Spanish director Fernando Trueba turned-to Rafael Azcona, with whom he had co-scripted the equally charming rites-of-passage study El Ano de Las Luces, for the dialogues in this Oscar-winning film. Jorge Sanz also makes a reappearance as an innocent young man who becomes the focus of intense interest for four beautiful and enchanting sisters. So does Maribel Verdu, who plays Rocio. The delectable Penelope Cruz fresh from her pouting role in Jamon Jamon is adorable, whilst Adriana Gil (Violeta) demonstrates that she is probably the most technically-acomplished actress working in Spanish cinema today.
Shot on location in Portugal, this is a richly sumptuous, very Latin, film with many memorable moments, including a wonderful operatic scene in which the girls' mother brings joy to a household where the senses of all her daughters have already been awakened by Fernando's (Sanz's) arrival. The anti-clerical scenes towards the end of the film, it is true, seem somehow incongruous, but the true extent of Trueba's achievement is shown in the wonderful performances he coaxes from the whole cast including the veteran Argentine actor Fernando Fernan Gomez, who plays the long-suffering father!
A delight to the senses. Watch it!
Shot on location in Portugal, this is a richly sumptuous, very Latin, film with many memorable moments, including a wonderful operatic scene in which the girls' mother brings joy to a household where the senses of all her daughters have already been awakened by Fernando's (Sanz's) arrival. The anti-clerical scenes towards the end of the film, it is true, seem somehow incongruous, but the true extent of Trueba's achievement is shown in the wonderful performances he coaxes from the whole cast including the veteran Argentine actor Fernando Fernan Gomez, who plays the long-suffering father!
A delight to the senses. Watch it!