Word: trueba
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directed by Fernando Trueba starring Jorge Sanz, Ariadna Gil and Fernando Fernan Gomez...
...innovative films, the stolid voters usually opt for something ponderous and portentous--recall the year that the excruciatingly tedious "Pelle the Conqueror' won over "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown." So it was refreshing to watch this year's Oscar go to the Spanish entry, Fernando Trueba's "Belle Epoque." Trueba's film isn't necessarily a cinematic masterpiece, something like "The Piano." But given Trueba's more modest goal of entertainment, the film succeeds quite well...
Fernando moves back into the house, which Don Manolo's daughters have filled with light and air and gaity. It's the perfect visualization of the atmosphere in Oscar Hijuelos' novel The Fourteen Sister of Emilio Montez O'Brien. Trueba definitely has a feel for the material, and a sure touch with his actresses...
During his Oscar acceptance speech, Trueba equated Billy Wilder with God, and it is in this scene that Wilder's influence comes through most strongly. In drag, Sanz bears a striking resemblance to Tony Curtis in Wilder's "Some Like It Hot," and the whole carnival sequence in "Belle Epoque" smacks of the landmark 1959 film...
Jeremy Irons as Esteban, the patriarch of the Trueba family, ages from 20 to 70 over the course of the film. His acting improves in the film's second half, as his character grows from that of an impressionable young man in love to a domineering landowner and father...