Rooms on Film: L'Auberge Espagnole/La Poupees Russes

the end of innocence: youth, beauty and casual sex in barcelona

If you've read some of my other Rooms on Film posts, you know that I enjoy the odd foreign flick. IFC Channel is pretty damn great on that score, especially when it comes to French films. It has served up a sort of random and surprising peek beyond Hollywood into some very different notions about storytelling and... other sensibilities. (If you've ever sat through Mon Ange, you know what I'm talking about.) So, two fun flicks that feature cute, casual homes are "L'Auberge Espagnole," 2002 (The Spanish Apartment) and the sequel "Les Poupees Russes," 2006 (Russian Dolls). 

Starring Frenchman Romain Duris, we follow a college grad as he goes to Barcelona to learn Spanish and Finance in a year-long exchange program. Along with his half-dozen roommates from all over the world, Xavier gets up to some hilarious hijinks most involving infidelities of some kind. If you ever get the chance, you really should catch them. There are scenes that will make you lay down laughing no matter how long it's been since you were that age. You just sort of relate fondly to their absurd predicaments and attempts to grow and learn.  

our hero leaves his childhood bedroom and pretty girlfriend behind to move in with this motley crew in this big, old apartment

Five years later, as the roommates get ready to reunite for a wedding, we find our would-be financial manager has become freewheeling writer living in a nifty industrial looking apartment. Perhaps it's a converted shop?

 The bedroom has windows on the hallway. Certainly allows the light to pass through the whole space.

Meanwhile his pretty ex-girlfriend, Martine, is now a mom in a pretty sweet pad of her own. After my own heart, it features colorful accents, hot pink and eclectic decor. And this pad is definitely lived in: 

 There may be a third film in the works. Here's hoping there's more Paris!