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L’Auberge Espagnole

L’Auberge Espagnole, French slang for "Euro Pudding," is the ultimate tribute to both study-abroad programs and the European Union. A spirited comedy infused with youthful vigor and ample sexuality, it tells the tale of a French foreign-exchange student that moves into a multicultural apartment in Spain.

Xavier (Romain Duris), a college senior studying economics, is offered a job with a prestigious corporation. The catch is that he needs to brush up on his Spanish. The film goes into fast-forward mode as our narrator registers for his year-long adventure to Barcelona. Many months and much paperwork later, he boards the plane, tearful and anxious, but full of ambition and gusto. Ultimately a story of self-discovery, "L’Auberge Espagnole" is touching in its playfully realistic account of youth’s joys and frustrations.

Alone in a strange land, a timid Xavier befriends a newlywed French couple – a dorky surgeon and his petrified beauty – that accommodate him until he can get settled. The final arrangement is a mini-European Union: spunky, freckled Wendy from England (Kelly Reilly), neat and organized Tobias from Germany (Barnaby Metschurat), Alessandro from Italy (Federico D’ Anna), Lars from Denmark (Christian Pagh), Soledad from Spain (Cristina Brondo) and Isabelle from Belgium (Cecile De France). Stereotypes are rampant, but not over-the-top, except perhaps in the case of our own good-old American, who appears briefly as Wendy’s ape-like sex toy.

Writer-director Cedric Klapisch creatively weaves together an image of cooperation and good will on a backdrop of amusing misunderstandings. Wendy is at a complete loss for words when Xavier’s mother asks her if Xavier went to "fuck" (or so it sounds like to her). Xavier later explains that this means "university." Wendy’s culturally insensitive brother adds insult to the mix when he teases Tobias with Hitler impersonations.

With so many hormones in one cramped apartment, there is no shortage of amoure. The lesbian Isabelle instructs Xavier in the art of making out, which he then successfully uses to seduce the surgeon’s wife, all the while dealing with his dejected girlfriend from back home. Then there’s Wendy, getting it on with her degenerate American while her boyfriend makes a surprise visit.

But there is much more to this film than hot cast members and sex. Klapisch’s clever camera manipulations and special effects intensify the movie’s overriding themes of love, heartbreak, hopes, and dreams. The ending is optimistic but not unbelievable, as Xavier follows his heart instead of submitting to his parents’ desires, inspired by his experiences abroad. His own revelation takes on greater implications as he declares that he is "German, Spanish, Italian, French," and every other nationality. If he can shed his former, ancestral identity and reinvent himself, so can the countries of Europe, is the ardent political message. Then the possibilities for the world, or at least for Europe, will be as boundless as those for our hero Xavier.

Written by: Asya Passinsky

Reviewers Rating: 9
Reader's Rating: 6.00
Reader's Votes: 2

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