The first thing that strikes you about director Frank van Passel's "Villa des Roses" is its gorgeous visuals. Set in Paris in 1913, just as the first rumblings of war are starting, "Villa des Roses" establishes its location with some beautifully rendered digitally-animated postcard snapshots of the city's skyline. It's an eye-catching device, but one that the film's second-hand storyline just can't compete with.
Based on the 1913 novel by Flemish author Willem Elsschot, the film is a romantic tragedy that takes place in a decrepit Parisian boarding house. The owners, an oddball English couple (Walter and West), watch over their international (and very eccentric guests) with a paternal air.
When Louise (Delpy) arrives to become the Villa des Roses' new maid, she upsets the house's hierarchy by falling in love with the handsome young artist, GrÃœnewald (Dingwall), a "sort-of gentleman" who lives upstairs.
Intertwining the lives of these characters around the marvellous house they inhabit and the changing fortunes of the world that lies outside the door, "Villa des Roses" promises to be a historical romance full of passion and drama. In reality though it's never anything more than mildly diverting.
The only pleasures here are incidental ones, with the shabbily down-at-heel sets and eccentric supporting characters proving far more interesting than the bland leading couple.
As the film spirals towards its rather obvious tragic conclusion, there's very little to keep you interested in either Delpy's stoic maid or GrÃœnewald's foolish gent. It's the movie equivalent of being given an exquisitely painted box of chocolates that someone's already scoffed.
Villa des Roses (2002)
