L’auberge espagnole
I am so sold. This film came on TV by chance today and it’s been ages that I’ve heard about it. Actually I only watched this because I’m on a roll with films right now – these last months, I haven’t seen lots and lots of nice films because I didn’t feel like watching something.
Luckily, this choice was fabulous. I was actually at Pochi’s place and we wanted to record the film, instead we ended up watching the whole thing while it was recording *ahaha* The scene that clicked with us was obviously the one where Xavier ran from office to office to get all his Erasmus forms together. Also, I have heard that french people are even more bureaucratic than germans…
Even though it was just a few hours ago that I’ve watched this film, I’ve already forgotten what I wanted to say about it exactly. Actually it’s just way too much – the characters are great (in their way, even that annoying british brother), all the little episodes in the story are so utterly funny and the subject Erasmus exchange year fits me like a glove right now. I am wondering how my exchange year will be. Great of course, but how exactly? After all, the film is very positive and optimistic (hey, maybe I like this one and Volver so much because they were so utterly optimistic?): The people are chaotic but nice, the city is beautiful, parties are all fun and the fact that people usually get scammed really badly when they go away for an exchange year is totally forgotten… Also, everybody always has enough money. Well, but aside from that, the get-together of people of different nationalities is really nicely done. However, it struck me as interesting that the only two guys in the story who were not particularily likeable were british and american. I mean, it’s a french film *ggg*
The very best was the scene with Wendy’s boyfriend coming over, of course *ahaha* It was the most memorable scene, but there just were so many lines where we had to laugh so badly. However, I think that this film is somehow like American Pie – American Pie is only funny when you’re a stupid, virgin teenager. Just like that, L’auberge espagnole is only funny when you’re an college student about to do an exchange year.
In the end, I had lots of fun watching this film – except for the end, even though I actually loved how he fled from his first work day. And I also liked how he left his stupid girl friend (oh poor Audrey Tautou, why did you take this dumb role?), but the cheesiness of those flashbacks and his monologue really pushed me away. Nevertheless, this film is highly recommended despite, or because its quirky humour!
PS. Nowadays, it’s so easy to spot popular and better mainstream films: They always have sequels, just like this one.