Product: 8 Women (2002)
Rating: 4.0
An interesting movie with legendary actresses
To start of, I am not a fan of Francois Ozon, his stories always seemed to be over sexed to sell more tickets. I only decided to watch this movie because of the 8 actresses (Deneuve and Bear especially). The story was shot and acted as a stage play. The colors, setting and the characters all looked perfect. However, this ideal picture is just an illusion for it hid beneath it rotten characters. The eight women are all selfish, murder, greedy and adulterous. Though the characters are not defined completely, the actresses do bring life and a sense of fun in portraying them. Off course, I can not review this movie without talking about the song. Its true none of the actresses is a real singer ( Darrieux and Deneuve did actually record music) nevertheless, the songs were preformed "well". Arden's song - a quoi sert de vivre liber was well preformed and actually better the original version (whish was sung by Nicoletta). The songs are actually hits from the 70's and 60's. Most of the songs are integrated perfectly into the movie to reviel character in their most "naked" moment. The song of the legendary singer Dalida "Pour ne pas vivre seul" was perfectly used - though badly preformed- to illustrate the loneliness of the housekeeper. Ozon again implemented his techniques in sexual tension by over using lesbianism in this movie. However, this is an entertaining movie to watch and to monitor the tension of those 8 "women" that are locked in a small space. Finally, people ask what is the point of the movie? well on the surface it is just a murder mystery however, underlying it is a pessimistic message that true love is hard to get and even harder to keep, or as Darrieux say it in her final number Il y a pas d'amour heureux!.