Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Brazil, 1974, 35mm, 93 min., Portuguese w/ English subtitles
When asked to describe his second to last feature film, Conjugal Warfare, Andrade said it combined “domestic bondage, rotten kisses, varicose veins [with] senile lust, slaps, delirium of flowering flesh…and even the final victory of prostitution over old age.” More than an anticipation of Pedro Almodóvar’s 1980s sexual comedies, Conjugal Warfare is widely considered to be a critique of pornochanchadas, a genre of sexploitation films produced in Brazil. Here, Andrade adapts sixteen short stories by writer Dalton Trevisan, a chronicler of working class stories set in Curitiba, into a three-part film focused on a seductive lawyer, an elderly couple in an abusive relationship, and a young man with perverse sexual tastes.
