Russian Dolls

Watched Russian Dolls (or Les Poupées Russes for the French intellects) and I absolutely love it. It has moments that make you laugh your head off, and moments where you just sit quietly and watch the story unfold.

The story is told from the point of view of Xavier (Romain Duris), who we learn is a writer still searching for love, yet asked to write about love. He's trying to type as he sits on a train, the destination unknown to us. He is obviously struggling to get a storyline going, but he can't seem to get it in a chronological order - which makes sense, because we never remember things in order. Xavier starts to tell a story, then stops, focuses on something, and flashes back to another story. Through this, Xavier's life in the past five years (since The Spanish Apartment) is revealed to us, and how it led to him standing on the streets of St. Petersburg.

Unfortunately for me, I didn't see the prequel to this film, The Spanish Apartment. I think I probably missed out on a lot of jokes and stories in this film without the background knowledge. Also, the film is greatly multilingual, with conversations in French, English and Russian bouncing all over the place. I wish I understood French and/or Russian. I figure there are probably nuances in the language that I missed out completely because of it. Sigh for personal flaws. Not that any of this makes the film any less enjoyable.

Aside from that, the film had excellent cinematography, with the montages in particular. Amy, Johnson and I could stop raving about it in the cab back. Montages I liked in particular were the opening credits, and the scene where Xavier (Romain Duris) and Wendy (Kelly Reilly) were first writing together. Absolutely amazing.

Of course, me being me, I am totally in love with the soundtrack! The music ranges from a staccato beat to a melancholic melody, each bringing out the mood of the film at perfect moments. Since it's a French film, chances are it's going to be damn hard to find the soundtrack. So if anyone happens to see it anywhere, let me know yeah? :)