College-aged men experiencing foreign European cultures is the focus of the films Eurotrip and L’ Auberge Esapagnole. The French produced film of Cedric Klapisch, L’ Auberge Esapagnole (The Spanish Apartment), centers on a young economics student named Xavier. He has left his home country of France in order to gain a working knowledge of the Spanish language and to escape from his overprotective parents. In pursuit of this goal, he spends a year in Barcelona, Spain where he lives with six other students from all over the world. In comparison, the American made film, Eurotrip, focuses on a young college student named Scott who has the unfortunate misfortune of having just lost his long time girlfriend. He has left for Europe with three of his close friends with hopes of escaping problems back home as well as gaining new life experiences. Much like the French student Xavier, Scott meets new people of all different nationalities throughout his travels. When each protagonist meets a new character from a foreign country, they encounter the various stereotypes, both positive and negative, that are so prevalent in today’s society. However, each director chooses to portray these cross-cultural experiences in different, yet amusing ways.
Two stereotypes within the films are portrayed through British characters. During Scott’s trip across Europe, he runs into a British soccer gang portrayed as loud, slightly obnoxious men who are constantly drinking beer; everything one would want from a band of soccer fans. Over time Scott realizes that the men are much more than just drunken hooligans, and in fact he becomes good friends with most of them. In L’ Auberge Esapagnole, Xavier also meets a British character. Her name is Wendy and at first glance she is a very kind and sweet girl. Similar to the soccer fans, Wendy is not afraid to raise her voice in order to her point across. Several times throughout the film she can be seen yelling at the boys to clean up their messes all around the apartment, while receiving numerous sarcastic comments in return. She is an example of the stereotypical overly-zealous, overly-dramatacized woman. Yet throughout the film her character is explained more fully, and the stereotype is again overcome.
Wendy's brother, William, offers several more examples of stereotyping in society. When he first arrives at the apartment he comes off as an ignorant foreigner. Within the first scene, William goes on a rant making gross generalizations about Spanish people. Isabelle, the Spanish woman in the house, takes great offense to these comments and calls William out for believing in stereotypes and how he is incorrect. Ironically, William later calls Isabelle out several times for actually following the stereotype of being overly proud. After staying in the house for a few days, William continues making gross generalizations by comparing the German in the house to Adolf Hitler because he is very organized, and he forms opinions about peoples’ character based on a few questions. Initially, the German takes great offense to William’s comments even though the characteristics do apply to him, as can be seen throughout the film.
In Eurotrip, Mika’s dad also exhibits similar characteristics to the German: upright, organized and formal. The director further plays off this stereotype by having the younger boy dress similarly to Hitler, and having him march in typical WWII German fashion. While the American film tends to take a more comedic approach when looking at the various European stereotypes, the French film takes a more serious tone. While the stereotypes may loosely apply in some senses overall they are seen as rude and uneducated comments that offend the recipient.
The stereotypes within these films are not limited solely to the European characters. The films also make sweeping statements about American culture. In Cedric Klapisch’s film, he includes one American who becomes Wendy’s other love interest beyond her current boyfriend. He is displayed as an ignorant, wild character with no intelligence, who only cares about sex, and has virtually no dialogue during the film beyond pounding on his chest and screaming. Eurotrip portrays similar ideals when Scott’s friend Cooper frequently talks about how his one goal during the trip is to find as many beautiful women as he can. He does not care about the breath taking sights or the amazing people they meet along the way. Cooper focuses solely on his goal and seems to have little care for anyone else. However, instead of maintaining his ignorant stereotype, like the American in L’ Auberge Esapagnole, Cooper learns that friends are more important than anything, and only they can make you truly happy. It is important to note that the American film depicts some of the American characters as a bit obnoxious and yet over time they evolve and become more mature. This is the exact opposite depiction of European film where the American character never learns from his mistakes, and is basically run out of the house. It would seem that people tend to have a more positive opinion of their own culture when compared to an outside source. This can be seen in the portrayal of stereotypes, more specifically within the negative and positive connotations that can be derived from them.
The films also portray another aspect of cross-cultural experiences in that they express several examples of globalization throughout their plots. One of the most obvious examples of this can be seen through the use of language in both films. Within the apartment of L’ Auberge Esapagnole four different languages are spoken: English, French, Spanish, and German. With time the roommates are able to overcome the language barriers they face, and in doing so they are brought even closer together. In Eurotrip, Scott and Mika must also overcome a language barrier; he doesn’t know German and she does not know English. To solve this, Scott goes as far as learning German solely so he can communicate with her.
The globalization of the music industry and cultural tastes can also be seen in Eurotrip. During Scott’s travels, he ends up in a German nightclub where he hears a song in English that was just recently popular in the states. Although this may have been placed for comedic value it demonstrates the fact that all cultures are becominging more inter-connected.
In a world that is growing ever smaller, people are forced to connect in different ways. Stereotypes are used in numerous situations to portray a commonality in cross-cultural viewpoints, and their effect on people is diverse. These two films, L’ Auberge Esapagnole and Eurotrip, focus nationalistic stereotypes to develop their plots as well as add comic relief. The two films come from drastically different cultures so it can be expected that they will view certain stereotypes in different manners, and yet it is interesting that often times the stereotypes themselves are the same. These generalizations can be attributed to globalization trends in our world, and can teach us about how various cultures perceive each other.
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