Belle Epoque

REVIEW
The winner of the 1993 Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, Belle Epoque is a disarmingly gentle and comic tale of female seduction set in the Civil War—ravaged Spain of 1931. AWOL soldier Fernando (Sanz), a handsome rogue wannabe, finds brief solace, love, sex and emotional turmoil in the home of an elderly gentleman who has four beautiful and flirtatious daughters. Each woman, with a different reason for doing so, seduces the confused but eagerly accomodating young man, all under the blind eye of Papa. The sexual shenanigans continue when Mama, a traveling cabaret performer, returns with her lover in tow and, à la Smiles of a Summer Night, all the characters are thrown into romantic confusion. (Spanish with English subtitles)