Russian Dolls

Russian Dolls are those wooden toy dolls, which can be opened to reveal another doll, and opened again to reveal another, until you reach the final, tiny one. That in essence, is the movie's message on love and relationships. How do you know that the person you're with, is that final soulmate, the final tiny Russian doll at the end of the chain? Or are you still stuck in the process of searching, and breaking up, and perpetually wondering and keeping a lookout for that someone else perceivably better? A sequel to The Spanish Apartment, you don't really have to watch that in order to enjoy Russian Dolls, even though most of the characters come back in this one. The protagonist is Xavier (Romain Duris), a down-and-out writer who's looking for his next big break, no matter if it's a cheesy love story that he's tasked to work with, or ghostwriting memoirs of celebrities. We follow his journey as he seeks his dolls, most of whom were encounters in the Spanish Apartment.
First we have Martine (the lovely Audrey Tautou), his ex-girlfriend who's now a single parent, and who still holds a candle for him, but only when she's feeling lonely and needy. Don't you just feel that sometimes you're being made use of, but you're a nice guy and is accommodating to that ex? But no worries, there's always that buddy to rely on, and Xavier's buddy happens to be a lesbian Isabelle (Cecile De France, that tough as nails cookie in High Tension), a smart financial analyst. Friends like these must have OK? They'll even go all out to be out of character just to assist you in situations, providing you with accommodation, and dressing up so femininely (she's a butch by the way) to be your pretend-girlfriend.
In between, Xavier tries to get back to the dating game by hooking up with store assistant Kassia (Aissa Maiga), but as you know, the ex always gets in the way, somehow. So another potential relationship, ended up broken before it even had a chance to get started.
But the final two proved to be most challenging of the lot. Business brings Xavier and Wendy together (Kelly Reilly, in a lot of movies lately, like Mrs Henderson Presents, Pride and Prejudice), and love blossoms between the two, despite initially starting off as platonic, and Wendy still being stuck in a relationship that she doesn't have the strength to walk away from. But their relationship is put to the test when Xavier, through business, also gets the opportunity to hook up with up-and-coming model Celia (Lucy Gordon). Ah, a beautiful celebrity, that unattainable perfect being, the object of everyman's desire and lust, now within reach. Which would he choose? Which would you choose? The down to earth person, or the party girl surviving in that barbie world that last only as long as their looks do? The movie suggests many known thoughts and ideas on romance and relationships, such as loving someone meaning loving their flaws, that there's no such thing as the perfect person, just only being able to love someone because their flaws don't drive you up the wall. And the eternal question of when will you stop looking? Temptations abound, but at the end of the day, do you cross the line, or who do you return to? It might seem that the story's the usual of love, finding love, losing it, and all the clichés of a romance flick, but with an added punch.
It's also interesting to note the different apartments that Xavier encounters, from his ex's home, to Isabelle's bachelor pad, from an ordinary London home in Wendy's, to the luxurious French suite of Celia's. There're also plenty of country hopping, between England, France and Russia (Moscow, St Petersburg), where their friend in common William is getting married. And yes, Apple laptops sure looks sexy! Probably I had it easier to identify with this movie, given I'm the targeted age group of those approaching the big-three-oh, wondering about stuff like these occasionally. Peppered with plenty of comedy to keep the going interesting, especially its techniques of juxtaposing reel-reality with reel-fantasy, Russian Dolls is a truly contemporary, chic, and sassy film standing on its soapbox with a mouthpiece touching on modern relationships.

The Spanish Apartment

The pressure to land a good paying job and have "security" is so prevalent among young people that many never discover what they really want to do in life. Cédric Klapisch's film L'Auberge Espanole is about one young man who had the good fortune to discover new possibilities about himself. Promised a steady job in the French ministry if he would learn Spanish and study the Spanish economy, Xavier (Romain Duris), a 25-year old French economics student applies for the European exchange program known as Erasmus. After fighting through a maze of bureaucracy, he travels to Barcelona, Spain for one year of study, leaving behind his devoted girlfriend Martine (Audrey Tautou) and his bohemian mother (Martine Demaret).
In Barcelona, Xavier stays with a French neurosurgeon and his wife Anne-Sophie (Judith Godreche) but soon finds an apartment with a contingent of young people from various parts of Europe: Wendy from Britain (Kelly Reilly); Tobias from Germany (Barnaby Metschurat); Lars from Denmark (Christian Pagh); Soledad from Spain (Cristina Brondo); Alessandro from Italy (Federico D'Anna); and Isabelle from Belgium (Cecile De France). Similar in theme to Bertolucci's The Dreamers but much lighter in tone, L'Auberge Espanole explores the growth of a once bland student when exposed to people of different cultures who are unrestrained in their zest for life.
There are the usual fights over doing the dishes, space in the refrigerator, and politics in the new Europe. One of the funniest parts of the film is the arrival of the Wendy's brother from the UK (Kevin Bishop). He turns everyone off with ethnic slurs but redeems himself after he covers up his sisters affair with a boorish American so that her just arrived boyfriend doesn't find out. Much of the action centers on relations with the opposite, or in one case, with the same sex. Martine visits him but their relationship becomes strained when she is uncomfortable having sex in a crowded apartment and does not relate well to the other students.
A new housemate, Isabel, a lesbian, teaches Xavier about the moves and touches that most appeal to women and he tries them out on Anne-Sophie, the neurologist's wife who eagerly submits to his advances. The film, however, has a larger theme: learning to discover our true self, not the one parents or teachers expect us to be. The experience allows Xavier to get in touch with his own creative energies and reminds him of his childhood longing to become a writer. While L'Auberge Espanole never explores any character in much depth and the camera tricks can become tiresome, it has intelligence, fun, and exuberance and, with Barcelona scintillating in the background, rekindles the time when life was an adventure of discovery.