The Spanish Apartment

Synopsis: Twenty-five year old Parisian economics student, Xavier ((Romain Duris) travels to Barcelona for a year as part of the Erasmus student exchange program. Finding it hard to get accommodation, he accepts the offer of a couch in the apartment of a French couple, where the wife Anne-Sophie (Judith Godreche) needs a little showing around. But he is soon accepted into a share house sporting seven others of varying languages, nationalities and sexual proclivities. In this melange of twenty-somethings, he learns more about life and love than any university course could ever teach him.

The apartment of the film's title is peopled by Isabelle (Cécile de France), a cute lesbian who schools Xavier in seduction techniques, Wendy (Kelly Reilly), a typical Pommie lass with a visiting brother William (Kevin Bishop), Soledad, the only actual Spaniard in the mix, (Cristina Brondo), unusually quiet Italian, Alessandro (Federico d’Anna), Tobias, a very correct, almost caricatured German (Barnaby Metschurat), pragmatic Dane, Lars, (Christian Pagh) and of course Xavier. Romaine Duris brings his open, boyish style successfully to this role.

There is much warmth in this film and many funny scenes as the characters overcome their language problems and learn to cohabit. There are some fabulous typical moments all share-house inhabitants would recognise (“That’s my shelf in the fridge!” “I can’t make love with them all listening!”) Kevin Bishop as William, a stereotypical drunken bigoted Pommie lad, brings some of the film’s most hilarious moments, while Audrey Tatou shows her versatility as the uptight Martine, a far cry from her gentler role in Amélie.

Some of the camera work perplexed me with several fast-forward sequences, which I suppose represented the frenetic pace of youthful life, but which I could have done without. Most impressive was the soundtrack, featuring an eclectic mix ranging from flamenco to Radiohead to Ali Farka Toure.

The uncredited star of the film is Barcelona, that wonderful cosmopolitan city, home to the amazing art of Antonio Gaudi. thrilled to see again the mosaic seat in Parc Guell and the Church of the Sagrada Familia. The fact that Barcelona is a melting pot of old and new and is such a vibrant cosmopolitan city made it an ideal setting. But best of all, the film reminds us all of that magic time in life when the future of adult working life still seems a far-off dream and the present student life is a world of fun, love and possibilities.

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