Movie of the Day: February 21, 2003

IMDb Movie of the Day
It's a classic Agatha Christie-style setup: an isolated manor in the French countryside where no one can leave, thanks to a beautiful but fierce snowstorm. Phones are down, cars are stuck, tensions are simmering. And oh yes, the lord of the manor lies upstairs with a knife in his back. Marcel, the dead man, was father, husband, brother, employer, or lover to the house's inhabitants, one of whom has sent Marcel to his death. Naturally, everyone had a reason to kill Marcel: his beautiful wife Gaby (Catherine Deneuve), his lovely daughters Suzon (Virginie Ledoyen) and Catherine (Ludivine Sagnier), his imperious mother-in-law Mamy (Danielle Darrieux), even his bookish sister-in-law (Isabelle Huppert). Hmm – do you sense a trend here? Yes, the house, aside from Marcel, is filled with women; even the servants, Louise (Emmanuelle Béart) and Chanel (Firmine Richard) are testosterone-challenged, and even they had a gripe with Marcel. So what's everyone to do? Break out into song, naturellement! François Ozon's 8 Women is a giddy, vibrantly-colored musical extravaganza that blends '50s costume melodrama with bubbly French pop music and a cotton-candy camp sensibility. If Douglas Sirk and Pedro Almodóvar had a gay son, this is the movie he would make: a glorious technicolor tribute to the some of French cinema's most memorable sirens that gives each their moment in the musical spotlight, and peppers the proceedings with bitchy one-liners, tears and recriminations, secrets and lies revealed, and, of course, fabulous haute couture dresses that a drag queen would give his eyeteeth for. The plot is as creaky as a Christie whodunit, but Ozon and his cast add a jolt of electricity to the mystery, and when the eighth woman makes her way to the chateau -- Marcel's sister, Pierrette (Fanny Ardant) -- picking a fight with her sister-in-law, the fur flies exquisitely in a catfight with suddenly Sapphic overtones. You'd be hard-pressed to pick a favorite diva, though Ardant and Deneuve are divine queen bees, Huppert shows a delicious flair for comedy, and secret weapon Béart saunters off with the best musical number. Eventually, though, you'll surrender to all these women -- je t’aime, je t’aime! (more)

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