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Les Poupées Russes (Russian Dolls)

— Director: Cédric Klapisch France/UK, 2005 Russian Dolls begins a new episode in Xavier’s (Romain Duris) life as he turns thirty: it’s a sequel whose…”

• Director: Cédric Klapisch
• France/UK, 2005
• 

Russian Dolls begins a new episode in Xavier’s (Romain Duris) life as he turns thirty: it’s a sequel whose events unfold five years after those twelve eventful months in Barcelona as covered by L’Auberge Espanole (UK: Pot Luck).

After a period of more orthodox work, Director Klapisch wanted to return to the ad hoc filmmaking techniques of L’Auberge and it follows that Xavier’s life since Barcelona would be ideal material. In doing so, Klapisch also managed to gather together many of the same faces.

Russian Dolls is by no means as successful as its predecessor, probably because this time there’s more plot to cover between Paris, London and St Petersburg and no ensemble performance. The overall effect is rather fractured and most of the original cast is horribly underused, but the spirited optimism of L’Auberge does continue into Dolls, even if the latter no longer has the zeitgeist.