Belle Epoque
(The Age of Beauty)
Starring Penelope Cruz
1992
This 1992 romantic comedy was set during the Spanish civil war - a favorite period for Guillermo Del Toro whom I've also recently covered. (This period also holds my attention - arguably the most significant chapter of the 20th Century.)
This was Cruz's first leading role, the youngest of four sisters 'hosting' the only man in town, a deserter from the Spanish Army. There is no nudity in the movie, but nonetheless it is very, very sexy, as well as funny.
If you are not familiar with the Spanish Civil War it immediately preceded WW2 ending in the victory of the military dictator Franco in 1939 - backed by the Axis and the Catholic Church. The opposition, the 'Republicans' were largely communist, including some 30,000 American Union sympathesizers who volunteered in the 'Abraham Lincoln Brigade'. Although often disparaged the so-called anarchist faction of the Republican side did stand up to the communist influences, though perhaps this is what caused their defeat.
BTW, the film adaptation of the Hemmingway Book regarding this war, 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', is also pretty good. Although Ingrid Bergman is not particularly convincing as a spanish peasant girl she is perhaps at her absolute best. This leaves me in a dilemna - which is the more romantically beautiful - Bergman or Cruz. Cruz or Bergman. Please, excuse me while I think on that one a bit..
