Belle Époque

Spain, 1931. The Republic is about to be declared and Fernando, a young man serving in the army, deserts. On the road he takes refuge in the house of an old painter, Manolo, a free-thinker set against the church and the army who takes to his guest. Then Manolo's four daughters come home. Fernando falls in love with all four, and each of them in turn seduces him. The film gathers sexual freedom and republican hope in the same place: for a short interval everything looks possible, and because the audience knows how long that will last there is sadness beneath the sweetness. The story never moralises. Fernando Trueba directed. Jorge Sanz plays Fernando and Fernando Fernan Gomez plays Manolo. The four sisters are Miriam Diaz-Aroca, Maribel Verdu, Ariadna Gil and Penelope Cruz, in one of Cruz's first films. It won the Academy Award for best foreign language film, and the speech Trueba gave accepting it is still quoted more often than the film. Who it is for: anyone who likes Spanish comedy and sunlit period films set in the countryside. Who it is not for: anyone wanting dramatic tension. The story is loose, several of the sisters are drawn with one trait each, and the political background stays on the surface.