Belle Epoque

Starring:PenÃ©lope Cruz, Miriam DÃaz Aroca, Gabino Diego, Fernando FernÃ¡n GÃ³mez, Michel Galabru, Ariadna Gil, AgustÃn GonzÃ¡lez, Chus Lampreave, Mary Carmen RamÃrez, Jorge Sanz, Maribel VerdÃº, Juan JosÃ© Otegui, JesÃºs Bonilla, MarÃa Galiana, Joan Potau, FÃ©lix Cubero, Marciano de la Fuente, JosÃ© Antonio SacristÃ¡n, Manuel Huete, LuÃs Zagalo
Director: Fernando Trueba
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

This Spanish fluff from 1992 won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but its significance goes about as far as you can throw a flower petal. The story finds an elderly artist (Fernando Fernán Gómez) giving shelter to a deserter (Jorge Sanz) from the royalist army in provincial Spain, 1931. While on the premises, the young man naturally notes the beauty of all four of his host's daughters. Each takes her turn at seducing him, but this isn't late-night cable TV so much as it is a series of brief character sketches filled out by the way each woman takes charge. It's a clever idea made more clever by the fact that these sundry beauties are acting on the libertine impulses to which their free-thinking father subscribes in principle but has sheepishly abandoned for love. But the film, directed by Fernando Trueba, is rendered so lightly it could almost be mistaken for calendar art. --Tom Keogh

Description

A Spanish soldier deserts from the army in 1931, only to find himself arrested by a group of local policemen. He is released and soon befriends a lonely, old man in the local village. Problems arise when the old man's daughters come to visit their father and the soldier quickly falls in love with each of them. Stars Penelope Cruz. 1994 Academy Award(r) winner for Best Foreign Language Film.

Customer Reviews:

Boring & Pretentious.......2007-02-17

I agree with the Amazon reviewer. This film has the feeling of many older, better European films, mostly French, but it doesn't match their quality. The DVD cover boasts "a rollicking sensual romp" and I can see the writer thinking "Oh this is going to be such a rollicking sensual romp..." The people are types, no one feels anything deeper than lust and sentimentality, and the story isn't remotely believable. Most objectionable, though, was the self-conscious "cuteness" to the point that I wanted the hero to be sent back to the seminary. I agree with another reviewer who wondered what anyone saw in him, other than his ability to cook. In the opening scene, the young deserter's pants fall down when he's found by the guards. This is supposed to be hilarious...and it goes downhill from there. It should have included a laugh track. I gave it three stars for the good acting, the beautiful setting and the interesting references to the political situation. If you don't want any more than that, or if you're easily duped into thinking that this is "art" then you may like this.

Funny as H***.......2006-11-08

It's right on. The scene transitions are nicely done. Even though a lot of this is predictable, it is still funny and makes one eager to see what's' next.

Fernando literally goes down the line of all the sisters, till he has a shot gun wedding with the last. The scene between the cuckold and the err... cuckolded cuckold is hilarious. The sisters are very vivid and pretty (well except that cruz girl).

Overall a very brilliantly done story.

if bill forsyth had been spanish ..........2006-08-03

jorge sanz (a looker) stars as a soldier deserting from the spanish army during the 1930s civil wars, taken into a family, who proceeds to fall in love with and seduce all four daughters, while forging a father/son relationship with the patriarch. touching and kinky and off beat, a worthy winner of the oscar as best foreign language film in 1992.

Hilarious And Sexy Romantic Comedy With Superb Flourishes Of Social Drama.......2006-05-10

A joyous and sexy romantic comedy that manages to insert heavy doses of drama (sometimes quite melancholy) and social commentary into itself without losing its overall playful, upbeat vibe, "Belle Epoque" is a treasure and a fantastic introduction to the world of Spanish-language comedy. Set in the Spanish Civil War, a concsientious objector deserts the army and ups being offered refuge at the farm of a charming old intellectual, whose four daughters each end up taking a quick liking to the young - and perpetually flummoxed - desserter. Filled with a large, great cast of diverse characters - including the farm father's eclectic group of friends and his unusual, absent-on-tour musician wife, and spearheaded by Penelope Cruz's smashing performance as Luz - "Belle Epoque" taps into a rich range of material and does it all extremely well. An alltime winner.

Not my idea of a romantic comedy .......2006-03-31

Let me start by saying I only watched this film because it features Penelope Cruz in one of her earliest roles. I'm not a fan of non-horror European cinema, and maybe that's why my reaction to the film is significantly less enthusiastic than that of other reviewers. I found Belle Epoque somewhat disturbing, actually. Basically, this is the story of an army deserter who sleeps his way through an entire family of sisters - talk about your hand-me-downs - yet it turns out that his relationships aren't the weirdest ones on display. I will say this: when you put a man in a dress and play out a really weird cross-dressing romantic encounter with him, you're going to lose this viewer to a significant degree. This whole film is just really, really weird - almost deviant, even.

The story takes place in 1931 Spain, a country on the verge of discarding its monarchy and becoming a Republic. The politics of the day and age play a definite part in the whole story, and I'm sure my less than spectacular knowledge of Spanish history was a bit of a handicap in terms of digesting everything I saw and heard, but this is really a film about people and not politics. Fernando (Jorge Sanz) is a young deserter who finds shelter and friendship with an older gentleman named Manolo (Fernando Fernan Gomez) - until Manolo's four daughters arrive for an extended visit. Rather than return to Madrid as planned, Fernando decides to hang around a while after getting a look at Clara (Miriam Diaz Aroca), Violeta (Ariadna Gil), Rocio (Maribel Verdu), and Luz (Penelope Cruz). They apparently take a shine to him, as well, as the three oldest sisters manage to seduce him one after another, leaving young Luz increasingly jealous. I certainly don't know what they see in the shiftless fellow; the only thing he has in terms of personality is a vague Robert Downey, Jr., aura about him (that's not a good thing, by the way). He is much more appealing than Rocio's on-again, off-again fiancee Juanito (Gabino Diego), the film's most irritating character by far.

I personally found this whole story the very opposite of romantic. The sexual encounters are all quick and clumsy, and the sisters have no problem sharing their experiences with one another. It becomes a little easier to understand the sisters when their diva of a mother shows up for a visit, though. At that point, the gang's all here - Fernando the cad, the four sisters, the father, the mother, and the mother's lover. It's free love all over the place. Fairly disgusted with the whole lot of them, all I could do was hope that Luz might not follow in the footsteps of her ribald sisters - even though it's hard to wish too many good thoughts for a girl more than willing to claim a man who already knows her three sisters quite intimately.

I guess some viewers can just take this film at face value and have fun with it, but I was really turned off by the morals of these characters - and I daresay that my fellow old-fashioned curmudgeons will share some of my own disquiet over the nature of the entire story. If nothing else, I think it's safe to say that Belle Epoque clearly isn't for everyone.

Belle Epoque [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]

Average customer rating:

Belle Epoque [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]
Director: Fernando Trueba
Manufacturer: Manga Films
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B000FMXVMW

Product Description

Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Subtitles), French (Subtitles), German (Subtitles), Spanish (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN, SYNOPSIS: After striking responsive chord at the Berlin Film Festival, Fernando Trueba's Belle Epoque (aka Age of Beauty) went on to win 9 Spanish Goya awards and an Academy Award for "Best Foreign Film." Set in pre-Franco Spain, film stars Jorge Sanz as Fernando, a carefree, pacifistic army deserter. Wandering about the countryside, Fernando is welcomed into home of the wealthy Don Manolo (Fernando Fernan Gomez). Far from upset by the boy's AWOL status, Manolo is delighted because he shares Fernando's political philosophies. What follows is sheer heaven for the peaceloving lad, who sits smilingly on the sidelines as Manolo's four voluptuous daughters (Adrian Gil, Maribel Verdu, Miriam Diaz-Aroca, and Penelope Cruz) literally fight for his attentions.
SPECIAL FEATURES: Trailer(s), Storyboards, Scene Access, Photo Gallery, Making Of, Interactive Menu, Filmographies, Biographies,

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