L'Auberge
Espagnole
(2002/aka The
Spanish Apartment
or Spanish
Inn/Fox
DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: D Film: B-
Seven
young people share an apartment and havoc ensues. No, it is not yet
another tired, exploitive, formulaic, calculated, dehumanizing season
of MTV's ironically titled The
Real World,
but the 2002 digitally shot L'Auberge
Espagnole.
Writer/director Cedric Klapisch attempts to avoid doing a bad,
multi-cultural feature film version of the tele-nightmare, but he
runs into other problems.
Of
course, the R rating means no digital blurring of body parts or
advertisements or bleeping out of obscenity, but the idea is sadly
played out before the get go. To the program's advantage, the people
brought together are doing so for a reason rarely seen on MTV; they
are trying to improve their lives by going to college instead of at
each other's throats.
It
begins with the need of Xavier (Romain Duris) to find a place to stay
while he has his exchange semester in. At first, he sleeps on a
friend's couch, but soon finds himself being interviewed by the group
he lands up staying with. Because this has not been manipulated for
explosions of embarrassing dysfunction, we get a more interesting
interaction from the group of fictional characters here, than what we
have been subjected to with the real
people of endless reality
TV that is faker than a three-dollar bill.
Xavier
is in conflict with his girlfriend Martine (Audrey Tautou of Amelie,
DaVinci
Code
and Happenstance),
his new lesbian friend (Cecile De France) is ready to teach him
something about women he does not know, which helps him have an
affair with the married Anne Sophie (Judith Godreche), then there is
the British free spirit Wendy (Kelly Reilly) who becomes a best
friend, even when she invites her amusing and obnoxious brother
William (Kevin Bishop in one of the best performances here). The
acting and casting helps raise the film above other problems, and
keeps you watching. This is not bad and worth checking out.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is from the 1080/24P High
Definition video digital image, which is above average at best.
Dominique Colin does not show off with the camera too much, sometimes
even degrading the image for effect, like blowing out the colors
slightly. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 AC-3 multi-channel mix is also
very multi-lingual, featuring at least a half-dozen of them. This
was also issued theatrically in DTS, but is sadly only offered here
in Dolby. The sound is not bad for a dialogue-based film, and there
is a good bit of music in the film, but its abuse of Radiohead's
classic hit song No
Surprises
is a low point. There are no extras.
I
am no fan of most projects shot on video when film still looks better
(especially 11+ years since this was first released despite better
HD), especially when they are from Europe, due to the tiredness of
the Dogme movement, but L'Auberge
Espagnole
is fortunately above that and is one of the few good baby steps
forward for HD to date.
For
the two sequels so far, read more at these links:
Russian
Dolls
(2005)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4256/Russian+Dolls
...and
for the follow-up third film, Chinese
Puzzle
(2013), here:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13116/Billy+Crystal:+700+Sundays+(2014/HBO+DVD)/C
-
Nicholas Sheffo
