Hollywood Film Festival
Favourite Films, Dan Films, Isabella Films and Samsa Film
"Villa des Roses" is an exquisite postcard from the past. Belgian director Frank Van Passel and cinematographer Jan Vancaillie designed the film so that each scene -- indeed each shot -- unfolds like a photograph from the early 20th century. Some scenes are black-and-white with a lovely, pale color tint, while others appear as rotogravures from newspapers of that era. Shots of the Paris skyline are indeed stamped postcards come magically to life. This not only evokes a time and place but also gives the drama a melancholy mood as we watch a way of life in Europe about to come to a violent end.
The time is 1913, and the continent, after years of peace, is on the cusp of a war that will destroy a generation and usher in mass annihilation. The place is Paris, specifically a boarding house where a beautiful housemaid (Julie Delpy) joins the staff and with her very presence unsettles the delicate stagnation of its inhabitants. One man (Shaun Dingwall), a German, sets out to seduce her, only to do the one thing he cannot afford to do -- fall in love.
Everyone is, of course, doomed as World War I looms. (The film actually begins in the trenches, the carnage under way, as the German prepares to march to his fate carrying a photo of his beloved.) Christophe Dirickx's script, based on a novel by Willem Eisschot, is meant to illustrate the nonchalant way the modern age, with all its horrific instruments of destruction, crept upon the unsuspecting citizens of Europe. The overwhelming impression left by the film, though, is that of lives about to alter forever and for some to end abruptly.
After an initial scene in French, this Belgian film switches to English in a bid to increase its chances of North American distribution. While that is a long shot, this deserving film would certainly find a small but enthusiastic audience appreciative of the loving care that has gone into its dark, moody lighting and pristine though antique images of a lost world. It is a gorgeous film.
Favourite Films, Dan Films, Isabella Films and Samsa Film
"Villa des Roses" is an exquisite postcard from the past. Belgian director Frank Van Passel and cinematographer Jan Vancaillie designed the film so that each scene -- indeed each shot -- unfolds like a photograph from the early 20th century. Some scenes are black-and-white with a lovely, pale color tint, while others appear as rotogravures from newspapers of that era. Shots of the Paris skyline are indeed stamped postcards come magically to life. This not only evokes a time and place but also gives the drama a melancholy mood as we watch a way of life in Europe about to come to a violent end.
The time is 1913, and the continent, after years of peace, is on the cusp of a war that will destroy a generation and usher in mass annihilation. The place is Paris, specifically a boarding house where a beautiful housemaid (Julie Delpy) joins the staff and with her very presence unsettles the delicate stagnation of its inhabitants. One man (Shaun Dingwall), a German, sets out to seduce her, only to do the one thing he cannot afford to do -- fall in love.
Everyone is, of course, doomed as World War I looms. (The film actually begins in the trenches, the carnage under way, as the German prepares to march to his fate carrying a photo of his beloved.) Christophe Dirickx's script, based on a novel by Willem Eisschot, is meant to illustrate the nonchalant way the modern age, with all its horrific instruments of destruction, crept upon the unsuspecting citizens of Europe. The overwhelming impression left by the film, though, is that of lives about to alter forever and for some to end abruptly.
After an initial scene in French, this Belgian film switches to English in a bid to increase its chances of North American distribution. While that is a long shot, this deserving film would certainly find a small but enthusiastic audience appreciative of the loving care that has gone into its dark, moody lighting and pristine though antique images of a lost world. It is a gorgeous film.
- 10/7/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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