MovieChat Forums > Passionada (2002) Discussion > Wrong Portuguese References

Wrong Portuguese References

posted 20 years ago by polymathe
9 replies | jump to latest

Tough enjoyable the flic, just using the locations and claiming "it's portuguese" is not enough. It's a pity the producers didn't do the homework.

Most of the portuguese ethnic and cultural references -- but the 'Fado' songs (by Misia) -- are flawed in the pic. Let's see:

- why the spanish title, "after the perfume bottle"? in portuguese it would be 'Apaixonada'

- None of the character's names are really tipical portuguese (Celia, Amonte, Angelica, Gianni Martinez); Julia Roberts, Annabeth Gish and Lili Taylor in "Mystic Pizza" had better portuguese family names (Araújo; spelled 'Arujo' in the movie), even tough they served... italian Pizza; and the portuguese actress Lúcia Moniz is a proper 'Aurélia' in "Love Actually"

- Celia prepares for Jason... a spanish Paella, the wrong recipe of cod fish (the portuguese 'Bacalhau' is oven-made) and the tipical 'bolinho de bacalhau' (cod-fish cakes) is muffled in their kiss

- At the street parade, the song is not the portuguese folk-song the people are dancing on the background

- And the dance scene is under the spell of a Brazilian Soft-Samba.

- 'Granny' in portuguese is 'Vovó' (the excelent Lupe Ontiveros is more hispanic-looking than portuguese)

- The beautiful Sofia Milos looks more greek (wich she is) than portuguese

[–] iknowwhatsinis 20 years ago

Who cares, the film was really good. I throughly enjoyed it.

Two weeks ago I was in a pink leotard being smeared with Nivea by three old men

[–] andre_giao 19 years ago

Who cares?! I care! If there was a movie made in Portugal about an american history, would you like to see the characters with surnames like Smeethe instead of Smith and so on? Would u like to watch american people eating "nouvelle cuisine" instead of burgers and pizzas?! Well, it's a pitty that no one in that movie tried to listen a portuguese person, who could teach something about that beautiful country... "Passionada" sucks because of that.

[–] darkrosetiger 19 years ago

Except that the movie wasn't about Portugal. It wasn't even about Portuguese-Americans in general--it was about the characters.

No one *beep* about with you if you're carrying a big heavy stick.--Jason Isaacs

[–] iknowwhatsinis 13 years ago

I wouldn't care because I'm not American.

Selfish. Insubordinate.

[–] dtechba 12 years ago

Why would you watch a movie about Portugese-Americans and expect to learn something about Portugal? Most Portugese-Americans have likely never been to Portugal and don't even speak Portugese. They likely have little or no Portugese culture left in their social structure. This is what happens when people emigrate and families assimilate. Seriously, your expectations are a little unrealistic. BTW, to the OP, I have been to both Portugal and Greece. In neither country did I find a monolithic look to the women. They like every other European country had a wide variety of appearances.....

[–] MacMackMan 13 years ago

I have to agree with the OP on some items that bother them... it really isn't that hard to research this info - which needs to be done if it's used to reinforce how "Portuguese" they're life is...

[–] dtechba 12 years ago

You are aware of the historical connection between Brazil and Portugal aren't you? Brazil was a Portugese colony and were a dual monarchy for much of their history. In fact, after a brief political split, the Brazilian emporor returned (well not so much returned, as he had hardly ever been there) to Portugal and assumed the Portugese throne so Portugal was governed by someone primarily Brazilian. Portugese is the official language of Brazil and they still have a lot of economic and cultural ties.

[–] Shinsei-NEN 12 years ago

The title Passionada it's not Spanish. The Spanish word for "pasionate" is:
"apasionada (female) apasionado (male)".

About the looking, I remember a Spaniard girl years ago telling me
you can't make any difference between Spanish and Portuguese people.

I understand the reason of your thread, even if the story is not about
Portuguese culture, that's not your concern, it is the correct representation.
They could be wrong about ethnic traditions, names, etc. But it's like they think:
"let's place whatever little thing we can know of that culture
or country and that's it, what's next?"

Hollywood is simplistic, but if you watch productions like Japanese series,
stories, etc. You could find they know everything about the cultures,
legends and mythologies they want to tell and could be represented even
in subtle and symbolic ways.

[–] Shinsei-NEN 12 years ago

Typo correction: "passionate".