L'auberge espagnole

Cédric Klapisch is one of today’s most popular French Director and his movies have regularly hit the French box office. Born in 1961, he worked on his first short films in the United States from 1983 to 1985. He started out as a DOP to finally become a film director. In 1989, his short film Ce qui me meut wins several prizes, one being the Perspectives of French Cinema Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival. He then directs his first feature in 1992, Little Nothings, which was nominated for the Cesars. His second, Good Old Daze, wins the 1993 Golden FIPA and Grand Prize at the 1994 Chamrousse Humour Film Festival.

In 1996, When the Cat’s Away is released, followed by Family Resemblances, his fourth feature which is awarded numerous prizes including three Cesars and the 1997 Lumière for Best Screenplay and Best Director. Maybe, starring Romain Duris and Jean-Paul Belmondo, is released in French cinemas in 1999. In 2002, Klapisch comes back to social comedy with The Spanish Apartment, another critic and audience hit, nominated three times at the César Awards 2003 (Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Film of the Year). Cédric Klapish follows up with Not for, or Against (Quite the Contrary), a gangster movie released in March 2003 in France. The French and foreign success of The Spanish Apartment drives him to direct a sequel in 2004, The Russian Dolls. Paris, released in 2008, is his latest movie. —frenchcinepanorama.com