Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
If I had the courage, I’d probably just make this a two-word review: fun film. That pretty much sums it up – but not wanting to look at a bunch of Not Helpful’s, I’ll wax prolific instead. It feels kind of mean-spirited to add that there’s absolutely no way that this film deserved the 1993 Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film. Not even close! Heck, it was up against the likes of Farewell My Concubine and Kieslowski’s Red (see Three Colors). It’s not really fair that fluffy comedies like Belle Epoque should even have to compete against weighty dramas of such high quality. It’s a very nice film taken on its own terms, which is all you can really ask.
Although my taste in films tends toward more serious fare, there are times when my brain moans, “Please, no more thinking today! I just want to laugh.” Those are the kind of occasions for naughty films like Belle Epoque. It doesn’t hurt this film’s appeal (for the guys at least) that there’s also going to be a goodly number of lovely ladies parading around in garter belts and underwear. I rather suspect that this film might work better, on average, for men than women – a sort of rooster-flick – but I’m not really sure if that’s the case of not. I’d be particularly interested in hearing opinions about this film in the comments section from any women who have seen this film. This movie has a premise reminiscent of jokes about the farmer’s daughters or a second-rate porn film. Joys of the flesh! A handsome young man encounters a kindly man with four gorgeous daughters, each more lovely than the last, all over-heated, and ready to jump the poor fellow’s bones, one after another. Somehow that sounds more like a male fantasy than a female one!
Historical Background: Despite the airiness of Belle Epoque, it does have an historical context – in fact, it provides the basis for the film's name. It is the same “golden-age” in Spanish history given more serious consideration in that great Spanish film, Butterfly (1999). After the fall of the monarchy in Spain in 1931, a liberal democratic republic briefly flourished until 1936, when the democracy was crushed between the opposing demands of Fascism and Communism. What followed was the Spanish Civil War, which has been called the rehearsal for World War II. After that, the Franco dictatorship. The hopes and dreams encompassed in the brief flowering of the republic have stimulated the imaginations of Spanish artists and writers ever since. In another review, I described it as the Spanish Camelot. In Belle Epoque (“the beautiful epoch”), the politics of that time are treated more for their farcical value than in any serious vein.
The Story: Fernando (Jorge Sanz), a seminarian pressed into military service, whose allegiance is to the Republic, has deserted from the army rather than fight for a cause in which he does not believe. On the lam in the Spanish countryside, he is arrested and hand-cuffed by a pair of clownish military police. As the trio marches along a rural roadway, the two soldiers (one the father-in-law of the other) get into an increasingly heated argument that culminates in the accidental fatal shooting on one by the other, followed by the suicide of the killer. Fernando is in a pickle. Although ostensibly at liberty as a result of this bizarre development, he is also likely to be charged with the murder of the two if he is discovered.
Fernando flees and finds his way to a brothel in a nearby village. There he encounters a sympathetic and kindred spirit in Manolo (Fernando Fernan Gomez), a painter and anarchist. Manolo is a free spirit. His main complaint with life is that he’s got too little opportunity to manifest his rebellious nature. As he sums it up, most of his neighbors are also heathens (even the town’s priest is notoriously liberal in his views), his bad feet precluded his enlisted and thus deserting, and he can’t get it up for anyone but his wife (which prevents him from cheating on her). “I am a rebel, an infidel, and a libertine by nature, living life like a scared old bourgeois,” he muses.
Manolo invites Fernando to his home and the two become fast friends. Fernando is a skilled cook and prepares a sumptuous meal for the older man. In the morning, Manolo offers to take Fernando to the train station so than he can make his way back to Madrid. It will be no trouble because Manolo is also meeting his four daughters who will be arriving on the same train for a visit. At the station, one by one, the four daughters disembark from the passenger car and, lo and behold, each one is stunningly beautiful. It suddenly occurs to Fernando that perhaps there really isn’t much of a necessity that he return to Madrid right away. Or as later put by Manolo, “He missed his train when he got a whiff of my daughters.” Manolo likes the lad, however, and is not adverse to the idea of marrying off one of these single young ladies to the handsome lad who can cook.
We quickly gather from the way that the gals are ogling Fernando, that his stay will be fruitful indeed. One by one, each seduces Fernando in turn. Despite the vivacious bed-hopping, one notes a certain naivety in Fernando, who in each case believes the most recent one to be his one true love for life. Each of the daughters is unique. The first to conquer Fernando is Violeta (Ariadna Gil). My only difficulty with this whole dance card phenomenon was that Violeta was actually my personal favorite and I kept hoping he would end up with her. Violeta’s sexual identity and orientation is somewhat unclear. She is either a lesbian (with just a smidgen of bisexuality) or an inveterate (possibly heterosexual) tomboy of the most extreme kind. Born third, she was brought up as though she were a boy because her mother had had enough of daughters! A couple of reviewers state flatly that she must be lesbian but I’m not so sure. She is certainly butch, but, on the other hand, she is first to get it on with Fernando. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter. Suffice it to say that the fact that Fernando, at the time, was wearing a maid’s apron for a dress-up party was apparently fundamental to Violeta’s passionate interest. We learn it was her first sex with a man and she is quick to laugh off and dismiss his marriage proposal in the morning.
Luckily for the heartbroken Fernando, the flirtatious Rocio (Maribel Verdu), is ready and willing to provide salve to his shattered male ego. And whatever other male parts he might make available. Rocio is already engaged, but her fiancée is something of the ultimate dork and mama’s boy. Financially, he’s a great prospect, but Rocio oscillates between blowing him off and fanning his flames. Perhaps a fling with Fernando will excite some sign of manliness in the poor boy and, if not, at least she will have had a real man first. Next comes lonely Clara (Miriam Diaz-Aroca), a still-grieving widow. Tortured by memories of her drowned husbands, she finds some release with Fernando. Waiting in the wings – last but not least – is Luz (Penelope Cruz). Luz is a virgin and still young and innocent enough that the older sisters omit her from their sexual secrets and escapes. She wants to play too and, as it happens, she is the only one prepared to offer Fernando true love.
One rather humorous scene involves Manolo’s wife, Amalia (Mary Carmen Ramirez), an opera diva, showing up for a visit, with her lover and opera-manager in tow. She is more than happy to take care of the needs of both men – her husband and her paramour. Ironically, it is the lover who is jealous of the husband rather than vice versa.
If all of this sounds risqué or even pornographic, it is all played out with delicacy, humor, and sensuality, but minimal graphic exposure. Penelope Cruz, for example, has bared much more in other films, notably Jamon, Jamon. And sex is not the only appetite gratified in this film; there’s plenty of sumptuous food around which Fernando whips up into colorful and tasty feasts.
Themes: Themes? Don’t bother me with such things, says Fernando Trueba, the director of this lively film. “It’s about the discovery of life . . . art, love, sex, friendship . . . all the things that make life interesting . I always thought one of the reasons for cinema was to give pleasure and happiness to the audience. I don’t want to make people think about how miserable life is. I prefer to leave that for tomorrow.” That, my friends, is a pretty straight-forward ode to escapism. It is nice, for a change, to see sex presented as just good, clean, light-hearted fun, without the association with violence so prevalent in Hollywood fare these day. There are some jokes lobbed in the direction of politics, religion, marriage, and the like, but mostly Belle Epoque is one big laugh over libido.
Production Values: Fernando Fernan Gomes is one of the greatest Spanish actors of recent decades. He appeared in The Grandfather (1999) and All About My Mother (1999). He practically steals the show here. Jorge Sanz held his own, however, in the lead role. The four daughters are nicely developed characters – in more ways than one. Some will remember Mirabel Verdu for her stellar performance in Y Tu Mamá También (2001). Penelope Cruz also appeared in All About My Mother as well as All the Pretty Horses (2000) and Vanilla Sky (2001).
Bottom-Line: In addition to its Oscar, Belle Epoque virtually swept the awards in its home country in 1993, winning nine Goyas. When receiving the Oscar in 1993, director Trueba famously stated, “I would like to believe in God in order to thank him, but I just believe in Billy Wilder. So . . . thank you Mr. Wilder.” Wilder, of course, was director of such spirited sexual comedies as The Apartment (1960) and Some Like It Hot (1959). Certainly, Trueba’s film is in the same vein as those Wilder masterpieces. The DVD version includes a commentary in English provided by the director. Belle Epoque is in Spanish with English subtitles. It has a running time of 108 minutes and is rated R for sexual situations.
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