8 femmes

RATING: ***1/2 out of ****

Being what it is, it seems like Francois Ozon's "8 Women" would have everything going against it. After all, the premise is hardly original and every single plot twist is predictable and derivative. There are plenty of Agatha Christie movies (not to mention the wonderful play "The Mousetrap") to offer us what "8 Women" promises as a mystery. Although I can't say if a murder mystery musical of this type has been attempted on film before, the musical numbers in this film are a bit awkward and stick out like a sore thumb. With all of this, "8 Women" would seem almost repellent. Truth be told, I loved every minute of it. The setting is Christmas in the mid-1950s, and seven women are gathering in the country home of Marcel (Dominique Lamure). There is his wife Gaby (Catherine Deneuve), who has just brought one of her two daughters, Suzon (Virginie Ledoyen) back from college for the holiday. Anxiously awaiting her are her peppy sister Catherine (Ludivine Sagnier), her disabled grandmother Mamy (Danielle Darrieux), her neurotic aunt Augustine (Isabelle Huppert), cook Madame Chanel (Firmine Richard), and newly hired maid Louise (Emmanuelle Beart). All of them, although not always on the best terms with each other, seem intent on having a good time this Christmas.

Too bad for them. As is customary to happen in movies with a large mansion housing many guests, Marcel (the only man in the house), is murdered. The phone line has been cut, the car has been sabotaged, and the weather is such that no one can scale the wall surrounding the grounds. One person, however, does get in: Marcel's sister Pierrette (Fanny Ardant), who arrives with a story (which may or may not be true) that she got a call the night before saying that Marcel had been murdered. It becomes apparent that the murderer is one of these 8 women, and it is up to them to tell the complete truth and find out everyone's secrets so that they can find out who the murderer is.

It's high time we have a film like "8 Women", a maliciously absurd exercise in high camp. It succeeds even... no, especially when it fails. The story itself is the kind of murder mystery that has been filmed over and over again in previous years, but it's impossible to get enough of. This film handles all of the conventions with the perfect Christie-esque tone. It's still as fun as ever to point fingers at various possible suspect, and "8 Women" is just predictable enough that even the least experienced viewer can partake in the fun.

And with this cast, why shouldn't we have fun? One of the main purposes of this film is to let these eight actresses simply enjoy themselves, and their wicked glee comes through on screen. I wonder if Francois Ozon was at all able to keep his authority as director during shooting. For let such fantastic actresses loose on each other, allowing all of them to inhabit such bitchy individuals, one had better stay out of their way. It is said that the best comedy relies on surprise. Be assured, "8 Women" wreaks such delectable havoc on it's premise that there will be plenty of opportunities to ask: "Did I really just see that?"

This film knows a secret that we haven't seen many low-key projects like this successfully handle in recent memory: when in doubt, just sing. The musical numbers have varied success throughout the film. All pop up sporadically and never really find a way to come to a conclusion, but each one is a highly enjoyable bonus aside to everything else that's going on.

In "8 Women", the first rule is: there are no rules. It's infinitely meaner (and much more enjoyable) than its non-musical predecessor "Gosford Park". It's hilarious in its maniacal irreverence, and it is yet another example of a film that would fall flat on its face if it were not for the actors leading the way. If I am going to be seeing a murder-mystery-musical, I would want none other than the cast of "8 Women" at the helm.

It is nearing Christmas when Gaby and teenage daughter Suzon return to their home. Her husband Marcel is poorly but he has allowed Gaby's mother Mamy and Aunt Augustine to remain in the house as well – with maids Chanel and Louise to help with the guests and his other daughter Catherine. With all these women in the house, minor squabbles break out but nothing compares to the tension when Louise discovers that someone has murdered Marcel. With the house cut off by snow and the phone lines cut, it is clear that one of the eight assembled women must have done the murder – but with so many motives and so much suspicion, who could it have been?

Even if you have not seen any of these types of films or plays, the set-up will be familiar as a sort of drawing-room "one of us is the murderer" affair and indeed that is exactly what it is, in the tradition of Agatha Christie I suppose. However what Ozon's film does is take the staples of this genre and plays with them to produce a richly comic, colourful and enjoyable exaggeration thereof. Unlike some reviewers, I did not find it roaringly funny but did find it continually amusing. The plot could have been played straight and thus is good enough to hold the interest as a genre piece but it is the delivery that makes it enjoyable and engaging. While some of the songs are a bit ropey, their delivery is all slightly ott and fun for it. It also helps that the whole film is full of rich colours, again giving it the feel of a play, happening right in front of you.

Of course as with any play, a lot does rest on the cast and here we are not disappointed as the starry cast mostly "get" what the film is trying to do. Deneuve is great as the wife while Darrieux enjoys her character a great deal. Béart and Ardant both stick in the mind easily because they have a great lingering sexuality to their characters that they bring out well (Béart is particularly impressive at this game and it was here that I twigged how stunning she is). Huppert is enjoyable but I didn't like the changes her character undergoes at the end. Ledoyen is very good with her character but I wasn't so taken with Sagnier – she was OK but I thought she had the least to work with.

Overall then an enjoyable and lively take on an occasionally dry genre. The plot is solid enough to be interesting but it is the delivery across the board that adds colour, vitality and fun to the mix – from direction through set design to of course the performances. Not hilarious but consistently amusing and entertaining.

1st watched 1/23/2005 - 9 out of 10(Dir-Francois Ozone): Well crafted drama/mystery/musical that is so full it's hard to critique into a summary. The basic plot is that 8 related women find themselves in the same place at approximately the same time when the lone man is presumed to be murdered, who happens to be the grandfather, father, husband, bearer of child, lover etc… of the women(not necessarily in that order). You talk about complexity of plot? Every time someone opens their mouth another twist is thrown into the mix. I think it would take at least another viewing to understand everyone's relationship with everyone else by the end of the movie. And besides this, musical numbers are thrown in to help us understand the characters that are sung by themselves and sometimes backed up by the rest of the cast(ala Bollywood). One thing I have always noticed about French movies is that they come across as a confused people but they're OK with that, instead of the American's who believe that "they" have the answers to everything. This makes it slightly un-comfortable for us pompous Americans to view movies like this where every "real" thing in life is kind of taken with a little tongue-in-cheek mentality but this is the reality of their people and it's present often in their movies. Good for them!! This is so evident in this movie where because of it's mystery plot, we think that who did the killing is what's important, but what we find out is that there is much more behind the so-called answer we're seeking which makes for a very complex experience. Thank you French cinema. Without it there would not be movies like this.

'8 Women' is one of those rare films the kind of which one doesn't come across too often. The story sort of follows an Agatha Christie style in the 50s. Director Ozon does an incredible job of telling the story in a satirical way by taking advantage of stereotypes and making it into a musical.

The murder suspects include suspect's wife (Catherine Deneuve), her sister (Isabelle Huppert), his mother (Danielle Darrieux), his sister (Fanny Ardant), his two daughters (Virginie Ledoyen and Ludivin Sagnier), his cook (Firmine Richard) and his chambermaid (Emanuelle Beart). Each character is something that sets her apart, either a lesbian, or pregnant, or a con, or a seductress or unfaithful and so on. The cast includes some of the biggest names in French cinema and all 8 women deliver electrifying performances full of humour.

The film goes pleasantly over-the top with the Agatha-Christie and the 50's formula. The colourful art direction is delightful. The dialogues are superbly creative and the spacious cinematography, especially the long shots and closeups are skillfully done. The songs are rightfully set in the scene and splendid to watch. Ozon also makes some interesting references to cinema of the 50s mostly through the characters' gestures, costumes and make-up.

One does not have to be a fan of musicals or French cinema to appreciate the beauty of this film. With excellent writing, a lovely cast of beautiful actresses and lots of colour, it is hugely entertaining with loads of fun and something that I would like to revisit.

8 Femmes is a playful mystery/musical/dark comedy that hearkens back to Jacques Demy's Parapluies de Cherbourg, which also starred Catherine Deneuve, and Demoiselles de Rochefort, in which Danielle Darrieux and Deneuve played mother and daughter. The story stars off as a classic tale of murder in a closed room of an isolated mansion, and all of the eight women become suspects. As the various clues and revealed secrets begin to pile up and become more and more absurd, however, it becomes clear that the mystery is secondary to exploring the various kinds of relationships that exist between these women and the way they have all been affected by their relationships (or lack of relationships) with men, especially the man who has been killed.

The mystery is also secondary to having a good time, which everyone seems to be doing. One of the main strengths of the movie is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. The director and all of the actresses seem to be enjoying themselves so much that a sense of fun radiates throughout the film. Ozon uses laughter and black humor, however, to investigates the pain, rivalry and joy that arise between mothers and daughters, pairs of sisters, sisters-in-law, women servants and their mistresses, and women in love with other women. It's a grand buffet of fine acting and difficult to pick out the best of the bunch - all eight women are wonderful - but Isabelle Huppert steals a number of scenes (hard to do in that company) with the most over the top and unexpected performance. Each woman has great moments, however, sometimes of tenderness, sometimes of hilarious bitchiness, and once in a while, of sudden and intense emotional revelation. The songs that each one sings give a bit of insight to their characters and add to the overall fun of the film, but they also present dramatic challenges to the actresses, and all of them do well in making these musical numbers work.

It's great to see Darrieux again, and she does an excellent job as the matriarch of the clan who seems to be a frail and loving old grandmother at first but then pulls one surprise after another. The funniest bit in the film, a wicked moment of black comedy, involves an argument between her and daughter Gaby (Deneuve) that ends in shocking and unladylike violence. The song chosen for Darrieux to sing at the end, a haunting and poignant piece written by French poet Louis Aragon and the great singer-songwriter Geogre Brassens, pulls the film together emotionally in an unexpected way.

People expecting a straight mystery film may be disappointed in and confused by the film, and the American distributors haven't helped matters any by failing to mention on the back of the video box that 8 Femmes is a musical and a dark comedy as well. But for those viewers who have an open mind and are in the mood for a playful mystery with several great actresses, they should be greatly rewarded.