Russian Dolls (Poupées Russes, Les) (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Romantic Comedy	Menu Audio Short Film-The Apprentice Filmographies-Cast & Crew Gallery-Photo Trailer-The Beat My Heart Skipped,Turtles Can Fly,The Return, Brides
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	123:35 (Case: 120)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Cédric Klapisch
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Romain Duris Kelly Reilly Audrey Tautou Cécile De France Kevin Bishop Evguenya Obraztsova Irene Montalà Gary Love Lucy Gordon Aïssa Maïga Martine Demaret Pierre Cassignard Olivier Saladin
Case	?
RPI	$34.95	Music	Loïc Dury Bruno Epron Mahmoudi Laurent Levesque

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

Romain Duris returns to one of his most mainstream roles as Xavier, our everyman hero in Cédric Klapisch's Les Poupées russes (The Russian Dolls) (2005), a sequel to the international hit L'Auberge espagnole (The Spanish Apartment) (2002).

While L'Auberge espagnole (The Spanish Apartment) (2002) told the tale of international early twenty-somethings finding friendship despite cultural differences and language barriers, Les Poupées russes (The Russian Dolls) (2005) has the gang battling to make their dreams a reality. Primarily focused on Xavier (Duris), we learn he is now a freelance writer who has written a book about that year of friendship and innocence in L'Auberge espagnole (The Spanish Apartment) (2002) some five years ago, but it remains unpublished.

Xavier is now the writer of a television soap-opera, a position with only financial benefits for him rather then the creativity and challenge he craves. Nevertheless, he tries to write a real tale of love, but he often finds himself hopeless as he is unable to please or understand all the women in his life - these are his Russian Dolls:

Martine (Audrey Tautou) is no longer Xavier's girlfriend but the two still remain close friends. Martine is now the mother of a child who has an absent father and Xavier often has to resist the urge to be with her.

Isabelle (Cécile De France) now resides in France and works for a successful financial firm. Xavier briefly resides in her apartment as he has nowhere else to go. Isabelle and Xavier have a close friendship with Isabelle often advising Xavier to stop dreaming and to take responsibility for his actions.

The British Wendy (Kelly Reilly) also returns to Xavier's life as they are both writers and she helps him with his television scripts. Despite Wendy's on and off boyfriend, Wendy and Xavier begin a relationship.

Finally there is the model Celia Shelton (Lucy Gordon), who Xavier is ghost-writing an autobiography for. Despite being in a relationship with Wendy he begins a romance with Celia.

All the women reflect Xavier's search for his final doll the one he will choose to stay with and remain faithful to. For Wendy's Brother William (Kevin Bishop), he has found his Russian Doll in Natalia (Evguenya Obraztsova), and as the two prepare to marry in St. Petersburg all the gang will reunite to celebrate not only the marriage but their friendship and growth as adults.

Cédric Klapisch has created a wonderful cast of characters that seem real; they make the wrong choices, learn from their mistakes, are driven by impulse and often are just worried about their existences. As his characters reach the dreaded age of 30, not much has changed since that year in L'Auberge espagnole (The Spanish Apartment) (2002) but they soon have to accept their responsibilities as mature adults. I thoroughly enjoyed this sequel and feel it is a better film than L'Auberge espagnole (The Spanish Apartment) (2002) as it is focused primarily on Xavier and we understand why he makes the decisions he does despite knowing they are often morally wrong. Wonderfully filmed in Paris, London and St. Petersburg with a upbeat soundtrack, the film shows at the basis of it all we all want to find a connection no matter the colour of our skin, the dialect of our language or the social and cultural differences between us.

Video

The film is presented in it is original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. It is encoded at an average bitrate of 6.69 Mbps. The colours are bright and the shadow detail well defined. There is no visible MPEG compression artefacting and the picture is defect free. The subtitles are large and white and true to the onscreen dialogue, but they are 'burned' into the print.

Video Ratings Summary

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Audio

As the film is influenced by the MTV school of filmmaking the music in the French Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is as important to the onscreen drama as the dialogue. The film utilises a soundtrack incorporating an international landscape with artists such as Seti, Track Addicts, Spleen, El Fudge and Diody. Due to the amount of music in the film, the soundtrack proves to be an encompassing experience with moderate use of the subwoofer. Like the picture, the soundtrack proves to be defect-free.

Audio Ratings Summary

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Short Film

The Apprentice is an Australian short film. While it has nothing in common with the main film, its premise will have you guessing to the end.

Filmographies-Cast & Crew

Filmographies are provided for Duris, Tautou, Reilly and Cédric Klapisch.

Gallery

A selection of 16 press photos.

Trailer

A selection of 4 previews from Palace Films: The Beat My Heart Skipped, Turtles Can Fly, The Return and Brides.

The French R2 single disc release has DTS French audio and English and French subtitle options. The 2 Disc Set includes the same first disc and a second disc which includes one hour of deleted scenes presented by the director, an 8 minute reunion, a 48 minute Making-Of and a 35 minute Master Class. It has been noted on DVD talk-back Forums that the film on the R2 1 disc and 2 disc set DO include English Subtitles. Although I can not confirm if the extras do.

An engaging film presented with minimal extras. The R2 release is the better option and it does include English subtitles for the main feature but not for the extras.

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