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Belle Epoque (The Age of Beauty)

Title:Belle Epoque (The Age of Beauty)
Released:1992

The story of a defector from the Spanish Army of 1931 - this curious tale of love, adultery, and a view into the life in a rural Spanish town left us a bit surprised.

One of the people we watched it with summed it up best when she said "this is the craziest musical porn I've ever seen." That said, there is a relatively small amount of actual nudity for that rating - especially for a Spanish film. The army defector happens upon a rural town and becomes instant friends with most of the people he interacts with. Sometimes - too much of friends. Through various twists and turns the music foreshadows the plot in an overly predictable manner - leading to the "musical" designation in our friend's quote. However, very little about this movie would have been predictable from the beginning. I'm not sure if the casual attitude towards relationships and sex is really all that common - or was all that common in 1930s - but I have a feeling this is a bit of an exaggeration in a variety of areas. Not quite magical realism - just a crazy musical love story.

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