Russian Dolls

When I decided to watch this movie in the cinema with one of my friends, I didn't really know anything about it. All I knew about this film was what he told me. He said that it was directed by the man who made "L'Auberge espagnole", which he liked a lot, but he didn't think that this movie would be a sequel to that one and I believed him. If I had known that it was a sequel, I would probably not have given it a try, because in my opinion there are only few sequels worth a watch and when you haven't seen the first one, it's almost always impossible to know what exactly they are talking about. But despite what we thought, this was a sequel.

Even though I hadn't seen the first movie, I could easily understand the story. Xavier is about to celebrate his thirtieth birthday and he is on a turning point in his life. He's no longer a student, but he hasn't yet got a regular adult life either. He's single, works as a reporter and ghost writer instead of being a renowned novelist,... and to make things worse, his love life is a gigantic mess. He's afraid of not finding the right one, because all he has are unfinished romances and one night stands. When he finally finds a girl that he likes, he always believes that there is something better out there and not knowing when to stop looking for more, he is unable to keep them with him...

I really liked this movie a lot and I guess there is a very good explanation for it. When watching this movie I had the feeling that it was me they were talking about. I'm a bit too much like Xavier than what I sometimes would like to admit. I'm in my late twenties, haven't got a terrific job, I'm still single, sometimes don't feel ready for the steady adult life, but still want to enjoy my youth... Even the friends from all over Europe are the same since I've studied in a similar project. But even when you can't completely identify yourself with one of the characters, I believe there is something good in it for everyone. The story on itself is very well written and thanks to the different places never feels the same. They have filmed in Paris, Saint-Petersburg and London and those three cities and the situations that take place there are different enough to keep you interested from the beginning until the end. Next to the story, this movie also offers some very fine acting by all the actors, but what else can you expect from people like Audrey Tatou, Cécile de France,...

As a conclusion I would like to say that everybody who is about to turn thirty will probably like it, but even the others will find enough good and interesting things in this movie. There is some very intelligent humor, a lot of fine acting and a lack of too many romantic movie clichés to be found in it. And although I'm sure it will never become a very popular movie (there were only 12 people in the audience when I went to see it on a Sunday evening), I'm sure that those who will give it a try, will not regret it. I know I didn't, I even give this movie a 9/10. If I had seen the first movie and understood from the beginning what was going on, it might even have been a 10/10. This movie should be cherished by all.

If "L'Auberge espagnole" was" Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship," "Russian Dolls" is "Wilhelm Meister's Travels." As someone who has actually suffered through those novels, which have to be among the dullest ever written, I can appreciate these modern film renditions, both of which convey the same basic points and are far better to sit through.

A point worth considering, one that was hammered home with the architectural analogy, is that the ideal woman is not a woman, but art itself, something Goethe referred to as the "eternal feminine."

These movies are smarter than they're given credit for. They allude not only to a cosmopolitanism crudely expressed in the term globalization, but also to a cosmopolitanism at the heart of modern Europe, one that Goethe recognized first if not best.

We enjoyed this film and are planning on going back again. It was a good film about modern romance. It has a lot of depth. The story was good, and the editing was great, some visual treats.

The story covers a lot of ground but is very well paced,typified by the train going back and forth between London and Paris. Xavier, like many of the characters is experiencing love on many levels, not understanding everything that he is going through, and who hasn't experienced that! Sometimes we search for love, sometimes, like for William and Natacha you just know right away.

There were many great visual moments, but certainly there was one of the best "hand holding" scene's in a movie. The scene of Xavier and Wendy working in the library together was a wonderful visual ballet between two people working together. There were a lot of those moments in this film, that make us want to go back and see it again.

Even though the film is s sequel it stands very well on it's own.

We enjoyed, we hope you do too.

In the same way that L'Auberge Espagnole dealt with the difficulties of career, school, and growing up in general, Russian Dolls deals with love and growing older. I think the great thing about both of these movies is that so many people can look at these characters- especially Xavier- and say, "Yes! I'm not the only one going through this stuff then!" During both movies there were certain phrases and quotes that made me stop and say, "Wow! That is dead on!" Like in L'Auberge when Xavier talks about how life seems less complicated for everybody else, more organized. Or the final line in Russian Dolls about the search for that special someone. Great movies, entertaining, but most of all they speak to those of us who are still trying to figure it all out!

So, here's one of the most anticipated movies of the year 2005 and the sequel to one of the biggest French hits in 2002: "l'Auberge Espagnole" which also acts as a commendable and valuable ambassador for French cinema abroad, "les Poupees Russes".

Lucid, the director Cédric Klapisch didn't opt for "l'Auberge Espagnole 2". Anyway one can't renew the Erasmus stay (which I am currently experiencing!) a second time. "Les Poupees Russes" has nothing in common with the corny sequels that Hollwood cinema has been cramming us for years. And as Francis Veber once said: "what is a sequel? It's generally a shoddy remake of the original movie". So Cédric Klapisch finds again his character of Xavier and undertook to tell his life in his early thirties. Five years after his experience as an Erasmus student in Spain, he is back. He had said in the first movie:"my life has always been a mess and will always be...". These words appear to be visionary. His life is far from satisfying him: he has become a writer but he has to pen biographies of celebrities and scenarios for mawkish sitcoms. His private life is hardly better: he struggles hard to find the perfect girl though his charismatic part. In short, it's a rather murky life and have a look at the cover of the film. It depicts Xavier who moves forward, with a puzzled air. He is surrounded by pretty girls. Which one is the the perfect one? And anyway, does the perfect girl exist? And why do we have to love just one girl and not several ones. These are some the questions that Klapisch raises and doesn't bring a definitive answer to them. It's up to the audience to think about them on account of Klapisch's piece of work.

If Klapisch had built "l'Auberge Espagnole" from start to finish with as a source, his memories of cinema student in New York and her sister's who lived one year in Spain with other European fellows under the same roof, here one has to look in Truffaut's filmography for his credentials, more specifically the Antoine Doinel saga. Truffaut had shot in a series of films, the evolution of his favorite hero in his professional and private life. With "les Poupees Russes", it seems that we also have this beginning of device with so far better results for I am not really a Truffaut devotee. Would Xavier be the Antoine Doinel of the 2000's? Anything goes... Klapisch has his own trademark to shot the life or rather the various difficulties of his main figure and one is happy to realize that his film writing still works wonders. "Les Poupees Russes" looks like a sequel of a little maladjusted play lets in which Xavier tries to order a life eventually beyond his control. These play lets encompass a great thickness in their writing and a visual richness, the whole with a dash of humor and nostalgia. Their chief force is honesty: a substantial number of situations rings true and it's highly likely that the viewer has already known some of the filmed circumstances. And there's always this typical feature from the director to make a trite situation a dense one.

One word about the cast: it's a topnotch one. Romain Duris shines in a part that was tailor-made for him. He has never been so good with Klapisch. All his European sidekicks are present with a special mention to Kelly Reilly and Kevin Bishop as William, the future married in a more subdued part than in "l'Auberge Espagnole". He has found a soul mate and matured in spite of an explosive apparition: "Hello Paris! Bonjour Paris!".

After the bitter memory left by Klapisch's adventure in the film noir with "Ni Pour Ni Contre (Bien Au Contraire), 2003", the year 2005 saw him on clover again with a forte he had tapped in "le Péril Jeune" (1994): a right chronicle on young people of different ages and an accurate appraisal of their feelings. "Les Poupees Russes" constitutes the second opus of a more than estimable duo. Will there be a third chapter on Xavier's life?