'For some idiotic reason, your most horrific experiences are the stories you most love to tell.' -- Xavier (L' Auberge Espagnole)

Film Just dropping by to recommend L' Auberge Espagnole or as it's known in the UK, Pot Luck. This is an excellent ramshackle film about an Erasmus student from France spending a year in Barcelona in an apartment with other young people from throughout Europe. It's sort of plotless -- lots of romantic things happen to him and his friends but the only structure is that he's there for a year and how he deals with being away from his real home but getting used to being in a new home. There are some excellent performances and extraordinary visual flourishes and in the end it simply presents exactly what it's like for a student or anyone abroad falling in love with a different city and its people. It's a multicultural Secret Life of Us, perhaps with slightly less tragedy. Features Audrey 'Amelie' Tautou in a supporting role and the main British contingent is the excellent Kelly Reilly who was Caroline Bingley in recent big screen version of Pride and Prejudice (although she's totally lovable here which demonstrates what a great and underused actress she is).