Begin the Beguine is a 1982

1982 in film

-Events:* March 26 = I Ought to Be in Pictures, starring Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret and Dinah Manoff is released. Manoff would not appear in another movie until 1987's Backfire.* June = PG-rated film E.T...

 Spanish film written and directed by José Luis Garci

José Luis Garci

José Luis Garci is a producer, critic, TV presenter, writer, screenwriter and film director in Spanish cinema. He earned worldwide acclaim and his country's first Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for Begin the Beguine...

, starring Antonio Ferrandis

Antonio Ferrandis

Antonio Ferrandis Monrabal was an Spanish actor, remembered especially for his character Chanquete.- Biography :Born February 28, 1921 in Paterna, province of Valencia...

. The plot follows the story of a Spaniard who returns to his homeland after many years in exile when he wins the Nobel Prize in literature. Its original Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 title is Volver a Empezar, which means Starting Again; the English language

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 title refers to the song "Begin the Beguine

Begin the Beguine

"Begin the Beguine" is a song written by Cole Porter . Porter composed the song at the piano in the bar of the Ritz Hotel in Paris. In October 1935, it was introduced by June Knight in the Broadway musical Jubilee produced at the Imperial Theatre in New York City.-Music:The beguine music and dance...

" by Cole Porter

Cole Porter

Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...

.

The film won the 1982 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

, and was the first Spanish film to do so.

Plot

It is the year 1981, the famous writer Antonio Albajara (Antonio Ferrandis) arrives at Gijón

Gijón

Gijón , officially Gijón / Xixón, is a coastal industrial city and a municipality in the autonomous community of Asturias in Spain. Early mediaeval texts mention it as "Gigia". It was an important regional Roman city, although the area has been settled since earliest history...

, his hometown, from Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

, where he has just received the Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

 in Literature. For forty years, Albajara has been a professor of medieval literature at the University of Berkeley

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. He has alternated his teaching with the literary production that has given him worldwide fame. In Gijón, Antonio is reunited with Elena, his first and great love, before he was forced to his exile in 1937 Civil War. However, this visit is not definitive because a serious and deadly disease affects the writer.

Cast

• Antonio Ferrandis
  Antonio Ferrandis
  Antonio Ferrandis Monrabal was an Spanish actor, remembered especially for his character Chanquete.- Biography :Born February 28, 1921 in Paterna, province of Valencia...
  
   - Antonio Albajara
• Encarna Paso - Elena
• Agustín González
  Agustín González
  Agustín González Martínez, was a Spanish actor.- Biography :He was brother of Manuel González, one of the members of Los Brincos....
  
   - Gervasio Losada
• José Bódalo - Roxu
• Marta Fernández Muro - Carolina
• Pablo Hoyos - Ernesto

Awards

• Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
  Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
  The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
  
  (1982)
• Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Montreal Film Festival (1982)