - Alfonso Arau

Cast -

Lumi Cavazos - Tita

Marco Leonardi - Pedro Muzquiz

Regina Torné - Mamá Elena (mother)

Mario Iván Martínez - Doctor John Brown

Yareli Arizmendi - Rosaura

Ada Carrasco - Nacha

Cinematography - Steven Bernstein, Emmanuel Lubezki

Release dates - 16 April 1992

Running time - 123 minutes

Country - Mexico

Language - Spanish/English