L'auberge espagnole (2002)

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, Kelly Reilly

8 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Romain Duris	...	Xavier
Judith Godrèche	...	Anne-Sophie
Audrey Tautou	...	Martine
Cécile de France	...	Isabelle (as Cécile De France)
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:

apartment | sex in bed | unfaithful wife | lingerie | lesbian | 

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Taglines:

They came from Paris, Rome, London and Berlin to... l'Auberge Espagnole ...where a year can change a lifetime.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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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:

20 June 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Spanish Apartment

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

€5,300,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$1,373,992 (France), 28 June 2002

Opening Weekend USA:

$59,309, 18 May 2003, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$3,895,664, 21 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."

In the scene in which Wendy mispronounces "Xavier n'est pas la..." the English subtitles say "Xavier eez not here..."

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Goofs

As Xavier makes his way to his new job near the end of the film, he is wearing a coat, tie, and jeans, and he has his hands in his pockets. But when he gets there, he is wearing slacks that go with the coat, and he is carrying a briefcase.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Xavier: It all started here. At take off. No, this isn't a story about taking off. Yeah, that's the real beginning.

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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

Featured in European confusiòn: Making-of 'L'auberge espagnole' (2002)

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Soundtracks

Le Rêve de l'hippocampe
Performed by Mathieu Dury (as Kouz-1)
(Loïc Dury (as L. Dury) / Mathieu Dury (as M. Dury))

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!