Perhaps the highest compliment anyone could pay the romantic comedy “Woman on Top” is that viewers are likely to leave screenings hungry for the spicy African-influenced cuisine of northeastern Brazil.
That actress Penelope Cruz is doing the cooking in the film only adds to the appeal of Fina Torres’ tangy fairy tale.
“I was very lucky,” says the Venezuelan-born, French-trained filmmaker. “Penelope’s beautiful, charismatic, has an incredible face and can handle very precise kinds of roles. Even when she wasn’t famous, I really wanted to work with her.
“She was very charismatic, even at 17.”
Ariadna Gil touted Cruz to Torres when they worked together on “Celestial Clockwork” in 1992. The two Spanish actresses had worked together in “Belle Epoque,” a sexy period romance that put Cruz’s name on the lips of casting directors throughout Europe.
“When I was presented this script by Fox Searchlight, three years ago, they asked who I saw as Isabella, I immediately said, `Penelope Cruz,’ but nobody knew her then,” recalls Torres. “They were curious, however. After screening a few of her movies, they liked her.”
Before filming “Woman on Top,” Cruz added two other European films to her resume and agreed to do Pedro Almodovar’s Oscar-winning “All About My Mother.” She had a small part in Stephen Frears’ “The Hi-Lo Country,” which didn’t fare very well at the box office, but the actress demonstrated that she could hold her own in a Hollywood production.
The producers of “Woman on Top” will benefit mightily from the fact that Cruz no longer is an unknown quantity. After last year’s Golden Globe and Academy Awards ceremonies, the Madrid native, who next will be seen in “All the Pretty Horses,” became a ubiquitous presence on the covers of fashion magazines here and abroad.
Which isn’t to say Torres could rest on her leading lady’s laurels.
“The biggest problem I faced was that South Americans don’t like Spanish actors,” says Torres, whose first film, “Oriana,” took the Camera d’Or prize at Cannes in 1985. “We have the same language, but every country has different pronunciations. Mostly, it’s cultural . . . they were our conquerors and we had to fight many years to get independence.
“Two centuries later, though, many Spaniards came back to us to find work, because they were very poor. Our sentiments were very confused. … But, it’s true, nobody likes Spanish actors.”
The 48-year-old filmmaker was educated in New York before returning to Venezuela and, finally, moving to Paris to attend film school. She’s worked extensively with pan-Hispanic actors on what she calls “mix-it” films, but is especially impressed with the current crop of Spaniards, even if she can’t stand listening to some of them talk.
“I looked at Latina actors from Venezuela, Mexico, Rio, the United States. . . . I never found the one I wanted, until I went to Spain,” Torres says. “I love all the Latin American accents — Cuban, Mexican, Colombian, Puerto Rican, which has more of a African flavor — but the harshness of the Spanish accents makes my hair stand on end.”
In “Woman of Top,” Cruz plays Isabella, a beautiful young woman who flees Bahia for San Francisco after she finds her restaurateur husband, Toninho, making love to another woman. With the help of an old friend, Isabella overcomes her fears and uses her native cuisine to enchant anyone lucky enough to be within sniffing distance of her kitchen.
One of those people, a handsome TV producer, gives Isabella her own show. Soon, thereafter, she becomes a local celebrity.
Meanwhile, Lemanja — goddess of the sea in the Yoruba religion — conspires to bring Isabella and Toninho back together.
“This kind of religion is very important in any country with African roots, and Bahia –which is 80 percent black — is the black heart of Brazil,” Torres says. “I spent two years doing research on Brazil, taking pictures and talking to people. I wanted to avoid the cliche image of Brazil, with the Copacabana Beach and women walking around in thongs, doing the samba.
“Their culture is derived more from Nigeria than Portugal, and you can see it in the cuisine and music.”
The dishes created by Isabella are accented with a variety of colorful herbs, spices and chilis. Each of the various pepper pods possess a different personality, potency and purpose.
“The people who will like this movie, I think, are going to be curious about Brazil– the people, the culture, the different regions . . . the different kinds of chili peppers,” says Torres. “In Bahia, they don’t use corn –like the rest of Latin America — and the presentations are very elaborate. They use a lot of white beans, which they moosh together and can make sandwiches out of, using shrimp and chicken and lots of coconut.
“It’s very spicy, and heavy.”
Despite the film’s overriding Brazilian flavor, box-office concerns dictated that “Woman on Top” be an English-language product. Torres will find out how Brazilians feel about this decision when the film debuts at the Rio de Janeiro film festival.
“I’m very curious to see what the reaction will be,” Torres says. “We’re very proud of our cultures, so if a Brazilian comes to Venezuela to make a film that’s going to be sold to the world as a Venezuelan movie, we’re very apprehensive.
“Maybe 200 people will even know that Penelope is speaking English with a Spanish accent, instead of Portuguese-Brazilian accent.”
Still, she says, “On my last movie [`Celestial Clockwork’], some Venezuelans resented the fact I cast a Spanish actress as a Venezuelan. This is so ridiculous.
“Nobody complained when Australian actors Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce played Los Angeles cops, or when Meryl Streep was in `The French Lieutenant’s Wife’ and `Sophie’s Choice.'”
Torres admits that she was careful to avoid one potential pitfall.
“Brazilian music is very particular,” Torres says. “Salsa and samba have nothing to do with each other, although some people in Hollywood think they’re interchangeable. Brazilians would kill me if I put a salsa in my movie.
“I don’t think they teach geography here, anymore. It doesn’t seem as if people in Hollywood know there’s a world beyond their borders with different people, traditions and cultures.”
