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 l'
Auberge Espagnole
Starring: Romain Duris, Judith Godreche, Audrey Tautou,
Kelly Reilly, Cristina Brondo, Kevin Bishop, and Cecile de France
Directed and written by: Cedric Klapisch
French w/subtitles
Buy it!
l'
Auberge Espagnole is a hilarious journey into growing, learning
and loving. Without preaching, the film shows how a young person
takes an adventure he dreads and emerges with self-identity and
a defined path for his life.
One's
school days are often romanticized. As time goes on, forgotten
are the months filled with five dollars worth of food, or those
nights of endless anxiety attacks about mounting bills, piles
of studies and the unknown future. They become exciting adventures
we experienced as the memories are largely altered by time and
the remarkable people met.
L'AE
magically captures every drop of those almost surreal times most
of us, in one way or another, have had or will experience.
Story
goes…student Xavier (Romain Duris) decides to travel to the
European center of study, Barcelona, to learn more about economics
and thus enabling him to later join a prestigious firm back home
in France. He joins the infamous "Erasmus" student exchange
program and off he goes.
When
he arrives all he expected goes out the window. His planned accommodations
have been cancelled and he must take up residency with an odd
couple he barely knows while he searches for an apartment.
A
house of multi-national students screen him for room they are
renting. He feels immediately at home within the group as they
remind him of the diversified thoughts that continually run rampart
through his own mind about, life, the future, love and so forth.
Luckily
he gets the coveted spot in the place known as l' Auberge Espagnole
(The Spanish Inn), which is French slang for a place where cultures
are mixed as in a stew. Here the united students are from France,
Belgium, Italy, Spain, England, and Denmark.
The
intimate group, though unable to communicate completely verbally,
still unite and form a bond that none of them could have expected.
And ultimately
the group find themselves in all kinds of love triangles and stereotype-smashing
scenarios along the way to their degrees. Quite accidentally they
are also growing into the men and women they will become.
This
is one funny frat film that honestly shows people forging their
own ways even with that extreme mayhem, that circus like life
style, these "kids" still manage to find the important
things buried under the week old pizza and pools of spilled beer.
People are people after all and take away the cultural idiosyncrasies,
everyone likes a good laugh, a hearty love affair, a bright future
and true friendships.
L'
Auberge Espagnole is a delight. The kinetic unusual camera
style and clever editing only accents these rich people and their
varied cultures. The metaphors are flying about as this talented
group of actors (Romain Duris especially) along with director
Cedric Klapisch, subtly weave their underlying message of how
similar we all are into a frolicking goodtime.
Snack Recommendation: A buffet of diversified tidbits.
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