Belle Epoque DVD, 1992

Spain, 1931. Army deserter and cook Fernando finds himself at the house of artist Manolo (veteran actor Fernando Fernán Gómez – the beekeeper in Erice’s The Spirit of the Beehive) who gives him temporary bed and board. They say their goodbyes at the station just before a train arrives carrying Manolo’s four lovely daughters for their summer holiday. Fernando unsurprisingly misses his own train to Madrid and pleads to stay in Manolo’s house. There, he gets a bed in the attic along with the serial attentions of his four daughters who set about seducing him in turn. As Fernando the lucky soldier, Jorge Sanz does a look of bemused good fortune very well. This is about all he does but no matter, for the purpose of the film it’s enough. Penelope Cruz as the youngest daughter gets the star mention on the cover but Maribel Verdu (Y Tu Mamá También) and Ariadna Gil provide more character and sass. Indeed, Gil’s seduction of deserter Fernando at the masked ball (which also features a blacked-up Cruz by-the-by) is really well-handled, with Gil a uniformed John Gilbert coming over all dominant with Fernando’s lipsticked maid.

It all ends happily anyway (except for the priest that is, which is a scene that sits a bit uneasily with the rest), and credit is due to Trueba for not being tempted to get too serious with his material and to keep it as a happily-ever-after holiday romp with good cooking in a sunny castillo. A playful, summery film full of smiles, nicely overacted by all and almost entirely untroubled by depth. Very enjoyable too, which is probably why it won a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1993.

Graeme Hobbs on 13th July 2004
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