Villa Des Roses
(2001)
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The Villa Des Roses is a Parisian boarding house run by an English couple, who has a colourful collection of guests. With the arrival of a maid called Louise there is a new lease of life in the guest house... |
This is a sombre and often ponderous adaptation of esteemed Flemish novelist Willem Elsschot's densely symbolic 1903 tale of social snobbery and romantic betrayal (here relocated to 1913, foreshadowing the First World War). Despite looking suitably gaunt, Julie Delpy fails to convey the emotional fragility of the provincial widow who accepts work as a maid in Harriet Walter and Timothy West's crumbling Parisian guest house, only to fall under the spell of a shiftless German artist (Shaun Dingwall). Similarly, director Frank Van Passel makes moody use of the dingy interiors, but his use of anachronistic camera effects reveals little — and eventually proves intrusive — while he leaves too many intriguing minor characters languishing in the shadows.