The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Spanish Apartment (2002, R) – The Good

This is the first time I’ve done a Good/Bad/Ugly write-up for something that’s not a Buster Keaton MGM film, so make of that distinction what you will.  However, I rewatched this film lately and was reminded of how massively flawed it is, and yet how there’s something about it I just love.

Xavier is a Parisian grad student who, wanting to make himself more employable, decides to spend a year in Barcelona going to school and becoming fluent in Spanish – global economy and all.  Along the way, he shares an apartment with an eclectic gaggle of international students, and somewhere in the multicultural hodgepodge, he starts to find himself.  Coming-of-age story on overdrive, it’s more of a journey than a story, but while it doesn’t always know where it’s headed, the vivid characters keep that journey engaging.

Because I have a lot more to say about the successes and sins of this movie than the likes of Speak Easily or Parlor, Bedroom and Bath, I’m dividing up my review over several days, and we’re starting with the best feet forward.  The direction is crisp and eye-catching, which goes a long way toward helping it stand out from other films of its kind.  I really like the creative audio/visual techniques thrown in; they give the film a lot of personality.

Xavier’s position as the film’s narrator is strong.  Sure, he has plenty of mid-20s identity angst, and he has his share of poor qualities (more on that another day,) but he’s supposed to be sort of searching and rudderless.  I like the way he gradually becomes part of Barcelona, the way the city adopts him and he stops being just a Parisian.  When his girlfriend comes to visit, it’s clear that they’ve already drifted – he’s changing so much so fast, and she’s stayed behind.

Without a doubt, though, I love this movie for its ensemble.  When Xavier is first interviewed as a prospective roommate, he’s enchanted by the other students, thinking, “It was like I’d always lived in this mess.”  He loves the noise of it all, the love and the squabbling, the multilingual mishmash and cultural potpourri that permeates the apartment.  Though most of his friends are drawn lightly without much shading, the whole experience feels so specific and lived-in.  Like Xavier, I can’t get enough of their camaraderie, and I love the confused way their conversation flits between languages.  I also like the many little touches to film paints of their dynamic, like the way their fridge organization system descends into entropy, or the cheat-sheet by the phone which says “So-and-so isn’t here” in each roommate’s native language.  Scatterbrained Alessandro, industrious Wendy, fastidious Tobias, lively Soledad, serious Lars, and outspoken Isabelle are absolutely the reason to see the film. 

While it’s firmly Xavier’s story, my favorite moments aren’t focused on him at all.  I love Tobias and Wendy discussing a personal matter in Spanish so her visiting brother won’t understand them.  I love Alessandro dancing down the street to class, the only person in the world for all he cares.  I love Wendy grumbling to herself when a fuse blows and it falls to her to sort things out.  I love Soledad riding on the handlebars of Lars’s bike, I love Isabelle squeezing herself onto an already-crowded couch, and I love the shot of them all peering out of Wendy’s bedroom Scooby Doo-style when Xavier is talking to the landlord.  For two hours, these characters are my Italian-English-German-Spanish-Danish-Belgian friends, and that’s fantastic.