Gabriela

This was a Jorge Amado novel that became a TV soap, then a movie - the rock opera we still await, but sexy, free-spirited Gabriela has certainly struck a chord with Brazilians. The throng of characters and plotlines jostling for position - it's all to do with romantic/political manoeuvrings in a coastal town in the 1920s - are presumably an attempt to accommodate favourite bits from earlier manifestations. Number one item on the agenda, however, is the camera's on-going perusal of the Braga bod. Mastroianni as Gabriela's main man lends an air of consequence to the proceedings.