Near to the Wild Heart opens with a scene of the child Joana playing in the garden, making up poems for her father. Joana's wildness and barely suppressed violence, along with her linguistic creativity, are her most notable features. She is frequently compared to animals: over the course of the book Lispector compares her to a bird, a snake, a wildcat, a horse, and a dog. She commits transgressive acts—as a child she throws a book at an old man's head, for example, and as a married woman she leaves her husband, Otávio, and greets the news of his adultery—he has made another woman, his
A Woman, Her Men, and Her Futon somewhat guilty, Helen nevertheless leads him on by being one big maybe. She also doesn't tell him about her doings with other men, with whom she has short, intense affairs that make her rediscover the joy of sex. So she definitely prepares the ground for the conflicts that arise when a woman tries to please everyone by not saying no. The film subtly and elegantly shows how hard it is to balance on the thin line between friendship and love. And it feels so relievingly good to realize that a straight answer, like a 'no', can actually make you both