BELLE EPOQUE Movie Review

The Age of Beauty

In the relatively untroubled Spain of 1931, prior to the rise of fascism, a young army deserter is given food and shelter by a charming old anarchist. The young man is grateful and prepares to leave, but discovers that the old man also happens to be father to four enchanting, beautiful, and sensuous daughters. Not so much a male fantasy as a kind of national longing for a more innocent, predictable era in which the possibilities of life were ripening right in front of you, Belle Epoque is an erotic fairy tale about a more guileless, less cynical age—a time when spontaneity suggested fulfillment rather than retaliation. A lush, smart, glossy entertainment, Belle Epoque was something of a worldwide phenomenon at the boxoffice. A financial success in Spain and the winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, Belle Epoque's idyllic eroticism seemed to offer a welcome respite for a world that had learned not just about the responsibilities but also the dangers that come with casual, unbridled sexual desire. Belle Epoque indeed.

NEXT STOP … Like Water for Chocolate, Jamón, Jamón, La Ronde

1992 (R) 108m/C SP Jorge Sanz, Fernando Gomez, Ariadna Gil, Maribel Verdu, Penelope Cruz, Miriam Diaz-Aroca, Mary Carmen Ramirez, Michel Galabru, Gabino Diego; D: Fernando Trueba; W: Rafael Azcona; C: Jose Luis Alcaine; M: Antoine Duhamel. Academy Awards ‘93: Best Foreign Film. VHS, LV COL