8 femmes (2002)

Director:

François Ozon

Writers:

François Ozon (writer)
Robert Thomas (play)

Release Date:

20 September 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Musical | Comedy | Crime | Mystery

Tagline:

Living in a house full of women can be murder.

Plot:

One murdered man, eight women, each seeming to be more eager than the others to know the truth. Gimme, gimme, gimme some clues to make up my mind. And eventually enter the truth. Oh, thou cruel woman!

Plot Keywords:

Maid | Murder | Seduction | Pregnancy | Digit In Title

Awards:

8 wins & 25 nominations

Cast

Danielle Darrieux	...	Mamy
Catherine Deneuve	...	Gaby
Isabelle Huppert	...	Augustine
Emmanuelle Béart	...	Louise
Fanny Ardant	...	Pierrette
Virginie Ledoyen	...	Suzon
Ludivine Sagnier	...	Catherine
Firmine Richard	...	Madame Chanel
Dominique Lamure	...	Marcel, the husband

Also Known As:

8 Women (International: English title)
8 donne e un mistero (Italy)
Huit femmes (France) (alternative spelling)

MPAA:

Rated R for some sexual content.

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

French | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Malaysia:18PL | Iceland:L | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:14 | Canada:14A | Chile:14 | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Netherlands:AL | Norway:11 | Peru:14 | Singapore:M18 | Singapore:PG (cut) | Spain:T | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of the Grisons) | UK:15 | USA:R

Company:

BIM

Trivia:

Director François Ozon wanted to make a remake of George Cukor's The Women (1939) but he changed his mind and later found the play written by Robert Thomas.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): On two occasions the ladies refer to the gun as a revolver but it is clearly a semi-automatic pistol.

Quotes:

Pierrette: As you ladies want the whole truth, I'd like to add a tidbit of information you lack.
Gaby: What is it this time?
Pierrette: Marcel and your new maid, Louise, have known each other for five years.
Gaby: What?
Pierrette: Five years of rented rooms and secret weekends. This winter you needed a maid, so Louise got hired.
[leaning in towards Gaby]
Pierrette: It's called "in-home service."

Movie Connections:

References La banquière (1980)

Soundtrack:

Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux

Not hilarious but consistently amusing and entertaining thanks to across-the-board strong delivery

It is nearing Christmas when Gaby and teenage daughter Suzon return to their home. Her husband Marcel is poorly but he has allowed Gaby's mother Mamy and Aunt Augustine to remain in the house as well – with maids Chanel and Louise to help with the guests and his other daughter Catherine. With all these women in the house, minor squabbles break out but nothing compares to the tension when Louise discovers that someone has murdered Marcel. With the house cut off by snow and the phone lines cut, it is clear that one of the eight assembled women must have done the murder – but with so many motives and so much suspicion, who could it have been?

Even if you have not seen any of these types of films or plays, the set-up will be familiar as a sort of drawing-room "one of us is the murderer" affair and indeed that is exactly what it is, in the tradition of Agatha Christie I suppose. However what Ozon's film does is take the staples of this genre and plays with them to produce a richly comic, colourful and enjoyable exaggeration thereof. Unlike some reviewers, I did not find it roaringly funny but did find it continually amusing. The plot could have been played straight and thus is good enough to hold the interest as a genre piece but it is the delivery that makes it enjoyable and engaging. While some of the songs are a bit ropey, their delivery is all slightly ott and fun for it. It also helps that the whole film is full of rich colours, again giving it the feel of a play, happening right in front of you.

Of course as with any play, a lot does rest on the cast and here we are not disappointed as the starry cast mostly "get" what the film is trying to do. Deneuve is great as the wife while Darrieux enjoys her character a great deal. Béart and Ardant both stick in the mind easily because they have a great lingering sexuality to their characters that they bring out well (Béart is particularly impressive at this game and it was here that I twigged how stunning she is). Huppert is enjoyable but I didn't like the changes her character undergoes at the end. Ledoyen is very good with her character but I wasn't so taken with Sagnier – she was OK but I thought she had the least to work with.

Overall then an enjoyable and lively take on an occasionally dry genre. The plot is solid enough to be interesting but it is the delivery across the board that adds colour, vitality and fun to the mix – from direction through set design to of course the performances. Not hilarious but consistently amusing and entertaining.