8 Women
(2002)
|
From French director Francois Ozon, 8 WOMEN is a character drama and musical set in a country home during Christmastime in the 1950s. Though the atmosphere seems light and festive, when the host, Marcel, is stabbed in the back, one of the eight women in the house must be the culprit. The youngest of the bunch, Catherine (Ludivine Sagnier), is a teenager who loved her Daddy and also loves police novels. Her sister, Suzon (Virginie Ledoyen), is a student in England who has traveled home for the holiday. Their mom is Gaby (Catherine Deneuve), the ungrieving wife of Marcel, who never reveals too much. Grandma, who goes by Mamie (Danielle Darrieux), is an alcoholic who reveals that she's not as innocent as she looks when she walks right out of her wheelchair. Marcel's sister, Pierrette (Fanny Ardant) arrives mysteriously just after the murder. The maids, Louise (Emmanuelle Beart) and Chanel (Firmine Richard), are obviously up to no good as their stories keep changing. And the neurotic and hilarious Augustine (Isabelle Huppert), Gaby's sister, is the aging virgin who is just plain unstable. As each of these women interrogate each other, each singing her own song as a type of encrypted confession, there are some very funny moments. 8 WOMEN unfolds like a demented CLUE, with absurd tidbits of information--Chanel is actually an exotic dancer; Gaby and Louise are lesbian lovers--coming straight from Ozon's quirky sense of humor. A magnificent set, a snowy backdrop, and candy colored costumes complete this wacky tongue-in-cheek affair. |
Where do you start to lavish praise when so many aspects of a film are so laudable? This adaptation of Robert Thomas's long-forgotten play crackles with catty quips and also serves up a surprisingly decent murder mystery — in which eight women are trapped in an isolated country house with a murderer either on the loose or among their number. The costumes and sets both reference and satirise the styles of the 1950s, while the vibrant colours — richly photographed by Jeanne Lapoirie — are reminiscent of overheated Hollywood melodramas. The stellar cast is sublime, but Isabelle Huppert takes the hotly contested acting honours as the dowdy sister of glamorous matriarch Catherine Deneuve. Holding it all together is the masterful direction of François Ozon, whose blend of Agatha Christie and Douglas Sirk is as precise as it is mischievous.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Highly artificial, witty, enjoyable pastiche of a country house murder mystery, with bravura performances from its stellar cast, representing four generations of French acting, who burst into song at unexpected moments.