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8 Women (8 Femmes, 2002)
Dec. 6th, 2010 11:08 amWhat a complete hoot! This French movie, directed by François Ozon, is set in an isolated country estate during a snowstorm. A family is gathering for Christmas -- a grandmother, her two daughters, two granddaughters, two maids -- when the man of the house is found murdered. The telephone line is cut, the car has been disabled, the gate locked. They are trapped, and it's clear that one of them -- or perhaps the man's sister, who shows up unexpectedly -- is the murderer.
The movie walks the line between melodrama and farce in ways that reminded me of Almodovar. Each woman gets to sing a song. Everybody has a tawdry secret to reveal. In fact the secrets revealed get wilder and wilder as the movie progresses. There's no attempt to make it all add up -- new revelations are piled on to absurd levels. The humor is anarchic and camp. All cliches of women's films are indulged. Every member of the amazing cast -- Danielle Darrieux, Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Béart, Fanny Ardant, Virginie Ledoyen, Ludivine Sagnier, Firmine Richard -- gets the diva treatment. It passes the Bechdel Test, and how.
I had previously seen Ozon's Swimming Pool (2003), which also features Ludivine Sagnier, along with Charlotte Rampling. That one's a serious mindfuck of a film that inhabits psychosexual territory similar to Vertigo (1958). 8 Femmes couldn't be more different. It doesn't have a serious bone in its body, unless it is revealed in the chorus of the final song, "There is no happy love" ("Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux"). I hadn't realized that it was a Christmas movie, so this is a good time of the year to watch it, too. Have yourself a fabulous Christmas with this glitzy, knowing diva spectacular.
The movie walks the line between melodrama and farce in ways that reminded me of Almodovar. Each woman gets to sing a song. Everybody has a tawdry secret to reveal. In fact the secrets revealed get wilder and wilder as the movie progresses. There's no attempt to make it all add up -- new revelations are piled on to absurd levels. The humor is anarchic and camp. All cliches of women's films are indulged. Every member of the amazing cast -- Danielle Darrieux, Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Béart, Fanny Ardant, Virginie Ledoyen, Ludivine Sagnier, Firmine Richard -- gets the diva treatment. It passes the Bechdel Test, and how.
I had previously seen Ozon's Swimming Pool (2003), which also features Ludivine Sagnier, along with Charlotte Rampling. That one's a serious mindfuck of a film that inhabits psychosexual territory similar to Vertigo (1958). 8 Femmes couldn't be more different. It doesn't have a serious bone in its body, unless it is revealed in the chorus of the final song, "There is no happy love" ("Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux"). I hadn't realized that it was a Christmas movie, so this is a good time of the year to watch it, too. Have yourself a fabulous Christmas with this glitzy, knowing diva spectacular.
