ABSTRACT
This chapter will briefly examine the two sequels to The Spanish Apartment — Russian Dolls (2005) and Chinese Puzzle (2013) — and propose that the time-lapse concept and coming-of-age themes in these two films (as characters reminisce about what happened in Barcelona) lead to a greater acceptance of tolerance, diversity and difference. Life for Xavier has not gotten simpler but more complex. The complications he faces (professional frustrations, perpetual displacement, romantic intricacies, family responsibilities) are presented by Klapisch as part of a never-ending process of growing up and reaching a level of self-actualization that only very gradually benefits both Xavier and those closest to him.
