The Theatre of the Institut Français of Madrid (10 Marqués de la Ensenada Street) presents a retrospective cycle of the French film director Cédric Klapisch, where three of his best films will be screened, L’Auberge Espagnole (The Spanish apartment) this afternoon; Les Poupées Russes (Russian Dolls) tomorrow Thursday 18 September, and Casse-tête chinois (Chinese Puzzle) next Friday 19 September. The second of these screenings will have the presence of the French film director. The three sessions will start at 8:00 p.m.
L’Auberge Espagnole (The Spanish apartment)
With: Romain Duris, Cécile de France, Judith Godrèche, Audrey Tautou…
Year: 2002
Xavier, a young French man aged 25 years old, comes to Spain to finish his studies and learn Spanish, a language he need to get an important job that a friend of his father’s promises to him. He goes to Barcelona, where he looks for a house, finding an apartment in the city centre that he will share with seven people from different countries. All of them have something in common: they are there thanks to the European university exchange programme Erasmus.
Les Poupées Russes (Russian Dolls)
With: Romain Duris, Cécile de France, Audrey Tautou, and Kelly Reilly
Year: 2005
Following The Spanish apartment. Xavier is now a writer, his dream has come true, he has just published his first novel. But the publication has not been enough to cover his debts. To go on, he is forced to accept average jobs (soap operas, television series). His chaotic life gets even more complicated when he has to take care of his ex-girlfriend’s child and maternal grandfather. Besides, he risks losing his job if he does not travel to London and Saint Petersburg. However, paradoxically, thanks to these trips, he will manage to put some order in his life.
Casse-tête chinois (Chinese Puzzle)
With: Romain Duris, Cécile de France, Audrey Tautou, and Kelly Reilly
Year: 2013
Third instalment of the saga that started with The Spanish apartment and Russian Dolls. Xavier is a 40-year old writer who has not settled down yet, whose life is getting complicated. He has two children and decides to move to New York to be closer to them. He tries to be a child, a father and a man. Lost in the noisy chaos of Chinatown, Xavier’s life is like a puzzle. However, he has material enough to finally end his new novel.
Cédric Klapisch is a famous film director mainly known for his original way to record daily life’s details. He was born in 1961 in Paris, where he started to study cinema. He did a thesis at the University of Paris III about Tex Avery, Woody Allen and the Marx Brothers titled «Le non-sens au cinéma, 6ème sens du 7ème art» (The nonsense of cinema, the sixth sense of the seventh art). When he was 23 years old, he left to the New York University, where he continued his cinematographic studies for two years.
