Beziehungsweise New York

CASSE-TETE CHINOIS (Chinese Puzzle, 2013) is the third film in Cédrich Klapisch's series on globalization and growing older. It began with L'Auberge espagnole, which saw Xavier Rousseau (Romain Duris), a 25 year-old university student and aspiring writer, spending a wild year in Barcelona with other exchange students from throughout Europe. The second film Les poupées russes revisited Xavier as he turns 30 and has still not established a writing career or found a stable relationship. Its happy ending with Xavier settling down with former Erasmus companion Wendy (Kelly Reilly) seemed to augur well for the future.

But as Casse-Tete Chinois opens, we find that Xavier's relationship with Wendy collapsed ten years into their marriage. Wendy has left Paris for New York, where she has met another man, and takes their two children with her. Xavier follows them to New York to be closer to his children, but Wendy has turned cold and hostile. His lesbian pal Isabelle (Cécile de France) is also there, and Xavier has helped her and her lover have a child. On the threshold of 40, Xavier finds that his life is just as complicated as ever. The film follows Xavier adjusting to a new life in the United States, searching for a flat and a job, and dealing with a bitter custody battle. With all this on his plate, his old ex Martine (Andrey Tatou), now a import-export businesswoman dealing with organic products, drops in with her two children too.

In commenting on this series of films, Cédric Klapisch has said that he wants to capture the fact that Xavier's and younger generations are very mobile, and for them it's commonplace to go to another country to work/study or enter into a relationship with someone of a different nationality. Here this mobility is explored through several French people in New York, and New York with its wealth and myriad immigrant communities is treated as a very distinct place from the United States in general. Nothing at all is seen or heard of the Spanish flatmates from the first film, who at least got a bit part in the second film. I think that's rather a shame, we could have at least got a few lines of dialogue about how William (Kevin Bishop), whose marriage to a Russian woman was the whole setup for the second film, is getting on.

I enjoyed revisiting some of these characters again after nearly a decade, and Duris's acting is admirable: his Xavier remains the manchild we know and love, but he captures the impact of the years. Cécile de France is again so convincing in her role that one wonders if she really is like this in real life. The script, however, strikes me as rather weak. There's a strange side plot of adultery, where a character appallingly cheats on their lover and the other characters hardly object, and it ends up with almost the exact same scene of everyone racing to an apartment to warn the trysting pair as in the first film.

Still, the series as a whole remains worth seeing and an important commentary on the contemporary world. I hope Klapisch will continue Xavier's story in a few more years.

"Xavier" (Roman Duris) is maybe not the most reliable of husbands, but I did feel a little sorry for him when wife "Wendy" (Kelly Reilly) decides that she wishes to relocate to the United States, and to take their two children with her. Bluntly, she doesn't really care whether he likes it or not. She's met a new man "John" (Peter Hermann) and is going regardless. Surprisingly for him, this really focusses his priories as he realises that he doesn't want to live without them, so he follows suit. He ends up living in New York's Chinatown where he has to try and sort out a job, accommodation and a lawyer for his impending divorce. What now ensues sees this well meaning but hapless fellow leap from the frying pan to the fire on countless occasions. He even manages to get himself embroiled in a marriage of convenience for a couple of lesbians, is on the wrong visa and a reuniting with "Martine" (Audrey Tautou) is only going to further complicate this already messy scenario. Duris is good with these sorts of roles. The lightly comedic, slightly daft character who is usually always reacting to a shambles of his own making, lurching from one mistake to another whilst genuinely trying to be decent and helpful. There's a fun scene in the sperm donating room - you can just use your imagination for that! Tautou always reminds me of Audrey Helpburn - and here, though she doesn't feature so prominently, she owns her scenes - especially those she delivers in Mandarin. There's also an enjoyable dynamic coming from Sandrine Holt ("Ju") and "Isabelle" (Cécile de France) as they all try to stay one step ahead of the savvy immigration inspector (Peter McRobbie) and the thing builds to a denouement that might also have worked well for Peter Sellers. We could possibly condense the first fifteen minutes a little, but otherwise this is an entertaining middle-age crisis romp that I quite enjoyed.

It's very watchable and, at 7/10, a definite, must watch for people who like gentle human comedy. It loses on an 8+ score from being slightly disjointed.

For those that have seen the previous movies this will definitely be an 8+, though ...

For starters, Audrey Tautou finally appears for more than 5 minutes. Raomin is, at last, not cast as a brainlessly immature asshole - even though he remains a zanily unpredictable persona. Jill, erm Kelly, actually comes across as if she almost finally grew up. And Ju is as adorable as ever as the eternal mother figure.

Humorous sarcasm aside, this film has all the qualities of its predecessors in being utterly human in its portrayals of the characters and wittily, if somewhat cynically, insightful in its portrayal of their circumstances.

If you want to watch a film that makes you more inclined to like humanity than to hate it, then you will smile your way through this one.

It's great even if you haven't seen the 2 first movies! But if you have, know that it brings you the same kind of lightness and fun. Makes you want to enjoy life to the fullest! Each character is perfectly built up, and you get attached to all of them (I feel like I know them personally and would happily move in with them!)

Of course, this movie builds up on the story that started 20 years earlier, so it's great to see how each of these people evolved, how life changes, and how it's still linked to the past. It's hard not to fall in love with these people! Each of the 3 movies happens in a totally different place. So let yourself be carried away!

This movie really surprised me. Having loved L'AUBERGE ESPAGNOLE and connecting with the characters and then re-connecting with them in fun- filled Russian DOLLS, I was expecting the third film to slowly wind down their stories. After all, the characters are boring grown ups now, with kids and responsibilities, so how much more fun can they be. But to my surprise, this film was just as much fun, was just as full of joy and energy as the first films,

Having lived a life pretty close to the age of these characters, I felt an even deeper connection with these characters in this film. True, their lives have become much more complicated, but their stories have become richer, their worldview bigger and their lives deeper and so much more meaningful. Klapisch uses many of the same devices, many similar situations that made the first films memorable, but because the central characters are now so well fleshed out, we journey with these characters as fellow travelers, not only thru New York City (as we did in Barcelona and St. Petersburg) but thru life.

I hope this is not the end of the series. It would be a wonderful to travel to more places with these characters and wonder where Klapisch will take them (and us) next.