Russian Dolls

Yet another French movie. At least I know why this one ended up on my netflix queue--the actor in the lead role (Romain Duris) also played the main character in The Beat That My Heart Skipped, so I'm sure it popped up as "other movies you might like." Too bad this one is a sequel . . . now I have to watch the first one, L'auberge espagnole.

I spent most of the movie wondering if the title refers to those Russian nesting dolls (you know, those hollow little painted pear-shaped wooden dolls that pull apart at the middle to reveal successively smaller and smaller dolls inside). After I tried continually but unsuccessfully to figure out how this movie is like those dolls, Xavier comes right out and explains it in the last five minutes. He's talking about finding the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, and the way you have to go through a procession of people in your search. "You have to open them one by one, wondering, 'Is she the last?" While on the one hand I was glad to have my question answered, on the other hand I was slightly disappointed that getting the answer was so easy; all I had to do was wait for it.

Audrey Tautou is just the cutest little thing ever. I also liked looking at Kevin Bishop (in a different way!) and his hair, even though I usually don't care for long hair on boys. I wouldn't mind watching him in another movie, although a quick glance at his page on imdb.com reveals that he hasn't been in much else that I'm interested in seeing--except for the aforementioned "prequel." How convenient!

It's funny that, when Xavier was reading a bedtime story to Lucas, the English subtitle read "And they lived happily ever after," while the actual French words said something like "and they had lots of babies"!

The movie has a funky little soundtrack, but nothing I'm rushing to buy from iTunes.

Here's something I was thinking about today. I've watched innumerable movies in English (of course), several in French, and at least two in Spanish; how prolific are movies in various other languages? Have I not watched movies in other languages because there aren't very many of them, or because they aren't very well-known, or because netflix doesn't have them, or because they don't tend to have the necessary English subtitles?