L'Auberge Espagnole
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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L'Auberge espagnole (English: The Spanish Apartment) is a 2002 French film directed and written by Cédric Klapisch. It is about Xavier, an Economics graduate student studying for a year in Barcelona, Spain as part of the Erasmus programme, where he encounters and learns from a group of students who hail from all over Western Europe.
The title of the film literally means "the Spanish hostel", and is a French idiom for something where you get out what you put into it. It is also sometimes used to mean a busy, chaotic place. The English title of the film is Pot Luck in the UK and Canada; Euro Pudding is an international title it was given, and it is also known as The Spanish Apartment. In Spain, where it is set, it was released as Una casa de locos — "Madhouse".
The film's portrayal is in the first-person perspective of the main character, Xavier, and is hence mainly narrated in French. Some of the dialogue is in English however, and a significant amount is in Spanish, as well as small amounts in Catalan, Danish, German and Italian.
The marketing for the film tends to focus on Audrey Tautou - the movie's most internationally well-known star - despite the fact that she only plays a relatively small supporting role in the film.
The movie has a sequel, The Russian Dolls. A third film is upcoming.
Primary cast:
- Romain Duris : Xavier
- Barnaby Metschurat : Tobias
- Judith Godrèche : Anne-Sophie
- Cécile de France : Isabelle
- Kelly Reilly : Wendy
- Audrey Tautou : Martine
- Cristina Brondo : Soledad
- Kevin Bishop : William
- Federico D'Anna : Alessandro
Soundtrack
L'Auberge espagnole features a diverse soundtrack, which includes:
- Radiohead - No Surprises
- Daft Punk - Aerodynamic
- Sonia & Selena - Que Viva La Noche
- Marc-Antoine Charpentier - Te Deum
- Ali Farka Touré - Ai Du
- Frédéric Chopin - Opus 64 No 2 Waltz in C sharp minor