An Agatha Christie drawing room mystery crossed with the '50s setting and melodrama of Douglas Sirk crossed with the musicality of Jacques Demy with some Aaron Spelling bitchery thrown in for good measure.
8 Women (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:111
Fresh:87
Rotten:24
Average Rating:6.9/10
Consensus: Featuring some of the best French actresses working today, 8 Women is frothy, delirious, over-the-top fun.
Theatrical Release:Sep 20, 2002 Limited
Box Office: $3,006,423
Synopsis: 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,... 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. [More]
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Beart, Danielle Darrieux
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Beart, Danielle Darrieux, Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Ledoyen, Ludivine Sagnier, Firmine Richard
Director: Francois Ozon
Director: Francois Ozon
Screenwriter: Francois Ozon
Producer: Olivier Delbosc, Marc Missonnier
Composer: Krishna Levy
Studio: Focus Features
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Reviews for 8 Women
There cannot be many people who wouldn't want to pay to see Deneuve smash a bottle over the head of an old woman in a wheelchair.
Frothy, racy frivolity starring such French all-stars as Danielle Darrieux, Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert and Emmanuelle Béart.
Ozon's notion of derision is perfectly carried out by his multi-generational name cast.
Klopt elementen van een Agatha Christie whodunnit, een frivole chansonmusical en de kleurrijke melodramas van Douglas Sirk op tot een luchtige souffle, als is de kooktijd wel wat lang.
This is a style of camp so broad that even the most bovine straight can get it.
Some may find Ozon's rigorously clever deconstruction of so many conventions a little too French for their tastes, but cineasts and worshippers of les femmes at their most fatales will find this farce wonderfully fierce.
Excepcional policial-comédia-drama-musical com um elenco fabuloso, direção de arte e figurinos notáveis e direção firme e elegante de Ozon.
In a film season dominated by male-oriented action flicks, 8 Women provides the feminine charm and sophistication to soothe the film-loving connoisseur in all of us.
The enfant terrible of French cinema, François Ozon’s brave foray into the mind of not one, but eight, women is a gloriously-executed examination of what lies beneath the manicured façade of the female species.
How much viewers enjoy this depends on to what extent they're able to focus on the shining stars at the center while ignoring the narrative debris surrounding them.
...the true spirit of the film is in the story of desperate women who will do desperate things to make themselves happy, no matter who they hurt.
Why didn't anybody think of doing this kind of weird Bollywood musical murder mystery before? Maybe because it is a stupid idea.
Who killed the fun in 8 Women is the real blame game. Start nominating your suspects now.
Most of the ideas in 8 Women are similar to other things %u2013 and that's both the point and the delight of this strange confection, which can best be described as a highly theatrical musical-comedy version of Gosford Park.
It’s a whodunit in stilettos, where the stilettos are dangerous, sharp objects handled without care by women on the edge of a murderous breakdown.
The sleight of hand that Ozon and his game cast accomplish is startling. What begins as a fine farce has a poignant payoff.
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