Customer Rating: 
Summary: my favourite film of all times
Comment: I loved Amado's book, and love this movie immensely. I never get tired of watching the DVD and admire the acting prowess of Marilia Pera, who plays Perpetua so well, with her incredible expressions, gestures and demeanor. Sonia Braga is and acts magnificent (her laugh in the awkward situations is so liberating). The soundtrack is great. The atmosphere in the rural town is captivating. I also love Carmosita and all other characters.
I'm Italian, my ex Brazilian boyfriend introduced me to the movie and other pieces Brazilian culture; by reading the book and rereading pieces here and there and watching the movie over and over again I basically learnt a great deal of Portuguese having so much fun.
Andrea Jacobone.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Get away before is too late
Comment: What a terrible movie!!!! I wanted to watch this movie because I am a fan of "Tieta's Soap Opera". What a mistake! The story is not the same, the actors are not good, the whole situation is wrong. I had to watch this piece of .... fast forwarding. What a waste of time and money.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sonia Shines
Comment: This review refers to the DVD(Fox Lorber) edition of "Tieta of Agreste"Tieta is brash and sassy. She's worldly and flashy, beautiful and wealthy. She wasn't always all these things though. Banished from her poor, small village for her promiscuity years before, she now returns to show them all!
The family that once shunned her, now embraces her...and her money!
As she makes her entrance back into the tiny town in her flashy red car, the villagers welcome her back with open arms(as does the audience). She is their savior. Her money will bring the village the much needed electricity they have been doing without. Along with her is another beautiful woman. The young,demure Lenora, introduced as Tieta's stepdaughter. Their presence shakes up the this quiet, remote Brazilian village,and not even a seminary student is safe from Tieta's charms.These women have a secret though...one that may send them packing once more!
Directed by Carlos Diegues, and set in the most beautiful locale, the story and the characters will definately have you smiling throughout. But it is Sonia Braga who carries this film on her lovely shoulders to make it the engaging delight that it is. She turns in an electrifying portrayal of Tieta and her screen presence is mesmerizing.
The film is in Portuguese with English subititles. The DVD presents a very nice letterboxed picture and has very good sound in stereo. There is a short featurette on the making of "Tieta" and some filmographies.
A nice film to add to your foreign film collection, one that will certainly have repeated viewings. Four stars for this fine Brazilian entry,one of which shines brightly for Sonia Braga!
Enjoy....Laurie
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hugely disappointing!
Comment: Another one of those books that didn't translate well to the bring screen. In Brazil they frequently make mini-series based on famous works of literature; in such a format, there's a lot more time to develop a work of the complexity of "Tieta do Agreste". In fact, there has been a mini-series made of this novel in Brazil, but I haven't seen it. However, from seeing other Brazillian mini-series made of other Jorge Amado novels (of which there have been probably a dozen), I can say that they have tended to come across better than a hour-and-a-half to two hour movie; that simply is not enough time to present any of the longer novels of Amado. In the case of this movie, the focus is primarily on the relationship between Tieta and her nephew, while the main plot of the novel, the machinations of unscrupulous industrialists to locate a highly toxic titanium oxide plant in the middle of a pristine tropical paradise, is almost an afterthought. The cinematography may be beautiful, and Sonia Braga never looked more gorgeous, but if you've read the wonderful novel, it's just not enough! Altogether disappointing.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book. Great actress. Good soundtrack. Mediocre Film
Comment: Adapted from Jorge Amado's brilliant book, this should have been much better considering its source, the talents of actress Sonia Braga, director Carlos Diegus's past films, and a soundtrack by Caetano Veloso! Sadly it's an average film, with a handful of well known Brazilian actors and some nice locations-- nothing more, nothing less. You'll watch this once but probably never need to again. The problem is partly that Amado's books are hard to condense in under two hours and his books tend to include a lot characters' inner thoughts and emotions that are hard to translate onto film when you consider his books average about 500 pages or more. There are a handful of grammar & spelling mistakes in the English subtitles too. A pleasant enough film but nothing special.
