Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | May 04, 2005 | | Summary | Mayhem, and eight women.... | Content
 | 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 BĂ©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. VoilĂ : 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 François 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
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| Rating | | | Date | March 27, 2005 | | Summary | Highly Entertaining and Original Film | Content
| This is one of the most enjoyable films I've seen in years. Francois Ozon is the best new director to emerge from France in the past decade, most of his films are considerably darker than this mystery/musical but he shifts gears beautifully (the movie does have a whiff of the comic decadence that is the Ozon trademark.) The movie is beautifully photographed with a glossy look that evokes the American Technicolor films of the 1950's (especially the candy-colored films of Universal from the era such as Douglas Sirk's soap operas.) The movie is in fact set in the 1950's although this point is not stressed. The whole cast is wonderful and for the most part, sing great. I've played many of the song tracks again and again. Ludvine Sagner as a great French teen rock-n-roll number, Frimine Richard sings a very moving ballad, and French film legend Danielle Darrieux (a movie star for over 70 years!!) closes the film with a poignant number. Catherine Deneuve may not be much of a singer but she is still a gorgeous screen presence in her late fifties and recalls Lana Turner here in her chic matron period (although Lana was almost 20 years younger during this stint than Catherine is now!!) I do want to add though my copy of this DVD does not come equipped to turn the English subtitles off as others have also stated. I frankly much prefer EIGHT WOMEN to the recent American film musicals that have made a splash, it's a love letter to eight outstanding French actresses. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 06, 2005 | | Summary | 8 BEAUTIFUL WOMEN | Content
| During a snowstorm, eight women are stranded in a French country home with the corpse of the murdered family patriarch. Slightly bizarre, low-key French film pokes fun at the comedy murder mystery genre while heralding the feminine mystique of domesticity and dominance. It has the added distinction of breaking into song from each of the eight principal players, a strangely satisfying technique that often delivers touching portraits of womankind. This is as intoxicating as a glass of fine French wine. |
| Rating | | | Date | December 10, 2004 | | Summary | Une Gemme | Content
| Huit Femme is reminiscent of that 80s mystery: Clue. The house is isolated in a snowstorm as a wealthy industrialist is murdered over the Noel saison. Extended members of his family and two servants are the suspects. Every suspect is a woman. Hence the Huit Femme. This movie is packed with renowned French actresses (Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Fanny Ardant, Danielle Darrieux et Emmanuelle Beart). This is an all-star cast, and the actresses display performances befitting their high reputations. There are a number of comic scenes in this movie, like the mother-in-law (Danielle) being locked in a closet, and Augustine (Isabelle) spitting on her sister (Catherine), which helps make this movie enjoyable. But there are serious moments as well, as everyone's individual secret is revealed. This movie is a mixture of comedy, drama and mystery. But what makes this movie a gem are the individual singing performances of the huit femmes. This alone, makes the movie worth watching. If you've always longed to know what it would be like to hear Catherine sing, you can find out in this movie. There is even a kissing scene between Gaby (Catherine) and Pierette (Fanny), which alone, is worth the price of admission. It's not until the very end when we discover who the culprit really is. It's not who you would think. I've seen this movie countless times and I never cease to be entertained. In short, an all-star cast can only create a first-class movie. Merci beaucoup pour ce film. Vraiment superb. |
| Rating | | | Date | November 05, 2004 | | Summary | Fine farce with a poignant payoff | Content
| 8 women (8 Femmes) is a difficult movie to describe because it is so full of contradictions: it is a drama that is frequently funny (sometimes even intentionally) involving a cast of eight eight supposedly heterosexual women-- half of whom are not--who burst into song at random moments in the film while trying to solve a murder mystery.
Attempting even one of these contradictions has derailed more than one film, but oddly, this actually works for 8 Women by making it both unpredictable and memorable. Its uniqueness, along with an interesting story and a well-known cast (in France), explains why this odd little film--which has just been released on DVD--has won so much critical acclaim.
In French with subtitles, the story is about an extended family stuck in a house together during a bad snowstorm trying to figure out who killed the male head of the household, Marcel (Dominique Lamure). Think Gosford Park meets Clue, with an all-female cast and corny song-and-dance routines.
The eight women referenced in the title include the victim's icy and bitter wife Gaby (played by Catherine Deneuve), and the victim's sexy estranged sister Pierrette (Fanny Ardent). Then there is Gaby's annoying spinster sister, Augustine (Isabelle Huppert), the victim's two teenage daughters Catherine (Ludivine Sagnier) and Suzon (Virginie Ledoyen), Gaby's mother (Danielle Darrieux), the matronly black housekeeper Chanel (Firmine Richard), and the beautiful young maid Louise (Emmanuelle BĂ©art).
As always in murder mysteries, everyone's got a secret they don't want revealed, all of which spill out over the course of the movie as the women attempt to determine who killed Marcel. The undercurrents of tension rooted in class issues, homophobia, sexism, and just plain greed are unspoken drivers in many of the characters' interactions as they alternately insult, comfort, and seduce one another.
Some of the transitions from moments of tense drama to cheesy song-and-dance routines seem rather abrupt and even strange, but perhaps this assessment is more a reflection of the fact that this type of film doesn't fit easily into existing American film genres (since this kind of musical dramedy is not standard fare here anymore, outside of art house theaters). The use of subtitles on top of this unusual combination of slightly-offbeat drama, comedy, and folksy music only exacerbates a feeling of distance between the film and the viewer, especially in the beginning.
But once you get used the pacing and transitions, that distance fades away and the film becomes very enjoyable, even if it never quite loses its surreal feel.
Issues of sexuality, and sexual tension between the women, are always at or just below the surface of the film: whether it's Gaby's oldest sister complaining about being seen as a spinster, the older maid trying to hide her love for Pierrette, Gaby's oldest daughter dealing with the consequences of a college love affair gone awry, Pierrette flirting with Gaby, or Gaby accusing Louise, the young maid, of sleeping with her husband, 8 Women deals with more sex than your standard American teen comedy--and all without a single nude scene.
Although there are plenty of indirect references to lesbianism, it is addressed directly only twice in the film: first, when the relationship between Chanel and Pierrette is discovered and Gaby reacts with homophobic statements like "You need treatment" and the accusation "I let you raise my girls!" But Chanel defends herself, saying "I've done nothing wrong," and sings about how hard it is to be alone. Richard renders Chanel simultaneously tough and tender, motherly (to the girls) and sexual, in a way that keeps you from viewing her as just a housekeeper (although it is frustrating that the only black woman in the film is a maid).
The second time lesbianism is directly addressed is towards the end of the film, when Pierrette is trying to seduce Gaby and tells her "love between women is anything but shocking. It's a form of pleasure you should try, to cleanse you of men."
The fluidity with which the women's sexuality is portrayed in the film is unusual, as is the casual way it is integrated into the story. Although Chanel is a lesbian, the other three women are more accurately described as bisexual--although they are not labeled as such in the film. Perhaps the fact that filmmakers did not feel the need to "define" the characters' sexuality is a result of it being a French film, not an American one (since few countries are quite as preoccupied with labels as we are).
Besides Pierrette and Gaby, the young maid Louise is also not straight: although she was having an affair with Gaby's husband Marcel, she tells Gaby "I became your employee not out of need, or for [Marcel]...but for you, Madame" as she gazes boldly into her eyes. Beart plays Louise with a mix of pride and smoldering sexuality that makes her a complex and compelling character, when she could easily have been just another stereotypical maid-who-sleeps with-the-boss.
Those who have followed Catherine Deneuve's career since her sapphic turn in The Hunger will most likely be surprised to see her singing and dancing in 8 Women, since she usually plays very serious roles. Deneuve is excellent here as usual, however, transitioning back and forth between being a hard, bitter wife and mother to a woman fighting attraction to her sister-in-law Pierrette, whom she publicly scorns.
Pierrette is a free-spirited "exotic dancer" who easily attracts the attention of men and women--such as the housekeeper Chanel (Firmine Richard), who has confused her sexual relationship with Pierrette for love. Fanny Ardent is very convincing as Pierrette, and she makes Pierrette appealing by exuding a warmth and vitality that contrasts sharply with the more somber countenance of the other women.
Overall, 8 Women is a fun, memorable film with many layers that provides a campy but still realistic portrait of a group of women whose sexuality and ethics are not easily defined. So fascinating do these characters and their love/hate relationships with one another become that, by the end of the film, the odd little dances don't even seem that odd anymore.
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