L'Auberge espagnole (2002)
Directed by Cédric Klapisch

Film Review

One of the French film highlights of the year 2002, L'Auberge espagnole is a vibrant yet intelligent comedy-drama about young people from different cultures and nationalities coming together and discovering a shared bond of friendship.  Although the film is simplistic in places, it offers a convincing and fairly accurate portrait of student life, whilst offering the spectator a thoroughly entertaining cinematic experience.  Even when the characters are portrayed as the familiar stereotypes (the loutish Brit, the meticulous German, the untidy Italian, etc.), the film is still engaging and hilariously funny.

Director Cédric Klapisch has a tendency to populate his films with numerous characters, often with the result that it is hard to keep track of who is who.   There are certainly many characters in L'Auberge espagnole, but here all of them are so well-developed and well-played that they are easily distinguishable.  What also helps is that the film is more clearly focused than in some of Klapisch's previous films, being centred mainly on Xavier's turbulent love-life and career aspirations.  The other characters are less important but provide the comic contrast to Xavier's personal drama.  It is also interesting that the film's central character, Xavier, is a somewhat ordinary - almost boring - individual, yet his situation and the way his character develops in the course of the film make him appear interesting and sympathetic.

Whilst the film has some obvious faults - a naïve happy ending and a tendency for excessively arty photography and editing - it is nonetheless a fine piece of cinema.   The acting is generally of a high standard, particularly from Romain Duris (Xavier) and Judith Godrèche (Anne-Sophie), although Audrey Tautou is clearly miscast as Xavier's girlfriend.  However, what makes this such a worthwhile film is its infectious sense of fun and its positive depiction of young people overcoming the language barrier to form lasting friendships.

Film Synopsis

A young economics student, Xavier, decides to spend the final year of his university course at Barcelona so that he can learn Spanish and thereby secure a job at the French Ministry of Finance.  Leaving behind his girlfriend, Martine, and his anxious mother, he sets out for Barcelona and his first problem is to find somewhere to live.  Xavier ends up sharing an apartment with seven other students, all of different European nationalities.  The experience has a marked effect on Xavier who, initially reserved and lacking in confidence, ends up realising what he really wants to do with his life.