L'Auberge Espagnole (The Spanish Apartment)

Starring:Kevin Bishop, Cristina Brondo, Javier Coromina, Federico D'Anna, CÃ©cile De France, Xavier De Guillebon, Martine Demaret, Romain Duris, Judith GodrÃ¨che, Iddo Goldberg, Paulina GÃ¡lvez, Jacno, Barnaby Metschurat, Irene MontalÃ , Christian Pagh, Olivier Raynal, Kelly Reilly, Audrey Tautou, Wladimir Yordanoff
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

An absolute delight, L'Auberge Espagnole captures a moment in a life, seemingly about nothing and everything all at once. Xavier (Romain Duris), a young Parisian not sure what his life is about, decides to spend a year in Barcelona studying economics--leaving behind his unhappy girlfriend (Audrey Tautou, Amélie) but joining an international mix of students in a hectic, crowded apartment. Arguing and partying with his British, German, Danish, and Italian roommates--not to mention getting lessons in love from a Belgian lesbian (Cecile De France) so that he can seduce a friend's wife (Judith Godreche, Ridicule)--Xavier learns more about life than economics. The movie, beautifully shot on digital video, has a freshness and spontaneity that make its simple events--a series of arguments and flirtations--feel like a miniature portrait of the European Union as it comes into focus (the title can be translated as "Euro pudding"). Vibrant, charming, and all-around entertaining. --Bret Fetzer

Description

Seven sexy co-eds. One Spanish apartment. No rules. A single year of learning turns into an outrageous adventure of a lifetime in this "fresh, captivating comedy" (Newsday) that has audiences and critics cheering around the world! Xavier (Romain Duris) is a straight-laced French college senior who moves to Barcelona as part of a exchange program, much to the dismay of his beautiful Martine (Audrey Tautou). But sharing cramped quarters with students from all over Europe quickly leads to multi-cultural chaos as Xavier gets a hilarious, eye-opening lesson on how to live, love, laugh?and party!

Customer Reviews:

Just OK.......2007-06-17

"The Spanish Apartment" follows Xavier, a French student who decides to improve his chance of getting a job in finance by studying a year in Spain. He leaves behind his girlfriend, but soon finds consolation in his fun roommates and somewhere else (I don't want to give too much away). The characters feel real, and that is one of the merits of the movie. The actors are also quite good. But the screenplay is never engaging enough to make us care much about Xavier.

I love this movie........2007-06-08

What to know why Europeans are, by and large, a happy and contented people?

Watch this and find out.

Funny, poignant, sensitive, and interesting. You want to be one of these people before the film is half-way through. Each character is very different and they all (eight of them) are jammed together into one apartment in Barcelona. Yet, somehow, they collectively play to each other's strengths and become life-long friends in the process.

The Spanish Apartment.......2007-06-06

I loved this film! Entertaining, colorful, lighthearted, and adventurous. This was a pleasant film to watch and while no deeper meanings of life were revealed it was a fun way to spend an evening.

L'Auberge Espagnole (The Spanish Apartment).......2007-06-02

I was pleasantly suprised by L'Auberge Espagnole (The Spanish Apartment). Watch it and enjoy! Four stars!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this movie!.......2007-06-01

This is one of my favorite movies. The characters are funny and real, the languages are beautiful...BUY IT!!!

L'Auberge Espagnole (Original French Only Version)

Average customer rating:

An imperfect but generally convincing and thought-provoking meditation on Europe's future
European Pudding

L'Auberge Espagnole (Original French Only Version)

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ASIN: B000924MCQ

Product Description

As part of a job that he is promised, Xavier, an economics student in his twenties, signs on to a European exchange program in order to gain working knowledge of the Spanish language. Promising that they'll remain close, he says farewell to his loving girlfriend, then heads to Barcelona. Following his arrival, Xavier is soon thrust into a cultural melting pot when he moves into an apartment full of international students. An Italian, an English girl, a boy from Denmark, a young woman from Belgium, a German and a girl from Tarragona all join him in a series of adventures that serve as an initiation to life.

Customer Reviews:

An imperfect but generally convincing and thought-provoking meditation on Europe's future.......2007-01-03

Cedric Klapisch's 2002 film L'AUBERGE ESPAGNOLE ("The Spanish Apartment") is the story of Xavier (Roman Duris), a French student studying in Barcelona for a year, and his wacky adventures with his international flatmates. As this reviewer himself has lived in similar international settings from the last several years, including a stint with a couple of crazy Frenchman in Spain, I found this film a generally authentic and entertaining portrayal of European student exchange life.

These young people are brought together by the European Union's ERASMUS programme, which has moved EU students around for university education since the mid-1970s (it's therefore curious that such a film took so long to appear). Beyond its simple story of a young man discovering himself in foreign surroundings, there is also a strong commentary on the benefits -- and risks -- of the movement towards a common European identity. The French title literally means "The Spanish Inn", but it also has the idiomatic meaning of "potluck". Each of the residents of Xavier's flat contributes a very different side of Western Europe. Wendy (Kelly Reilly) is from England, Lars from Denmark, Isabelle (Cecile de France) from Belgium, Alessando (Federico D'Anna) from Italy, and Tobias (Barnaby Metschurat) from Germany. The only native Spaniard is Soledad (Cristina Brondo), who gets perhaps less attention than she should have.

Generally the film is positive towards European integration. When Wendy's brother William (Kevin Bishop) comes to visit, he embarasses her with his puerile national sterotypes -- e.g. "Germans are Nazis", "Italians are slovenly" -- suggesting that those who live in an international milieu are more enlightened. Hints at the dangers of common approaches towards integration arise when some students claim that Catalans should give up their language and speak a larger one just for the sake of European unity. It is notable that all foreigners in the film learn Spanish, never Catalan.

Beyond the larger issues of world politics, the film explores the difficulties of maintaining long-distance relationships, as Xavier can't make it work with his Parisian girlfriend Martine. His is also unsure of how to relate with women in this expat world of free love, seducing a married woman entrusted to him to show around the city. Martine's is only a background role in the film, but as she is played by Audrey Tatou, hot on the heels of the hit AMELIE, Tatou featured heavily in the film's publicity.

Why four stars? This is a thought-provoking film that I would recommend for anyone interested in the issue of European integration, but it just doesn't feel like any sort of unequivocal masterpiece. One notable problem is the age of the protagonist. Xavier is going to Barcelona for postgraduate studies and is already 24-25 years old at this point. However, his actions and his naivete are that of someone four or so years younger. Some scenes also seem insufficiently linked to the film's themes, as that showed while Xavier's roommate recounts how her flamenco teacher tried to seduce her.

The 2005 sequel to the film, LES POUPEES RUSEES ("Russian Dolls") is better still. In spite of its imperfections, check out L'AUBERGE ESPAGNOLE as well as the follow-up.

European Pudding.......2005-09-27

"The Spanish Apartment" (L'Auberge Espagnole) is what Xavier is in desperate need of when he arrives in Madrid to study Spanish and to immerse himself in the culture so as to follow his father's footstep and become a Bureaucrat in a Paris-based firm that deals primarily with the Spanish.
And what he finds is more than a proficiency in the Spanish language of course, he finds Love, he finds what appears to be lifelong friendship with his six roommates who come from all over Europe and ultimately...he finds himself. "L'Auberge Espagnole" then is about finding out, after twelve years of schooling, after listening to the where/the why's/the who's from a host of teachers...who we are, who is our core self, what are our dreams, what will we make of our lives?
Pretty basic stuff, n'est pas? But director Cedric Klapisch has fashioned this film in such a way and inhabited it with such interesting and winning actors/characters that we are fascinated and entertained. It is a sunny, compassionate film without one mean bone in its body.
"The Spanish Apartment" deals with the serious issues of relationships and self-realization. Klapisch has just chosen to present them in a truthful, emotionally available, particularly French and slyly humorous manner.

L' Auberge espagnole, / Les Poupees russes (2 Pack) Original French ONLY Version - No Subtitles

Average customer rating:

Buy or rent? Your choice.

L' Auberge espagnole, / Les Poupees russes (2 Pack) Original French ONLY Version - No Subtitles

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000EGXURK

Customer Reviews:

Buy or rent? Your choice........2006-05-08

"L?Aubergue espagnole" (= "The Spanish apartment") and "Les poupees russes" (= "Russian dolls") are two French films about young people trying to find their path in life. "Les poupees russes" is the sequel to "L?Aubergue espagnole". They are both directed by Cedric Klapisch, and have the same cast.

"L'Auberge Espagnole" allows us to see what happens in a year in the life of Xavier (Romain Duris), a young man from France who has been promised a job in the French bureaucracy if he is fluent in Spanish. Thus, he applies to the Erasmus programme, in order to study in Barcelona (Spain) for a year. Xavier leaves his parents and his girlfriend Martine (Audrey Tautou) behind, but he meets lots of new people and survives to cultural shock. He also starts an affair with the lonely wife of another Frenchman, and goes to Economy classes at the university. But what will charm the viewer is the chaotic life Xavier will have in the apartment he will share with other foreign students. In a way, the apartment is a little piece of the European Union, with people from Italy, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Spain and France. Of course, there are lots of linguistic misunderstandings, but also an enormous amount of amusing situations and good-natured fun.

"Les poupees russes", released a few years later, is better than "L?Aubergue espagnole", due to the fact that it ties some plot holes, and allows us to see what happens to the characters. Are they mature, or merely older? And what happened to Xavier (Romain Duris), the young man from France who wanted to be a writer?

Notwithstanding the fact that you don?t need to watch "L?Aubergue espagnole" before "Les poupees russes", doing so will give you more insight into what is happening, so I think it is worthwhile. In that sense, buying this two dvds at the same time is a good idea.

On the other hand, even though these films are entertaining, I think it is better to rent them. The reason for that opinion is that I do not believe they are the kind of movie you can watch 20 times, like "Casablanca". They are fun, but not classics. If you are okay with that, go ahead and buy them, but don t expect more of these movies that entertainment and some interesting dialogue.

Belen Alcat

PS: These dvds are in French, and they don t have subtitles.

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