I got to go out and get the movies this weekend that my wife and I will watch on the new Samsung 32″ widescreen HDTV. This is a new luxury for us, and while the screen is not huge, we sit less then 10 feet from it, and its our first widescreen. But back to the subject… walking into Blockbuster I was highly dissappointed to see the lack of quality movies still left on the shelf… but what did I expect at 6pm on a Saturday evening??? So I was forced to go to the B movies (those with less then 3 copies total) and came across what appeared to be an interesting movie, Villa des Roses, and historical fiction. I love historical fiction!

When I arrived home I got the quiz from the wife. “What’s the movie about?” she says… “beats me” I reply, “I didn’t read any further then the fact it was historical fiction!” I love historical fiction! So after an hour or so of us each finishing up what we were doing (her a book… me, uhm… on this thing we call a computer… again) I popped the movie into the TIVO.

The movie opens up with a mother saying farewell to her son as she gets ready to board the train… only problem is, she and the child both speak in French. Uh-oh… did I just pick a foreign film??? Yep, Villa des Roses is a Belgian production directed by Frank Van Passel…  uh oh! I was getting that look again from my wife… you know, that one wives have that quietly says “Yep! You can’t even do a simple thing right like go down and pick up a movie!!!”

I was soon rescued from the glare when they began to speak in English… and we sat and watched a film set in Paris which centers around a beautiful boarding house maid and the turbulent love affair she sparks… ok! So I thought I was getting an historical fiction movie! It never said anything about a love story! But then I never read anything further then it was an “historical fiction” movie…

Seriously though, it was a good movie, and based upon the novel by Willem Elsschot. This movie had been rewarded the “Best Feature Film” at the 2002 Hollywood Film Festival… so I guess I didn’t choose all that bad… this time.