Like Water for Chocolate
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This is an article about the 1992 film as well as the original novel. For the Common album of the same name, see Like Water for Chocolate (album).
| Like Water for Chocolate | |
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| Directed by | Alfonso Arau |
| Produced by | Alfonso Arau |
| Written by | Laura Esquivel |
| Starring | Marco Leonardi Lumi Cavazos Regina Torné Mario Iván Martínez |
| Release date(s) | April 16, 1992 |
| Running time | 123 min |
| Country |  Mexico |
| Language | Spanish/English |
| IMDb profile | |
Like Water for Chocolate is a popular novel, published in 1989 by first-time Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel. The novel follows the story of a young girl named Tita who longs her entire life for her lover, Pedro, but can never have him because of her domineering mother's traditional belief that the youngest daughter must not marry but instead care for her parents. Tita is only able to express her passions and feelings through her cooking, which causes the people who taste it to experience what she feels. The novel was originally published in Spanish as Como agua para chocolate and has been translated into thirty languages; there are over three million copies in print worldwide. The novel makes heavy use of magical realism.
The novel was made into a film in 1993. It earned all 11 Ariel awards of the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures and became the highest grossing foreign film ever released in the United States at the time.
Contents |
[edit] Plot of the film
Like Water for Chocolate's full title is:"Like Water for Chocolate: A novel in monthly installments with recipes, romances and home remedies."
The book is divided into twelve sections named after the months of the year. Each section begins with a recipe of some sort, usually involving Mexican foods. The chapters outline the preparation of the dish and ties it to an event in the protagonist's life.
Young Tita de la Garza, the story protagonist, is merely fifteen at the start of the events in the story, which take place in the era of the Mexican Revolution. She lives with her mother, Elena, and sisters Gertrudis and Rosaura on a ranch near the Mexico-US border. Tita's boyfriend Pedro Muzquiz comes to ask for her hand in marriage, but Mama Elena forbids it on the grounds of the de la Garza family tradition, which demands that the youngest daughter (in this case Tita) must take care of her mother until death. Pedro marries (reluctantly) Tita's sister Rosaura instead, and a distraught Tita can hardly keep from being grieved, even though Pedro maintains it is Tita he loves and not Rosaura. Tita has a love of the kitchen and a sharp connection with food of any sort, a skill her sister lacks. Tita unconsciously begins to use the power of food to draw Pedro away from Rosaura, with the rest of the family and hired help becoming pawns in the scheme.
As the story unfolds Pedro begins to fall under the developing spell of romance caused by Tita's kitchen skills. But side effects do result, as when Rosaura and Pedro are forced to leave for San Antonio, Texas at the urging of Mama Elena, who is firmly against a Tita-Pedro union, and Rosaura loses her son Roberto and is later made sterile after complications with the birth of daughter Esperanza; elder sister Gertrudis accidentally becoming affected by Tita's culinary delights and leaving the ranch naked with a revolutionary soldier (though she returns at the head of a revolutionary army); Upon learning the news of her nephew's death, whom she cared for herself, Tita blames her mother for Robertos death, by doing this Elena hits Tita furiously with a wooden spoon. Tita, not wanting to cope with her mother's controlling ways creeps up into the attic where she stays feeding a little pigeon baby until finally the doctor John Brown reasons her to come down. Mama Elena clearly states that there is no place for lunatics like Tita on the farm, and wants her to be institutionalized. However, the Doctor decides to take care of Tita at his home instead of sending her to a mental hospital. Tita even enters a relationship with Dr. Brown, gets engaged to him, and at one point plans to marry him, but cannot shake her feelings for Pedro. After the removal of all obstacles to the Tita-Pedro union, the lovers finally share a night of bliss, leading to their deaths in union and the destruction of the ranch. The narrator of the story is the descendant of Esperanza de la Garza and Dr. Brown's son, Alex who marry at the conclusion of the story.
[edit] Instances of magical realism
The concept of magical realism in the novel is portrayed in Tita's love of the kitchen and her determination to escape her destiny of serving her mother until she dies. In the kitchen she is very emotional, fun-loving, sexy, creative and fiery, and this translates to the dishes she cooks in the kitchen, which often involve spices, peppers and bright, creative elements. She has been well taught by mentor Nacha, the ranch cook, who dies early in the story. Tita takes her place and proceeds to create dishes that people connect with (such as at Pedro and Rosaura's wedding, when the cake with Tita's tears in it caused the guests to vomit; and at Alex and Esperanza's wedding, when the dish of chiles and walnut sauce caused each guest to seek the nearest companion of the opposite sex for a tryst). The meals she prepares is the only way she is able to have contact with Pedro, which is her way to escape her destiny, a major part of Magical Realism. In the ending of the book, Tita's fiery passion opens up a portal to the spirit realm, killing Pedro. Tita, wishing to follow, eats all the matches one by one, remembers her happy thoughts, and reopens the spirit portal to follow Pedro into death. In the process, so much energy is created that it burns the farmhouse to the ground, and creates fireworks, which the neighbors assumed to be celebratory. This represents her ultimate escape of her destiny, as her mother is dead and she can be with Pedro.
[edit] The Double Meaning of the Title
The phrase "like water for chocolate" comes from the Spanish "como agua para chocolate." This phrase is a common expression in Spanish speaking countries and was the inspiration for Laura Esquivel's novel title (the name has a double-meaning).
In some Latin American countries, such as Mexico, hot chocolate is made not with milk, but with water instead. Water is boiled and chunks of milk chocolate are dropped in to melt. The saying "like water for chocolate," alludes to this fact and also to the common use of the expression as a metaphor for describing a state of passion or sexual arousal.
