A cinematic adaptation of Clarice Lispector’s homonymous novel, this film narrates the tragic story of Macabéa (Marcelia Cartaxo), a naïve, meager and solitary orphan who leaves northeastern Brazil in search of a better life in the grand metropolis. She gets a job as a typist and moves into a humble apartment with three other women who find her strange and dirty. Macabéa is fascinated with the simple things of daily life—learning trivia on the radio, spending her Sundays riding the metro, and drinking Coca-Cola. She falls in love with Olímpico de Jesús (José Dumont), another northeasterner with high ambitions who soon tires of her foolish questions, calling her “a hair in my soup.” Macabéa visits a fortuneteller who tells her that her life is about to change drastically: her ex-boyfriend will fall in love with her again, she will get rich and marry an attractive foreigner. Overjoyed, Macabéa walks out the fortuneteller’s door and collides with a fate completely contrary to the one she had imagined.

Vera R. Coleman

Arizona State University