By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Cédric Klapisch
Starring: Audrey Tautou | Cécile de France | Judith Godrèche | Romain Duris
Country: france, spain
Year: 2003
Running time: 122
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0283900
Georgette says: “Well, Cedric Klapisch has another winner with L’AUBERGE ESPAGNOLE. With the same charm and good-natured fun as in his delightful WHEN THE CAT’S AWAY again we meet a cast of true characters, and the city is definitely one of the main characters. In WHEN THE CAT’S AWAY it was Paris. Here is it Barcelona.
“The title is slang for melting pot, or as they say, Euro Pudding. Xavier decides to leave France and his girlfriend to spend a year studying in Barcelona. The apartment Xavier finds has a host of other students much like himself — fairly ambitious young people who know that going to grad school will help them get a better job when they return home after their year in Spain. These strangers live in very close quarters, and because they will part after a year they have the freedom to be more open than they would with a friend from back home.
“The movie is very funny. The roommates drag each other out when someone is studying too much, and cover each other’s backs when a sweetheart from back home makes an unexpected, surprise visit. The music was a wonderful melange of music from all of the roommates respective countries with even a little Chopin thrown in.
And it works.
“The casting was excellent. In the scene where the roommates interview Xavier, it was a treat to discover which person was from which country. I couldn’t tell from their appearance, which worked on two levels. It showed that yes, it is a global world, and visual identity isn’t what it once was. It also showed that the director didn’t rely on stereotypes, which was a treat.
“Of course the main part of the film were the scenes in the apartment. Klapisch was very clever in quickly presenting the intro
and epilog. Although it was filmed in real time, it was presented in fast forward. Hey, why not. It’s only to set up the story.
“In one early scene, Xavier is sent from office to office to fill out paperwork to become part of the Erasmus (foreign study) program. His paperwork has become ‘lost’ so he has to fill it out again. As the bureaucrat is telling him the various forms (probably 15 or so) that need to be completed, each form pops up on the screen, one overlapping another. It was like clicking links on a Web site. Very funny, very clever, and very effective.” 4 cats