| Belle Époque | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Fernando Trueba |
| Screenplay by | Rafael Azcona |
| Story by | Rafael Azcona José Luis García Sánchez Fernando Trueba |
| Produced by | Andrés Vicente Gómez |
| Starring | Jorge Sanz Penélope Cruz Fernando Fernán Gómez Miriam Díaz Aroca Ariadna Gil Maribel Verdú |
| Cinematography | José Luis Alcaine |
| Edited by | Carmen Frías |
| Music by | Antoine Duhamel |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | United International Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 109 minutes |
| Countries |
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| Language | Spanish |
| Box office | $11 million |
Belle Époque[n. 1] is a 1992comedy-drama film directed byFernando Trueba. Consisting of a fable-like story, primarily displaying a warm tone,[1][2] and set in an idyllic countryside location during the transition to theSecond Spanish Republic, the film featuresJorge Sanz,Maribel Verdú,Ariadna Gil,Penélope Cruz,Miriam Díaz Aroca,Fernando Fernán Gómez,Gabino Diego andChus Lampreave, among others.
It received theGoya Award for Best Film along with eight other Goya Awards and was namedBest Foreign Language Film at the66th Academy Awards.[3] It is a joint production among companies from Spain, Portugal and France.
In February 1931, some weeks after the failedJaca uprising and the likewise failedCuatro Vientos uprising [es], Spain is on the verge of the proclamation of theSecond Republic. Fernando, a deserting private withRepublican leanings and formerseminarist, is on the run from his assignment at theCuatro Vientos base. After escaping from twoGuardia Civil officers, he reaches the outskirts of a village, befriending Manolo, an old man with a semblance of a "Dickensian observer of life".[4] Manolo owns a large house in the countryside, where Fernando stays for a while.
Upon the arrival of Manolo's four daughters in a train, Fernando is enchanted by them all. As he meets each of the first three one by one, he falls in love and has sex with each of them, determining to marry. With each one, however, a complication arises: Clara, a widow who only recently lost her husband and who seeks solace with Fernando; Violeta, aclosetedlesbian who showed attraction for Fernando only when she saw him dressed as a woman for a costume ball, and the day after tells him that it was insignificant;[5] and Rocío, a social climber who is about to marry Juanito and into the village's richest family (withCarlist leanings) for the security it would provide, and who only momentarily succumbs to Fernando's charms.
Heartbroken each time, the father of the girls encourages Fernando to have patience. Each daughter is beautiful and represents a different aspect of feminine sexuality. The youngest of the family, Luz, represents naïveté. While Fernando is pursuing her sisters, Luz gets progressively angry and jealous. Eventually, Fernando realizes, however, that Luz is the best one of the four to marry.
A Spanish-Portuguese-French co-production,Belle Époque was produced by Fernando Trueba PC, Lola Films, Animatógrafo, and French Production with the collaboration of Sogepaq andEurimages.[7] The film was shot in the summer of 1992 in several villages ofPortugal.[8]
In Spain, it was the highest-grossing Spanish film of 1992 with a gross of over 725 millionSpanish pesetas ($5.58 million).[9] In the United States and Canada it grossed $6 million[10] for a worldwide gross more than $11 million.The film was theatrically released in Spain on 4 December 1992.[11]
Onreview aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 22 reviews, with an average score of 7.4/10.[12] The film is mentioned in the 2010 American filmThe Fighter.
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | 43rd Berlin International Film Festival | Golden Bear | Nominated | [15] | |
| 7th Goya Awards | Best Film | Won | [16] | ||
| Best Director | Fernando Trueba | Won | |||
| Best Original Screenplay | Fernando Trueba José Luis García Sánchez, Rafael Azcona | Won | |||
| Best Actress | Ariadna Gil | Won | |||
| Best Actor | Jorge Sanz | Nominated | |||
| Best Supporting Actress | Chus Lampreave | Won | |||
| Mary Carmen Ramírez | Nominated | ||||
| Best Supporting Actor | Fernando Fernán-Gómez | Won | |||
| Gabino Diego | Nominated | ||||
| Best Cinematography | José Luis Alcaine | Won | |||
| Best Editing | Carmen Frías | Won | |||
| Best Art Direction | Juan Botella | Won | |||
| Best Production Supervision | Cristina Huete | Nominated | |||
| Best Costume Design | Lala Huete | Nominated | |||
| Best Makeup and Hairstyles | Ana Ferreira, Ana Lorena | Nominated | |||
| Best Original Score | Antoine Duhamel | Nominated | |||
| Best Sound | Alfonso Pino, Georges Prat | Nominated | |||
| 1994 | 66th Academy Awards | Best Foreign Language Film | Won | ||
| 1995 | 48th British Academy Film Awards | BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language | Nominated | [17] | |