Klapisch

Cédric Klapisch is a French movie director who, over the past 10 years, has had significant impact on the French movie industry and landscape.


After various short movies (including Ce qui me meut (what moves me, pronounced ce-ki-me-me), whose funny title became the name of his production company), Klapisch finds his first success with Péril Jeune (jeune = young, or youth), a comedy about a group of Parisian teenagers in the 70s. The humor, lovable characters and nostalgia contributed to making this title a cult movie, and launched the career of Romain Duris, who would quickly become Klapisch's favorite actor.
Both worked again together in 1996 for Chacun cherche son chat (everyone is looking for his cat, which of course fails to translate its intriguing alliteration). This story of how a young woman desperately looks for her cat (and love) in the 11th district of Paris was released in the US under the title "When the cat's away" and is apparently available on VHS only.

Klapisch's recent successes include Un air de famille in 1996, starring actor/writer/director husband-and-wife duo Jean-Pierre Bacri and Agnès Jaoui, about a disastrous family reunion, L'Auberge espagnole (Spanish apartment, available on DVD in the US) and its recent sequel Les poupées russes (Russian dolls, literally - available on DVD in France only). The latter two follow the adventures of Xavier (played, again, by Romain Duris) as he travels to Spain (in the first movie) then Russia (in the second) in a quest for friendship and love.

Netflix has a smallish selection of Klapisch movies for US residents out there. Otherwise, amazon.fr carries a pack of all 8 available Klapisch DVDs.