Customer Reviews

8 Women

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I really enjoyed this movie. It is a thriller/mystery where a murder has been committed and it is plain that it has to be one of 8 women, but who exactly. Everyone appears to have a good reason to have committed the act and the accusations, jealousies and intrigues are rife.

A treat to have some of the very top French actresses all in the same film and the acting is great.

8 WOMEN cheerfully mixes the murder mystery, comedy, and musical genres into one film, and features energetic performances from a talented cast. But it is silly, fluffy, and stagy beyond words. Set entirely in a country house during two days in winter, its story follows the familiar Agatha Christie-whodunnit formula and is strictly by the book. The musical numbers are primitively put together, with the amateurish quality of their singing and choreography matching the overall frivolity. The dialogs are at times risque (the movie has an R rating), with the women often reveling in exposing one another's infidelities and sexual inadequacies. Some slapstick is thrown in as well, but nothing memorable. Every aspect of this film is unimpressive except the actors, who work really hard to wring every bit of life out of this inferior farce. This is not the best whodunit you'll ever see. Not the best comedy nor musical you'll ever see. Not the best film you'll ever see by any of the actresses.

Seeing Catherine Deneuve in a musical reminds one of the great 1964 musical UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG. Seeing Fanny Ardant in a whodunit brings to mind her work in the sparkling 1983 mystery CONFIDENTIALLY YOURS, directed by the great François Truffaut. Emmanuelle Béart is best remembered for her dramatic turns in such films as UN COEUR EN HIVER and MANON OF THE SPRINGS. And director François Ozon worked with Ludivine Sagnier again in a much better film called SWIMMING POOL. See those films instead of this one.

Ce film de François Ozon est une très belle perle dans le cinéma français car il rassemble, le temps d'un long métrage, 8 grandes actrices du cinéma français. Certaines d'entre elles, qui n'avaient jamais été en scène auparavant comme Isabelle Huppert et Catherine Deneuve, se donnent plaisir à s'affronter dans leurs archétypes et même à les briser devant nous.

En tant qu'intrigue, le film consiste en une journée d'hiver où 8 femmes, enfermées dans un manoir, essaient de découvrir laquelle a assassiné le propriétaire de la maison. Est-ce sa femme (Catherine Deneuve), l'une de ses filles (Ludivine Sagnier et Virginie Ledoyen), sa belle-soeur (Isabelle Huppert), sa belle-mère (Danielle Darrieux), sa femme de ménage (Firmine Richard), sa bonne (Émanuelle Béart) ou même sa soeur (Fanny Ardant).

Le tout parsemé de chansons populaires (une pour chaque actrice) et de surprises scandaleuses, François Ozon nous montre aussi, dans ses bonus, comment il a adapté, avec Marina de Van, une pièce de Pascal Thomas (jugée ringard aux yeux d'un des producteurs du film) et lui a donné une meilleure intrigue et de plus grands rebondissements.

Personnellement, c'est aussi un film qui m'a permis de découvrir ces actrices ainsi que d'autres réalisateurs avec lesquelles elles ont travaillé (ex: Michael Haneke, Lars von Trier, François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Christophe Honoré, Marjane Satrapi et Vincent Paronnaud, etc.), de découvrir des films différents et qui ne suivent pas les règles du cinéma hollywoodien.

Bref, je recommande 8 femmes à tous ceux et celles qui voudraient s'initier au cinéma européen.

It is the late 1950's. You see a beautiful country house, and a lot of snow. Inside, there is a man and seven women. The man is Marcel (Dominique Lamure), the owner of the house, who is sleeping in his bedroom. The women are his wife Gaby (Catherine Deneuve), his daughters Catherine (Ludivine Sagnier) and Suzon (Virginie Ledoyen), his eccentric mother-in-law (Danielle Darrieux), his somewhat neurotic sister-in-law Augustine (Isabelle Huppert), his housekeeper Chanel (Firmine Richard) and Louise (Emmanuelle B'art), a remarkably attractive maid. Seven women, and one man, who unfortunately turns up dead some minutes after the film begins. Should I clarify that he has been assassinated?.

A late addition to that ensemble is Pierrete (Fanny Ardent), Marcel's estranged sister, who drops in uninvited at the house just when mayhem has erupted after the discovery of Marcel's dead body. Voil': now you have the eight women of the title :)

These are very different women who don't like each other a lot, and that is a recipe for trouble in my book. However, there is another factor that I haven't mentioned so far, and that makes things quite more interesting: one of them murdered Marcel during the night. Eight women, unable to leave the house due to a snowstorm, and a task: weeding out a murderer. Finding the culprit will be a difficult task, because all these women lie, for one reason or the other...

"8 women" immerses the spectator in a classic murder mistery, spiced by eight songs that fit perfectly into the script, and that allow us to understand better the motivations of the characters. Director Fran'ois Ozon managed to make an original and visually stunning film, that manages to surprise and please despite a not overly good ending.

On the whole, I think that you will like "8 women", unless you absolutely hate films with songs as part of the script. I'm certainly not a fan of musicals, but I really liked this movie.

Belen Alcat

To start of, I am not a fan of Francois Ozon, his stories always seemed to be over sexed to sell more tickets. I only decided to watch this movie because of the 8 actresses (Deneuve and Bear especially). The story was shot and acted as a stage play. The colors, setting and the characters all looked perfect. However, this ideal picture is just an illusion for it hid beneath it rotten characters. The eight women are all selfish, murder, greedy and adulterous. Though the characters are not defined completely, the actresses do bring life and a sense of fun in portraying them. Off course, I can not review this movie without talking about the song. Its true none of the actresses is a real singer ( Darrieux and Deneuve did actually record music) nevertheless, the songs were preformed "well". Arden's song - a quoi sert de vivre liber was well preformed and actually better the original version (whish was sung by Nicoletta). The songs are actually hits from the 70's and 60's. Most of the songs are integrated perfectly into the movie to reviel character in their most "naked" moment. The song of the legendary singer Dalida "Pour ne pas vivre seul" was perfectly used - though badly preformed- to illustrate the loneliness of the housekeeper. Ozon again implemented his techniques in sexual tension by over using lesbianism in this movie. However, this is an entertaining movie to watch and to monitor the tension of those 8 "women" that are locked in a small space. Finally, people ask what is the point of the movie? well on the surface it is just a murder mystery however, underlying it is a pessimistic message that true love is hard to get and even harder to keep, or as Darrieux say it in her final number Il y a pas d'amour heureux!.

that can't decide whether it's a murder mystery or a parody of one. Each character has a < gasp! > song, each worst than the last. Its message is the women in any man's life will drive him crazy. Sure, the eight women here are the best that French cinema has to offer, though Catherine Deneuve is a bit of a dumpling despite being typecast as a closet "Sapphist." But the movie's unit setting is more typical of stage than cinema. And it drags, horribly. You might find its compendium of French insults interesting. But if you don't, it's just a director stringing cliches together to abuse both art & audience. Probably not worth your time, and certainly not worth your trouble.

I'm admittedly not a fan of Francois Ozon. Having seen several of his films, I haven't been a devotee of his violent and overly sexual stories a la Criminal Lovers. This film seemed like an advancement for him, so I rented it. 8 Women looks great and is a change of pace, but the film cannot overcome its stage roots and most of the songs are forgettable and too weakly sung to be truly enjoyable. The sets grow claustrophobic after a while, and despite the top notch acting, the story gets stale. At one point, I glanced over at my clock and saw that I still had an hour left in this story. Not a good sign when a go-nowhere plot still has 60 minutes left. Most disappointingly, the biggest revelation in the film is thrown away in one line, with no reaction shots added or consequences. And what is the ultimate message? Women are a bunch of dithery, selfish harpies that can drive their men to desperate measures? Sorry, despite it's pre-feminist 1950's setting, this is still annoying. The actors and the colors are a real treat though and the opening credits call to mind the glossy Hollywood movies of the past.

This has got to be one of the loopiest films I've ever seen. Does it work? Not really. Is it fun to watch? With these women, how could it not be? But don't expect logic in any way, shape or form. (Keeping track of who is or isn't a lesbian alone could make your head spin.) Unfortunately, don't expect good songs, either. Why make a musical with such paltry material? I guess the director's answer would be "why not" -- which is pretty much the feel (and philosophy) for this entire film.

I've been running my own little French film festival of late. I go on jags like that periodically. As it happened, I loaded up on a number of grim ones (NOIR ET BLANC, EST-OUEST and LA HAINE among the most recent). So I was about ready for some lighter fare and HUIT FEMMES more than filled the bill.

My French film festival has also been something of a Deneuve festival as well, and seeing Catherine hold her own against seven other remarkable French actresses (and one French actor, who's a bit of a stiff)was a delight. Huppert, Ardant, Beart--and a very lively Danielle Darrieux as "Mamy" are all merveilleuses. Relative newcomers Virginie Ledoyen and Ludivine Sagnier are equally wonderful.

As others have noted, it's sort of "Agatha Christie "en francais." With a touch of UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG thrown in for good measure. (And no, the musical numbers are not a distraction unless you're a mystery purist, and if that's the case this fun flick is not going to be your tasse de the). Not all French escapist fare fares well in tranlation, but 8 FEMMES is a bon-bon that is truly bon.

This film is very reminiscent of The Mousetrap, or any other play by the Queen of Crime. Murder suspects all trapped in the house with a dead body, sharp insights into humanity, the slow unravelling of skeletons in the closets... the standard Christie fare. But Ozon has added his own touch to a classic plot with the musical comedy twist, interspersing shocking revelations with light-hearted yet revealing song and dance numbers.

This film really brings into sharp relief the fact that people can live together nearly all their lives and yet know next to nothing about each other. The twisting, shifting relationships between sisters and mothers and daughters, the envy, jealousy, and greed...

But the occasional flashes of pathos and genius, and the remarkable acting aside, the plot does not hold together psychologically. Once you start analysing the story, it simply breaks down. The crime that is not exactly a crime, the puzzling and all together unbelievable motive behind the whole thing is really a huge put off and an anticlimax after a fantastic beginning and middle. But if you can ignore the disappointing ending, the film is still a solid four stars.

For the non-French viewer, be sure to get a version with subtitles for the songs as well. I was disappointed when my VCD didn't come with translations for the songs, which made it difficult to really enjoy them though the music was good.