BELLE EPOQUE, FILM. FRIDAY OCTOBER 9TH, 7.30PM.
A French name, but a very Spanish film. Director Fernando Trueba named his movie after the French Belle Epoque of the end of the nineteenth century, but this is set in Spain’s own Age of Beauty , between the First World War and the Spanish Civil War, in 1931. Trueba said about his filmmaking, “I like to hear the audience laughing in a dark theatre.” And that is what this film is designed to do, make people laugh, it is a feel-good film in the best sense of the word. Joyous and uplifting, the film’s themes are pleasure, love and music. It won the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1993, and it is easy to see why. The setting is rural Spain. Fernando (Jorge Sanz), whose allegiance is to the Republic, deserts from the monarchist army and goes on the run into the Spanish countryside. There he meets Manolo (Fernando Fernán Gómez), a painter who shares his political beliefs. Fernando stays in Manolo’s house for the night and is about to go on his way until he meets Manolo’s four bea