Belle Epoque (1992) review

I can't believe this puff-piece won an Academy Award: a young war deserter (Jorge Sanz) winds up in the warm laps of four different Spanish women, and his (and the film's) only dilemma is which one will he 'choose' - his only actual 'competitor' (if you could even call him that) is a religious fanatic who's surgically attached to his mother. It's hard to argue with the allure of the four adorable ladies, but beyond their immediate appeal there isn't much left to the movie; the box art has Penelope Cruz wrapped all over him, and since she's the last one to have sex with him it's obvious she would be the one he would become seriously involved with. Since I try to learn something new from each and every movie, this is what I gathered from this one: I should learn to cook, move to Spain and loiter around the countryside until I'm picked up by a strange old man with virginal brides living in his giant abode. Prepare cod for dinner, act lonesome, seduce, fornicate, repeat.