Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
A strait-laced French student moves into an apartment in Barcelona with a cast of six other characters from all over Europe. Together, they speak the international language of love and friendship.
The Spanish Apartment earns its reputation as a distinctive European youth comedy through its genuinely fresh multicultural premise and Klapisch's energetic, freewheeling directorial style. The Erasmus student experience was rarely captured on film with this much authenticity and verve in 2002, making it a novel slice-of-life snapshot of a generation. The ensemble cast is charming and naturalistic, though no single performance transcends the material. Cinematography is lively and kinetic, using handheld work and split-screen playfully without being ostentatious. The plot is episodic and slight — more a mood piece than a structured narrative — and the ending, while warm, is a little too tidy and sentimental to fully satisfy. Novelty is its strongest suit; it captured a specific cultural moment with a voice unlike most European comedies of its era.