User reviews

This is a very well done film showing the life of international students during their "Erasmus year" in Barcelona which by the way is one of the most beautiful towns in Europe and is an ideal location.

The idea itself with all the different languages is great and gives the film an original atmosphere. There are some clichés about the countries but most of them are true! The characters could not better represent their different countries.

Having experienced "Erasmus" on myself during my exchang semester in Italy I can say that is movie is incredibly authentic. I had many experiences which were similar to the characters (except I didn't get laid as often). The movie is also quite funny yet not like all those stupid American college movies.

Finally the movie touches also some important issues like the change from student to work life.

9/10 (I may not be very objective though)

In France, Xavier (Romain Duris) is a young economist of twenty and something years, trying to get a job in a governmental department through a friend of his father. He is advised to have a specialization in Spanish economy and language to get a good position. He decides to apply in an European exchange program called "Erasmus" and move to Barcelona to improve his knowledges in Spanish culture and language. She leaves his girlfriend Martine (Audry Tautou), promising to keep a close contact with her, and once in Barcelona, he is temporarily lodged by a French doctor Jean-Michel (Xavier de Guillebon) and his young and lonely wife Anne-Sophie (Judith Godrèche) he had met in the airport. Later, he moves to an apartment with international students: the English Wendy (Kelly Reilly), the Spanish Soledad (Cristina Brondo), the Italian Alessandro (Fédérico D'anna), the Danish Lars (Christian Pagh) and the German Tobias (Barnaby Metschurat). Then the Belgium Isabelle (Cécile de France) and Wendy's brother William (Kevin Bishop) join the group, and Xavier learns Spanish language, and finds friendship and love in his experience living abroad. "L' Auberge Espagnole" is one of those movies the viewer becomes sad when it ends. The story is a delightful and funny tale of friendship and love, in a globalized world and an unified Europe. This very charming movie made me feel good and happy, although I have never experienced to live in a republic of students. The newcomer William provokes the funniest situations along the story, with his big mouth and short brain. Further, it great to see a fresh approach of students living together different from those dumb American fraternities and their stereotypes, common in American movies. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Albergue Espanhol" (Spanish Auberge")

The first thing I wanted to do after watching this film was watch it again (because I'd missed lots with all the laughing I did). I'm European and I've studied abroad and I've as good as lived with Spanish, french, Italian and German people. The film was full of stereotypes, which, more often than not, p*** people off, and reading some of the other reviews I see that it did p*** people off. But, this film gets the stereotypes so right I cannot fault it. Except for maybe the way the french guy became a drunken party animal. The English guy was the perfect "geezer" stereotype. Drunk, annoying, insulting but shines through in the end. As well as the stereotypes the film also got the emotional aspect of studying abroad correct. At first he's shy, doesn't know anybody, misses home, doesn't know his way around. As time progresses it becomes his home and when the time comes to leave, it is extremely difficult. A feeling people can only understand if they've experienced it. I highly recommend this film.

I think anyone who when young has moved to a foreign city, especially alone, would immediately recognize and appreciate the truths apparent in this film. Certainly everyone's experiences are different but some things, the initial disorientation, the difficulties and pleasure of adapting to a new and very different set of friends, the joys of eventual acceptance and adaption of a new routine; these are probably universal. This film depicts all of this very well.

The Spanish Apartment rings especially true for me. Almost ten years ago I moved from NYC to Antwerp for one year then on to Barcelona, where I am living still. I was a bit older than the film's characters (late 20 's) but my experience was eerily similar. I lived just blocks away from their apartment, in Raval, and recognized many of the streets and locales. Myself, a Slovak girl I was dating, three male apartment mates from Bolivia, France and Italy. I made tons of expat friends from all over Europe (many of whom departed long ago) and eventually Spanish friends as well.

I'm older now and settled down but watching this, I was overwhelmed with nostalgia and wished that I could travel back in time if only to relive one of those glorious weekends.

If you've never done anything like this watching The Spanish Apartment may be the next best thing.

The Barcelona tourist office should probably pay me for this.

This is a very good film on so many levels. Mostly, because it is such a memory-inducing film for me and I suspect for many.

Xavier (Romain Duris) is a French grad student going to Barcelona to learn economics and Spanish to be more competitive in the new European job market. Sadly, he left behind his girlfriend (Audrey Tautou) and family to seek new learning. His first words on arriving are prophetic: Xavier: When you first arrive in a new city, nothing makes sense. Everything's 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.

As one who has absorbed dozens of new cities in Europe and the US, I can immediately relate. There is an anxiety that cannot be described that will only subside when you are fully immersed in the culture. Xavier did that and it changed his life. It can only be felt by someone who leaves the protection of their life and culture as he did.

But, he had fun doing it. He made friends with Isabelle (Cécile De France), a lesbian that taught him about women, which came in handy with Anne-Sophie (Judith Godrèche), with whom he was having an adulterous liaison. He mixed with German, Dutch, Spanish, and English - even Wendy's (Kelly Reilly) obnoxious brother (Kevin Bishop), who really saved the day for his sister.

All-in-all a very funny coming of age comedy with a European twist that made it a delight.

There are a few things in life that we can't experience more than once and the college experience is one of them. Especially if we're living in a foreign country and in a apartment with 6 wackos from 6 different countries. Xavier the main character leaves his tidy life in Paris, his ex-hippy mother and his beautiful girlfriend and goes to Barcelona to study spanish in order to get a job at the embassy. He falls in love with the wife of a french doctor and he makes friends that make him look at things differently. When Wendy's brother (Wendy is one of the room mates) comes from England the film starts to become a lot funnier. Well anyway, Xavier starts to see things differently with all his new friends and he probably lives something he will never forget and will change his life forever. Overall a very nice nostalgic film, which becomes even more interesting because of the multinational cast. I thought it was very interesting that you could see all these kids from different countries, all of them speaking different languages and having different cultures get along with each other and fun. I gave it a 9 out of 10 because I left the theatre with a smile on my face and thinking about things I haven't done yet while I'm still in college and would want to do before it's too late.

"L'Auberge Espagnole" (LAE) tells the story of modern Europe - an Europe that struggles with unification issues while trying to maintain the identities of each of its individual members. Set against this background, LAE is a coming-of-age story of Xavier - a graduate student from Paris who moves to Barcelona to learn Spanish - apparently a sure fire way of landing a job @ the MoF in Paris.

Leaving behind his girlfriend (Audrey Tautou), he finds himself sharing a Barcelona apartment with a group of fellow 20-somethings from across Europe. The city, with its striking architecture, nearby beaches, and buzzing nightlife, offers Xavier a wealth of opportunities, and he comes to enjoy the camaraderie of communal living. But will his friendship with a shy married woman (a very SULTRY Judith Godràche) lead to romantic fulfilment?

Klapisch's screenplay, though, has its share of comic stereotyping: it's the laddish British visitor (Kevin Bishop) who provides the "jokey" Hitler salute and walk, and it's the German guy who believes in a disciplined revision schedule. The Italian who is always late, disorganized and into techno (and wears cool shoes), and the Danish who like his country does not play a significant role.

However, the movie disappoints as Xavier's romantic entanglements feel underpowered - besides, I was left with the feeling that he learns too many of life's lessons without really having a strong grasp.

I left the theatre disappointed - while a fun film, everything seemed to be surface like - the exploration of the supporting characters, the lessons of life Xavier learns, and the ending - all seems a bit too shallow in face of the messages that were trying to be conveyed.

Xavier is a 25 year old Frenchman, stuck in the same rut of life as most people his age. He's looking for something to help him get a job, when he discovers that a friend of the family can get him a job with the EU if he knew Spanish. So Xavier decides to enroll in an exchange program called Erasmus, where he will live and study in Barcelona.

After arriving Xavier ends up settling in with about 6 roommates from various European countries (Italy, Germany, England, Spain, Norway, Belgium) and the wild cast of characters creates some ingenious comic situations. The film though is quite charming, and is dead on in explaining what it is like to live in a foreign land, and to escape your roots. While the stereotypes that are examined are quite played out, they are shown in a way that seems unique to the characters and come out very warm and of course VERY FUNNY. A highlight of the film arrives when Wendy's English brother comes down to visit her, and we discover he's a dumb ass loud mouth comic who thinks he knows everything about all the other countries these people come from. He ends up providing the majority of the funniest scenes by poking fun at every person in the group at his own dumb expense. But the highlight of the film really is how it shows what it means to live in another country. In the beginning we see that Xavier is awkward from fumbling around trying to find his first apartment, to complaining about Catalan, and by the end with the t-shirt he receives from his roommates on the last day, we see how he has been transformed by the friends he has met from all over.

Quite a fun film, not perfect, but definatly a great film to see that will but a big smile on your face, and a warm feeling inside you once you have left the theatre.

Rating 8 out of 10

One of the biggest French success of the year 2002, "l'auberge espagnole" was also very well greeted abroad which is quite extraordinary for a French film. It is not difficult to define the reasons of this success. This movie made by one of the most interesting French film-makers of these last years, Cédric Klapisch, presents students coming from all over Europe and gathered all together under the same roof in Barcelona. These students are described like the ones you imagine or you see in everyday life: either untidy, either serious or with a sense of humor. I guess that if the movie worked so well, it is because a lot of students must have recognized themselves in the main characters' portraits and especially Xavier's.

We follow the movie and so his experience abroad as an Erasmus student through his eyes. Xavier is really an ordinary student with his qualities, his faults. An intelligent making with quite a lot of ingenious ideas perfectly expresses his lost mind and his anxiety about the world and being an Erasmus student. On that subject, the best examples can be found in two sequences. The first one is when Xavier asks a woman at university for the papers he has to send to prepare his DEA. When the same woman informs him about the different necessary procedures, all the papers appear on the screen when she is naming them! In the next sequence, Xavier's voice-over confides to the spectator his vision of the modern world. Now, where to find the second example? Well, the scene where Xavier has a thorough medical examination during which Klapisch films his visions is widely sufficient to speak of itself.

Moreover, the director wasn't really interested by his main character's studies. He left this point low-key. He rather put a lot of effort into Xavier's private life, of course, in his love affair with Anne Sophie but also and especially in his relations with his fellow tenants. It is a real friendship story that Klapisch shows us with its moments of happiness but also its arguments and its tensions. Through Xavier's adventure and at the end of his stay, he will have been initiated into life which will make him more mature. The message that the author wanted to transmit isn't difficult to guess. You naively believe that you live in an untidy and complicated world. You mustn't give up but intensively search to get what you want even if it is difficult.

Apart from this, we could also fear that with the topic, Cédric Klapisch wouldn't avoid a trap: the clichés. Let's be frank about it: they are included in the screenplay but the director does his best not to spread them too much in his movie. Then, the screenplay contains convenient and predictable moments: at the airport and before boarding we see Xavier shedding a tear after he left his family. But fortunately the shortcomings of the script stop here. Quite funny dialogs and cool young actors perfectly at ease in their roles make up the whole.

In spite of its weaknesses, "l'auberge espagnole" is to be taken for a success in the movie of young people. Besides, the whole atmosphere it brings out lets us think that this movie is directed primarily to a young audience. Ultimately, the end of the movie and its big success let us suggest that Klapisch succumbed to a fashion that goes right for American cinema: the elaboration of sequels. And indeed, the film-maker currently works on a sequel entitled "les poupées russes". Let's hope that it will be as good as "l'auberge espagnole".

"Auberge espagnole"? Maybe the best US equivalent would be "potluck supper," which sounds both yucky and boring; the movie's not that bad, but it could have been better. Our protagonist, Xavier, is a bland graduate student who's inexplicably rude to his mother (he scorns her as a "baba"—a hippie) but works his father's old-boy connections to get a plum government job. It's a familiar storyline, like "Doc Martin" or "Local Hero," where the clueless careerist gets in touch with his inner niño (cheel, bairn…) in a magical place like Barcelona, Cornwall or the Highlands. The potluck roommates don't get much screen time, but there's a comic-relief Englishman who does an unfunny reprise of Basil Fawltey's "don't say anything about the war" routine, and we see way too much of him. In the best scene, a feisty Belgian lesbian (Cécile de France—not her first Belgian lesbian role, btw!) teaches our hero how to handle a woman; Audrey Tatou's pretty much wasted as his needy, petulant girlfriend, but Juliette Godrèche is good, in an underwritten role, as the woman who gets handled. It's one of those movies where the hero sits down at the end and starts to write the story you've just been told…but Proust it ain't. Maybe we're too old for this sort of thing, but I doubt there's anybody who gets all dewy-eyed about the EU these days. Cute cast, great locations (¡Gaudí!), a little dated but still watchable; just don't expect too much.

"L'Auberge Espagnole" collected the audience wherever it was shown. It gathered audience awards on many film festivals all over the world. And it is not strange. We have the ability to watch a cheerful and an astonishing piece of art. And it is wise by the way. "L'Auberge Espagnole" is a very funny comedy about youth and growing up. But most of all it is about the lights and shadows of living in the European Union.

The main character of the film is a French student of economy Xavier. For his future carrier his is sent for one year of studying to Barcelona. In Spain it turns out that the lectures are being given in Catalonian language. That probably doesn't help the increasement of knowledge. But it helps in tightening the relationships inside the group of foreign exchange students. Especially if they rent a big flat together. There are 3 girls: English, Belgian and Spanish, as well as three boys: German, Danish and Italian. Our French guy will also get there. A year is a very long time. Long enough to get close and make friends. And get to know some European stereotypes while trying to break them apart.

Klapisch treats this special case of a process of uniting Europe with humor and without pecky didactism. He comes out of the idea that young people are everywhere just the same. They like jokes. They like to make irresponsible relationships. But they don't neglect their aspirations. The most interesting is the sum of experience of this little community. They live together in the fire of everyday tasks fighting with the surrounding reality. They are full of unusual ideas for life. Young Europeans come back to their countries to take up a life of an adult on their own. They are Europe's hope to fight the many problems of the Union. For example, the terrifying administration system. In the end they proof that not only can they communicate and make friends despite the many differences. But they also now how to live the full of life. And they won't allow taking that full of life away from them.

This movie is proof that Hollywood does not have a monopoly on shallow, trite comedy. This movie is about a diverse crowd of young students from all over Western Europe studying and living in an apartment together. If all of the characters were American, and it took place in a loft in Manhattan instead of Barcelona, maybe drop the homosexual jokes here and there, this movie would have been virtually the same as an episode of "Friends." I've been to Barcelona and while I love the city, the backdrop was not enough to distract you from the annoying characters (especially the main character, whose dilemma amounted to "my life is miserable despite sleeping with supermodels"), stupid situations, and petty concerns.

What baffles me is the acclaim that so many people have for this movie. One has to wonder if the same people singing praise for this movie would be still praising it if it was a Hollywood movie about shallow Americans instead of shallow Europeans? I'm sorry hipsters, but just because something is "Euro" does not mean that it doesn't suck.

I have long been torn between Madrid and Barcelona, the former a dignified repository of old Spanish architecture and customs (a Catholic parade at 11 PM!) and the latter a Ramblas-rambunctious splash of youth and energy (Oh, that Olympic harbor!). Cédric Klapisch's `L'Auberge Espagnole'(`Euro pudding') now tips the scales to Barcelona for me as I watch a group of 20 somethings negotiate life in a communal apartment. They represent the emerging melting pot of Europe, learning each other's language and purging themselves of racism and sexism. The film is alive with change.

Protagonist Xavier (Romain Duris) is moving from Paris (a city against its type here-repressive and decidedly unromantic) to Barcelona for a year in order to qualify for a business job that demands immediate experience in Spain. Leaving his girlfriend (Audrey Tautou) and his hippie mother behind, he witnesses love in forms his shy French persona would have never encountered, including adultery and lesbianism. That he will be different, more urbane and wise, is preordained by the decision to move; that the director wishes us to see the allegory of a polyglot Europe is all too obvious.

But the photography through the narrow streets, even in the barrios, is muscular and lyrical, especially when it takes us all to the top of the Gaudi Cathedral to survey the messy world below (Xavier eventually comments the world is `badly made').

Beyond my affection for Spain, this film reaffirms for me the salutary effect travel has on the uncertain heart. After one year on his own, Xavier is ready to make a serious decision, but not about Paris vs. Barcelona-it's whether the corporate world that started this string of events is the one he wants or the artful one in his heart. Tennyson's Ulysses says, `I cannot rest from travel.' Xavier, on the other hand, found his rest in travel.

So we saw this on DVD at our apartment here in Paris. We're all here on an exchange program. We all laughed so hard cuz so much of what was going on in the movie happened to us! I mean yeah sure some of it was pretty clichéd but still true, know what I'm saying.

I think I related more to the quiet guy (the Italian) than Xavier because I'm more of the observer in our group. Anyway, I wish I had a hot roommate like Cecile de France. She seems like a cool chick in the movie and for real, after I saw her hosting the Cannes Festival last month.

Now I'm thinking I wanna go to Barcelona next summer after seeing this movie. I gotta check out the sequel too which just came out here in France.

Cliché-avoidance is one of this film's main achievements. When you hear a vague outline of the story – Erasmus students of mixed nationalities sharing a flat in Barcelona – you predict a collection of Euro-stereotypes in a farcical tangle. Pas du tout! In fact, it's a finely judged comedy about a young Frenchman, Xavier, trying to make sense of human relationships. There are some excellently observed minor roles (the arrogant French neurologist, the insufferably irrepressible brother of the English girl, Xavier's forlorn mother) and some fine visual humour, especially in the opening scenes mocking the bureacratic complexity of the application procedure. So what does Xavier learn about relationships? Nothing positive. In place of a conventionally happy ending, there is a regrettably portentous finale about `Identity' – Xavier has ‘become' all the friends he made. Nevertheless, this highly enjoyable film deserves its great success. I saw it in Luxembourg with a mixed Euro-audience, who enjoyed themselves hugely and even applauded at the end.

Having admired Cedric Klapish's early work, I waited perhaps a bit long to go see this film, but alas, it didn't stay around too long when it was shown here locally. M. Klapish is never boring, as he has demonstrated before. This new film shows clearly he has a talent and an incredible understanding of young people.

The idea of going abroad to study sounds appealing to a lot of students. It's a marvelous way to start an independent life, away from home. What seems a bit difficult is the idea of setting the action in Barcelona, where the official language is Catalan, a form of Spanish spoken only there. It's a wonder that the multi cultural students attending university in that city will learn anything being taught, when they all speak a basic kind of Spanish!

Aside from that, the film is light. It shows how a group of Europeans, gathered in a seedy apartment, cope with their new surroundings. Xavier is at the center of the action. He is a serious student trying to get a cushy job in Paris after his graduation. As played by Romain Duris, who has worked with Mr. Klapish before, this young man goes through a lot during his year in Barcelona.

The director emphasizes the cultural differences among the group by presenting a series of stereotypical situations, but they are never obnoxious, or in a political incorrect manner. These young people are having the time of their lives.

Aside from M. Duris, who is wonderful, Judith Godreche is a welcome sight as Anne Sophie. Audrey Tautou has the thankless job of portraying Martine, the girlfriend Xavier leaves behind in Paris. Also Cecile de France's Isabelle and Kevin Bishop's William add another dimension to the picture.

Again Mr. Klapish has come out with an interesting take of his own. One wonders what a Hollywood studio would have done with this 'simpatico' comedy!

A wonderful film to which Roman Duris stars as Xavier which he plays to aplomb - Xavier doesn't have a lot going for him - he is immature, shallow, selfish, ungrateful - from the way he treats his mum to the way he repays his compatriot by bedding his wife after being offered a place to stay on his arrival in Barcelona - he isn't meant to be likeable and Duris really plays this part to perfection. Xavier has been given a cushy job in the EU via a connection of a father's friend - can he speak Spanish? Apparently not, so he chooses to go to Barcelona to brush up his language skills before he starts on the road to adulthood.

It is about how various European nationalities Erasmus students from different EU countries - co-exist within an apartment in Barcelona, the film is very clever on a lot of levels - my favourite part of the film is when the Belgian character Isabelle (Cecile de France) laments to the tutor about not speaking Spanish in a lecture, he rebukes her that she is in Barcelona and that if she wants the tutor to speak Spanish in a lecture - then she should go to Madrid or South America - there is so much hanging on that little exchange that you can debate until the early hours about Catalan and Spanish identity and that even though Isabelle who is Belgian and is conversant with the language identity battles in her own country, she was clueless about the role of Spanish and Catalan in Barcelona.

It shows Barcelona in its best light - it must be a French School of filmaking where the lighting and colours come to life and makes for a wonderful visual feast - we are going back to 'Le Balon Rouge' here but we see it with Amelie and a lot of French films, this has it also and you breathe in Barcelona - it is a delight and a wonderful film and it made me wish I partook in Erasmus when I had the chance.

This is a friendly, quite fun film that explores European identity and young people getting along - or at least trying to. I'm writing this is as an older person who was never been a student, but was that age, once.

Xavier (Romain Duras), a Parisian who wants to study Economics, goes on an exchange programme to Barcelona and the film charts his successes - and failures - along the way. There's everything from change of language, that Catalan is spoken instead of Spanish at his University and of, course, finding accommodation - that scourge of all students.

When he does finally find somewhere, it's already populated by an assortment of students each from a different country (I think!), including an English girl from London, Kelly Reilly, who happens to end up doing most of the housework. This naturally conjures up the expected sort of mischiefs and misunderstandings, humorous rather than hilarious, more real life than made up comedy. It's during these nicely scatty and warm interludes when the film shines brightest.

Some have accused the individual relationships of both Xavier and Wendy (Reilly) of weakening the strength of the story, but I disagree. They add to the movie's 2 hour length, admittedly and as since both play away from home, so to speak, there's some twists and turns. I enjoyed Xavier's more, partly because his French girlfriend that he leaves behind is the amazingly gorgeous Audrey Tatou (a great excuse to watch the film) and the girl he gets to know intimately, from when she suffers a dizzy spell high up on the Church of Sagrada Familia, the equally lovely Cecile de France, who happens to be married to a neurosurgeon.

Many parts are akin to a backpacker's guide, with lots of street scenes and stuff, which are nice to look at, of course. Comedy (sort of) comes when Wendy's brother, wide-boy and bit of a t*sser, William, played by Kevin Bishop, visits for a while. He's cringe-worthingly crass and rather stupid, "accidentally" makes racist remarks and is a certain embarrassment to his sister, who has to literally carry him home after a mega-binge. He pukes to the other's chorus, with guitar, of 'No Woman, No Cry' in the Square, at dawn. So he lived up to our country's unsavoury reputation, at least!

After quite a few other things going on, including Wendy's English boyfriend dropping in unexpectedly, whilst Wendy is fooling around with her American lover, the whole lot dissembles much in the same way as it formed, but in reverse. People said their impassioned goodbyes and we then see Xavier back in Paris, starting work.

Pot Luck will appeal to all who not only enjoy European travel, Barcelona, of course but also any film that champions human friendships and relationships and one that isn't too heavy. You could watch it on a miserable day and it'd cheer you up and likewise, on a sunny one, as it would seem fitting and even more enjoyable.

Its a movie book.Between the opening and closing of the paperback cover resides a sweet fresh movie avoiding the cliché life and still talking about the same old love,friendship,marriage and all the likes.Dare not miss the intricacies of each scene(highlights being the after party scene or the silent narrations of Xavier,annoyingly funny British brother or the rendezvous between Xavier and Anne-Sophie).I would rather call it peeping through a keyhole into the lives of strange expatriates.It all looks that natural at the core. Cinematic experience starts getting richer with addition of every character.Though the movie does not deal with going into depth of each character and is based on their superficial portrayal,its more about life on the surface for 5-6-7 roommates and the intersections.An interesting mix of events is sure to happen when each one comes from different world and still mingle like a perfect cocktail,secret recipe being the flavor of youth.A french arty-farty movie,it still melts like cheese with the air of warmth surrounding each of the characters.

It's a fun and delicious European mix; it has an array of different and intriguing characters from various nationalities. The exploratory nature of college life, and the delight to spend it in a different country with a range of people is shown quite well in the movie.

Having so many different languages in the movie itself was a fun and unique idea, and it was handled quite well. All the actors involved are good, and acted quite commendably.

College life comes only once in our life; the things we learn and explore during that phase really shapes us. Through the lead character Xavier, we are allowed to experience all that all over again.

The movie is observant, funny, and witty. Various situations among the housemates, and Xavier running around hiding his affair, there are many delightful moments. The most memorable and hilarious scene for me would be the one where all the friends run towards the apartment so that Wendy's boyfriend Alister doesn't find out that she's fooling around with an American guy at the house.

A beautiful film. I enjoyed seeing young people speaking a lot of languages (in the film, everybody speaks Spanish, French or English all the time), and the multietnic ambiance of the student milieu. The scenario is right, the characters are logic and appealing and the actors are good. For instance, Judith Godrèche, in the role of Anne-Sophie, is really charming. The film shows also a lot of Barcelona, a beautiful town, with beaches at the end of streets. There is implicit in the film a suggestion for a certain kind of Europe, that we dream about for our children.

Not having gone to an Erasmus student exchange, I cannot say that I could actually relate to this movie. It's a nice movie overall though! I liked all the characters and the way they were depicted. Although the movie had a clear protagonist, in a way all of the stories of the people involved carried the movie in such a way that you didn't feel that it was all about Xavier.

It was kind of long for my taste and did hate this French couple. I cannot relate with their culture but the wife seemed to stupid and naive in a really annoying sense. Other than that, it seems like a movie that every student should watch at some point. I know I watched it when I was a student and time came to relive the experience some days ago.

A fun movie with lots of sweetness inside but also the reality of being a teenager and having all these hormones partying inside of you! I would recommend it, but beware as this is not a comedy. It has some laughs but a comedy you cannot call it.