L'auberge espagnole

Cedric Klapisch's 2002 comedy L'auberge espagnole delivers a powerful, emotional and awakening message concerning the social commentary of diverse European cultures and identities in a hilarious, surprising and comical narrative. Its irony presents a vast array of different languages but the necessity of uniting Europe cannot be accomplished with this melee of different languages. Much of the gravity of the issue of cultural differences and identities is softened by the lighthearted tones of the film. An aspiring economist, Xavier, leaves his mother and his girlfriend for Barcelona so he can master the language and the Spanish market and kickstart his career. Doing so will prove to be much more than he bargained for at times in both beneficial and detrimental ways, but mostly beneficial ones. He finds an apartment that he will share with other young Erasmus program students who all come from different countries, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Paris, if you include himself. Wendy's brother William comes to visit for one or two weeks and though simply a stock character, William actually proves essential to the film's plot when he obnoxiously mocks the different students' cultures. Lars, the German roommate is quietly studying when William will not stop talking to him, and is forced to kick William out. William gets angry with him and assumes the Nazi composure and voice because he believes that all Germans are Nazis, which deeply offends Lars. Also, the first night in town, the roommates take William out for drinks and he starts talking to the Spanish roommate about his encounter with another Spaniard on the subway. He tells her that he could not understand what the man was trying to say, so he just said "Ole!" because "all Spanish people say that", which is, of course, an ignorant falsehood. Deeply angered, the young woman stands up and stomps off with an "Ole!". William unconsciously and obnoxiously glues one stereotype to the people of different countries and their cultures and how the camera fades into and out of different scenes reflects William's blurred interpretations of different cultures. Xavier has an eye-opening conversation with a young Gambian man in the film and he tells Xavier "I have two identities. I have my Catalan identity and my Gambian identity." A year in Spain with these young people from their different countries has taught Xavier that he neither can identify with just one identity. The film concludes with his saying "I am French, Spanish, Danish, British, etc..." and he flips through childhood photos, tossing them one by one to the ground. The camera focuses on each picture for a split-second, each one marking an identity Xavier owns. These several shots from the camera reflect these several identities. As the camera pulls back, a wide shot portrays the scattered photos on the floor, to scan the big picture. This big picture is the truly important piece of truth Xavier needed to find in his life, just what he found that year in Barcelona. I completely disagree with the review titled "I honestly can't believe" by cdrw74minutes on imdb.com. The writer says that there is "No development of plot", when obviously, there is so because Xavier and William departed from their experiences in Spain learning possibly more about themselves and others than they had known before.

I honestly can't believe