Cédric Klapisch is the king of European ‘feel good movies’. The French director seems to know the buttons to push to win over the hearts and smiles of the audience. That probably comes from the thesis with which he obtained his degree in film studies. Le non-sens au cinéma, 6ème sens du 7ème art soaked him up with the humor of the great comedy geniuses such as Tex Avery, Marx brothers and Woody Allen. Differences aside, Klapisch has made room for himself within the genre with his own hallmark.

Apparently, what he did not expect was the fact that the main character in l’Auberge espagnole (2002) and the other Erasmus students who walked with him around Barcelona would contribute to a fan phenomenon that even include routes that Xavier (Romain Duris), his girlfriend Martine (Audrey Tautou), Isabelle (Cécile de France), Wendy (Kelly Reilly) and the rest of the gang followed.

Thus Klapisch then was forced to go back and three years later released Les poupées russes (2005), repeating blockbuster success with Xavier, five years older, as a writer with a chaotic love live.

Casse-tête chinois, premiered at the Festival du Film d’Augoulême, seems to conclude the trilogy, although the director does not exclude the possibility of making a prequel. Now ten years have gone by and Xavier has just separated from Wendy, the mother of his two children who moved with them to New York. With a romantic ending made in Hollywood, the film will greatly delight its followers in an installment that looks better than the previous one.

Released in Spain: May 16th