L'Auberge Espagnole (2002)
"L'auberge espagnole" (original title)

A strait-laced French student moves into an apartment in Barcelona with a cast of six other characters from all over Europe. Together, they speak the international language of love and friendship.

Director:

Cédric Klapisch

Writer:

Cédric Klapisch

Stars:

Romain Duris, Judith Godrèche, Audrey Tautou

8 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Romain Duris	...	Xavier
Judith Godrèche	...	Anne-Sophie
Audrey Tautou	...	Martine
Cécile De France	...	Isabelle
Kelly Reilly	...	Wendy (as Keilly Reilly)
Cristina Brondo	...	Soledad
Federico D'Anna	...	Alessandro (as Fédérico D'anna)
Barnaby Metschurat	...	Tobias
Christian Pagh	...	Lars
Kevin Bishop	...	William
Xavier De Guillebon	...	Jean-Michel
Wladimir Yordanoff	...	Jean-Charles Perrin
Irene Montalà	...	Neus (as Irène Montala)
Javier Coromina	...	Juan
Iddo Goldberg	...	Alistair

Storyline

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 girl from Belgium, a German and a girl from Tarragona all join him in a series of adventures that serve as an initiation to life.

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Plot Keywords:

student | apartment | language | friendship | english | 

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Taglines:

Je ne sais pas pourquoi le monde est devenu un tel bordel

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and sexual content

Details

Country:

France Spain

Language:

French Spanish English Catalan Danish German Italian

Release Date:

19 June 2002 (France)

Also Known As:

The Spanish Apartment

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

€5,300,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$59,309 (USA) (16 May 2003)

Gross:

$3,895,664 (USA) (19 September 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bac Films, Ce Qui Me Meut Motion Pictures, France 2 Cinéma

Technical Specs

Runtime:

122 min 111 min (TV)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the English subtitles, several sections are purposefully translated incorrectly to preserve the humorous nature of the film. The list of strange names around Paris is changed to "Honolulu, Punxsutawney, Piccadilly, Massachusetts, Saskatoon and Machu Picchu;" and during the scene in which Wendy mispronounces "Xavier n'est pas ici..." the English subtitles say "Xavier eez not here..."

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Goofs

When Xavier is at the airport getting ready to leave for Barcelona, he goes to talk to Martine and then returns to his mother and picks up his small backpack. He then goes back to Martine, without his backpack, returns to his mother and picks up his backpack again.

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Quotes

Wendy: Xavier's gone to school. Okay?
Xavier's Mother: Ah, oui! Il est à la fac.
Wendy: What?
Xavier's Mother: La fac!
Wendy: LA "FUCK"?
Xavier's Mother: Yes. After fac he can telephone maman.

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Crazy Credits

In the opening credits, each actor is credited along with the flag of the country where their character is from.

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Connections

Referenced in The Holiday (2006)

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Soundtracks

"Que viva la noche"
Performed by Sonia & Selena
(X. Ten / J. Guillem / G. Galofre)
© Punto Music Publishing, S.L. / Novel Music, 2001
Courtesy of (P) Vale Music Spain, S.L., 2001

User Reviews

The real life Europe is more complicated

I'm scratching my head thinking about which language I should use to write here, American English, Castilian, Catalan, Danish, English, Flemish, French, German, Italian??? They are all spoken at least once in the movie. Cinch, I just adopt the official language of the housemate recruitment meeting: English.

The Eramus apartment in Barcelona is absolutely a microcosm, a miniature replica of EU where the Europeans are now moving around studying, working, having romance, breaking up, having affair, getting married. However, they may not respect one another, they may not speak one another's language, they may not understand or want to know about the culture and history of other countries, otherwise, William would not so carelessly think that German Nazi, Adolf Hitler are objects for making fun of.

Is EU offering benefits or battles? Xavier was in a loss, every part of his life after leaving Paris for Barcelona: cultural shock, the linguistic misunderstanding, loss of mother tongue (identity, culture, wow means very much here), loss of the relationship with his girlfriend, loss of friendship (after the affair with the physician's wife Judith Godrèche disclosed). Nevertheless, he gained European friends from all European housemates. How they help Wendy to avoid being seen by Alistair when she is having fun with an American man in bed, they act unanimously to run towards their apartment.

Xavier's study is symbolic: Economics. Why the establishment of EU? One of the reasons is to build up power to balance the one that the US has been enjoying for too long in both political and economic arenas. And the film states it pretty clearly which country wants to be the boss of EU. Wendy is the leader of the house who always clean, keep the apartment and "discipline" the other while the serious Xavier successfully gains the trust of the "foreign" landlord. Wendy (UK) is the Minister of Internal Affairs and Xavier (France) is the Minister of Foreign Relations. Anyway, Wendy got a "W" initial which is a few steps ahead of Xavier's "X".

Clever and observant movie about the Europe and its people today. The apartment should take in four more people: British Indian, Swiss Korean (North Asian), French Mauritanian (Arab Muslim) and Spanish Moroccan (Muslin) etc to make a even wider world stage. It will be far more an unexpected intrigue than the real world we experience. Both warming (the people) and warning (the people's relationship).

J'adore this pelicula very much. Vive l'Europe! Viva Europa!