European Films

In Cédric Klapisch's L'auberge espagnole (The Spanish Apartment/Europudding), forward-looking Frenchman Xavier (Romain Duris, a Klapisch regular) is too busy planning his future to really enjoy being a student. His latest obsession is to have to learn Spanish because he has been told that in the near future many jobs will be up for grabs for those who are bilingual. He decides he has to become an exchange student for one year within the Erasmus programme, even if it means leaving France and his girlfriend Martine (Audrey Tautou, the one and only Amélie) behind. After a visually hilarious sequence that shows us his dire quest through his university’s bureaucracy in order to enroll in the programme, Xavier finds himself on a plane to Barcelona. 

Learning Spanish, however, is more easily said than done, especially in Barcelona which is first and foremost a Catalonian city. Perhaps living amongst the population might help him; he finds a room he has to share in a "Spanish apartment". The total number of its occupants varies according to how many have boy-, girl- or "just" friends over at any given day or night. The inhabitants are a pan-European lot, including an Italian, a German, a Dane and a Spaniard who are a couple, a lesbian Belgian called Isabelle (Cécile de France) and two British siblings; Wendy (Kelly Reilly) and William (Kevin Bishop). Talk is mostly non-political, unless you count marking one’s territory in the communal fridge as such. Basically they all have to get on with each other whether they like it or not. Fortunately for the viewer, they mostly seem to like it and are a charming if somewhat stereotypical bunch.

Director Klapisch seems mainly concerned with catching the atmosphere and he does this well. There is not much of a plot (note that the nameless nationalities above are really nothing more than that in the film too) and it often feels like a reality TV show filmed with superior technical means. The cinematography, courtesy of Dominique Colin (another Klapisch-regular), as well as the energetic direction and editing make this a visual pamphlet that would not look out of place on MTV. Production designer François Emmanuelli must have had a blast creating the outlived look of the cramped quarters that is l’auberge espagnole. It looks like an apartment from a film by Almodóvar that has been inhabited simultaneously by the characters of all his films combined for the entire length of his thirty-year career. What a cozy, lovable mess.

The few characters we get to know a bit better (Xavier, Isabelle, the Belgian lesbian and Wendy and William, the British siblings) nevertheless remain sketchy, though they provide much of this film’s high spirits and laughs. A scene in which Isabelle teaches our forward-looking hero what a woman really wants is as hilarious as a sprint through the city taken by various characters when they discover that one of the inhabitants still in the apartment needs a rescue from a potentially embarrassing situation because a lover from abroad has unexpectedly turned up at the airport and is about to arrive at their humble abode. On the dramatic side, Xavier's adjustment from forward-looking student to Erasmus party animal is about the biggest character arc you will get.

In the end, L’auberge espagnole is a lovable, cozy mess just like its architectural setting. Its formal freshness and energy make up for its lack in depth of character. Of course, with all of our students’ hormones raging in uncontrolled frenzy, who wants to be picky about a lack of depth? As a summer fling this flick is just perfect; like an Erasmus year abroad, this multi-cultural experience will make you understand that students are pretty much the same just about everywhere and that spending time with any one of them is worthwhile just for fun.

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