Title: L'Auberge Espagnole
English Title:
- The Spanish Apartment
- The Spanish Inn
- The Spanish Pudding
Language:
- English
- French
- Spanish
Cast:
- Romain Duris
- Judith Godreche
- Audrey Tautou
- Cécile De France
- Kelly Reilly
- Cristina Brondo
- Federico D'Anna
- Barnaby Metschurat
- Christian PAgh
- Kevin Bishop
- Xavier De Guillebon
- Wladimir Yordanoff
- Irene Montalà
- Javier Coromina
- Iddo Goldberg
SYNOPSIS
A strait-laced French student moves into an apartment in Barcelona with six other individuals from all over Europe. Together, they speak the international language of love and friendship.
REVIEW
L'Auberge Espagnole is about the coming-of-age of French college student Xavier as he studies for a year abroad in Barcelona, Spain. It is about his experiences, his relationships, and his friendships.
It's great that the characters are from different countries. I think it's always fascinating when people from different backgrounds get together because they will always have misunderstandings considering their differences, but they are also alike in many ways.
Xavier: Je suis français, espagnol, anglais, danois. Je ne suis pas un mais plusieurs. Je suis comme l'europe, je suis tout cela. (I'm French, Spanish, English, Danish. I'm not one, but many. I'm like Europe, I'm all that.)
I like the scene where Xavier first met his new flatmates who are college students from all over Europe: Italy, Germany, Spain, Denmark, United Kingdom, and later Belgium.
Well, I like the scenes where the flatmates are all together because they speak different languages, so it was interesting to see them communicate with each other. I certainly enjoyed the film as the dialogues are in some parts English, in some parts French, and in some parts Spanish, both Castilian (Castiliano) and Catalán.
I love languages, and I would want to learn most languages if at all possible. I think it's great to be fluent in many languages, and I'm always impressed by people who are bilingual and even more so multilingual.
Knowing foreign languages is very helpful when communicating with other people, especially when one is traveling to other countries or when one is living in a foreign city for quite some time. Xavier's willingness to learn Spanish and his openness to exploring his new home probably made his abroad to be much more fulfilling exprience.
Majority of the film is set in Barcelona, Spain. The film presents all the facets of the wonderful city of Barcelona; from its artistic buildings to the gorgeous beaches to the cool places where the locals hang out.
There are a few scenes set in Paris, France, and it showed parts of Paris that the local Parisians never went to, according to Xavier. I think it's always interesting how a person sees a particular place and where he goes often.
I like how L'Auberge Espagnole shows how complex it is to go somewhere else. Xavier is shown to be both excited and anxious to go away, but he is sad to leave everything familiar behind in Paris at the same time. Later on, Xavier is again shown to be both happy to be back in Paris after a year abroad, but he also missed his daily routine in Barcelona.
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L'Auberge Espagnole
