8 Women

Beginning with bright colors and french superstars, François Ozon's 8 WOMEN is a devious little treasure, manipulative and tributary. There are at first seven women in the household. A beautiful, Victorian-like house that would be ideal for a staging of "The Little Nutcracker", with parading women scampering about with colorful dresses playing off of the lurid furniture. There is the mother of the house, Gaby (played by Catherine Deneuve, a French superstar if there ever was one), the aunt, Augustine (Isabelle Huppert), the matriarch Mamy (Danielle Darrieux), the daughters: Suzon who is visiting for Christmas (Virginie Ledoyen) and Catherine (Ludivine Sagnier), the sister-in-law Pierrette (Fanny Ardant), the cook, Madame Chanel (Firmine Richard) and a new chambermaid named Louise (Emmanuelle Béart). These women, in the beginning, seem pure and happy, joyously they sing! Unexpectedly so, this becomes a musical, beginning with a frothy little number led by Ludivine Sagnier's Catherine, with a creepy Gaby in the background looking like some background dancer. This is an offputting beginning, for the film was made in 2002, about 50 years too late for some joyous musical. But as I mentioned before, Ozon is a devious filmmaker, and his odd beginning slowly develops into a dark drama with sad songs, passionate acting, and buried truths. Suzon, home for Christmas, rushes upstairs to see her father. When she opens the door to his room, she seems him lying dead in his bed with a dagger in his back. Catherine locks the door, demanding to keep the room secured for the police. In an awkward lament that seems unwieldy at first, the women seemingly brush off the murder and begin seeking the murderer among them. In Hitchockian reveals, Ozon reveals no killers, but the various skeletons in the closet of the women, who are briskly joined by Pierrette, the sister of the deceased. Ozon begins with a silly little number, and ends with devastation. This is a wonderful little treasure: half critique on the 50's lifestyle / mentality, half tribute to Hitchcock and those 50's musicals themselves.
8 Women: ★★★1/2