Les poupées russes

Like a lot of other people, I went to the cinema to watch part 2 of L'Auberge espagnole. That one was a light, fun movie. It had some meaningful thoughts in it, but overall it was pretty light. However I got something different. Part 2 is a lot deeper in my opinion. It's still entertaining, there are many funny parts. The plot develops quite slowly though, too slow for some people in fact. I'm not one of those, I liked the movie. If you're not against slower drama/romance, you'll probably appreciate it too. It has got artistic scenes, taking a step further in this aspect as well. Overall, it deals with how love works, and with the choices that young people have to make. Shall they chase new partners in order to find the perfect one, or rather settle down? All of this with a fresh, entertaining, and realistic approach - to think of it, I had a similar feeling after I had finished watching Sideways.

Oh I almost forgot - the music is amazing. And Kelly Reilly - you are so hot. A lot better looking than the girl who played the dream girl in fact. :)

Russian Dolls (2005)

You have to like such an inventive, fast, witty, and all the same convincing movie. This is funny in that fast, off the wall way "Amelie" was funny, though here I think it gets another level of complexity that not only makes you pay attention, but rewards your attention.

Leading man Romain Duris is subtle and charming (and what American girls would call "cute"), and he the thread through time in a long multi-tasking flashback with lots of editing and framing liberties. He seems to fall in love but not know what love is. He is a struggling writer who finds enough success to work on scripts that also become part of the movie. Though we start firmly in Paris, the story takes us many times to London, and to Russia, which makes for a tale of four cities in the best way.

The whole cast is pretty amazing, both comic and touching and convincing at the same time. People are chic and cool but flawed and quirky, too. And the cast is large, with a final party scene that brings most of them together (and for a little too long). It's a love story, and a good one.

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?

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!

Hi there ! I saw Les Poupées Russes yesterday, and first of all : ouch ! my poor eyes were stricken by all these beautiful girls bursting the screen A.Tautou, C. De France, K. Reilly etc... OK let's stay cool and let's describe this movie. I'll do it short : it's about love ! love and what it means for us, mere humans, perpetually lost in the whirlwind of these damn feelings we made up... Humm i don't want to spoil the story, but let me tell you that when you come out the theaters, you'll understand why this movie's called " Russian dolls" ^^ Xavier's life is a mess, he is us ! us in front of life's dilemma : who to love and why... The Spooky band ( i just made that name up, don't bother searching )is back, even if certain characters do only figuration, sort of " i put this one too in the movie". Some scenes denote a very intelligent humour. Of course, the movie does not avoid "love-clichés", but they are quite rare and it deserves to have l"Auberge Espagnole" as a father. Voilà ! Merci encore mister Klapisch. I gave that movie a 10.

( Sorry for my poor English ^^)