L'Auberge Espagnole (Pot Luck)(Euro Pudding)(The Spanish Apartment) (2002)
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Reviews Counted: 90
Fresh: 69 | Rotten: 21
This multicultural comedy captures the chaos and excitement of being young.
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 34
Fresh: 29 | Rotten: 5
This multicultural comedy captures the chaos and excitement of being young.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 33,930
Movie Info
A man eager to learn Spanish gets an education he wasn't expecting in this comedy drama. Xavier (Romain Duris) is a French economics student who is nearing the completion of his degree and is looking for work. Xavier's father arranges for him to meet a ranking member of the Ministry of Finance, who makes him an offer -- he can give him a good job, but only under the condition that he learn to speak Spanish. Determined not to pass up the opportunity, Xavier enrolls in a language program in
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Cast
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Romain Duris
Xavier -
Cécile De France
Isabelle -
Judith Godrèche
Anne-Sophie -
Audrey Tautou
Martine -
Kelly Reilly
Wendy -
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All Critics (100) | Top Critics (37) | Fresh (69) | Rotten (21) | DVD (11)
Yet another example of writer/director Klapisch's way of finding fresh new insights within the most mundane of circumstances.
Top CriticA film whose limitations are the same as its appeal: It's a bauble.
It features four of the most erotically and emotionally delectable female performances I have seen in one film this year.
Much of the charm of this film is in its understanding of the great fluidity of romantic relationships -- especially before people decide to settle down.
All in all, Klapisch's style approximates the excitement of the French New Wave of the late 1950s.
As he did in When the Cat's Away, Klapisch demonstrates an understanding for the way young people caught between the demands of adulthood and their lingering adolescence behave.
fun, irresistibly charming and very genuinely felt
A Big Mac with a mineral water chaser.
[Its] cheery characters are ultimately stuck wending their way through wackily contrived scenarios fit for a sitcom.
L'auberge espagnole or The Spanish apartment is a lovable, cozy mess just like its architectural setting.
...not a difficult movie to criticize, [but] a hard movie not to like.
Frothy ensemble comedy/romance flick.
European Union navel-gazing plus braying youth worship equals L' Auberge Espagnol.
There isn't enough story or character development to make this into the breathtaking escapade Klapisch seems to have aspired to.
The episodic L'auberge Espangnole is like a younger and European version of Friends.
Deft, exhilarating comedy
Não funciona apenas como retrato da globalização e do choque de culturas, mas também como a jornada pessoal de um jovem rumo à definição de sua vida
Klapisch has imbued the film with such energy and such insight that his themes linger on the palate, like the aftertaste of a fine French or Spanish or Italian or German or whatever wine.
It's a rarity, a comedy about young adults that does not laugh at their inexperience, and remains accessible even to old fogies.
Since for most of us, it's too late to pack a suitcase, spend a year in beautiful Barcelona, and fall so easily in and out of love, "L'Auberge Espagnole" is a lovely cinematic diversion.
Crams a whole season of Real World fights, flings, cover-ups and send-off parties into one bloated pastry of a film.
Even when I was in grad school, I'd have found this film excruciatingly long, juvenile, self-indulgent and implausible.
It's apt to leave American viewers with a depressing sense of cultural inferiority when these characters are weighed against the classless, clueless, horny drunks that populate our own equivalents of Klapisch's film.
Think of L'Auberge Espagnole, a French comedy-drama about a gang of international exchange students living together in Barcelona, as Friends -- the International Edition.
Audience Reviews for L'Auberge Espagnole (Pot Luck)(Euro Pudding)(The Spanish Apartment)
Super Reviewer
However, this does not hide a handful of gaping holes in the plot, which are easily noticeable on a second viewing of the film.
L'auberge espagnole falls arms flailing into the voice-over trap: drastic over-use throughout. Whether Klapisch intended to give a bird's eye view of the action, or simply to speed up the pace of the film at times, the result of too much voice-over is that Xavier's character loses its authenticity.
Romain Duris's acting is wooden - particularly with so many beautiful females around. As for Judith Godreche, she plays a non-starter of a part. Her character has no proper relationship with either of her men.
Klapish has paid attention to some nice little details. A quick shot of a sandal's foot on a marble staircase, William the English lad's upturned collar, and a TV clip of the Catalan sport of human tower-building, for example.
However these little gems cannot hide flagrant over-editing which stagger the flow of the film and dissolve any feeling of resolution at the end. The frantic city running scene à la 007 is ridiculous: why ALL the house mates have to return so suddenly remains a mystery.
Some say this film makes political reference to the leading European powers. I think that it just wants to be a light entertaining comedy: it nearly fails even to be that !
Super Reviewer
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- Xavier: When you first arrive in a new city, nothing makes sense. Everythings unknown, virgin... After you've lived here, walked these streets, you'll know them inside out. You'll know these people. Once you've lived here, crossed this street 10, 20, 1000 times... it'll belong to you because you've lived there. That was about to happen to me, but I didn't know it yet.
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Movie: ID: 12910 Title: L'Auberge Espagnole (Pot Luck)(Euro Pudding)(The Spanish Apartment) Release Date: 2003-05-16 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- L'Auberge Espagnole - Barcelona für ein Jahr (DE)
- Pot Luck - L'Auberge Espagnole (UK)
