Product: 8 Women (2002)
Rating: 4.0
Whatever you do, don't take this film seriously!
The creme de la creme of France's glamorous dramatic actresses have been brought together in this murder mystery in which all manner of sordid family secrets are revealed.Who'd have thought such a premise could be so funny?With 8 Women, director Franois Ozon crafts a brilliant satire of the old drawing-room murder mysteries, and fills it with a giddy, campy glee. All the characters are stock stereotypes, the plot twists grow more and more convoluted until they start contradicting each other, and the actresses perform the tongue-in-cheek dialogue with almost melodramatic seriousness.And each of them gets a song.It's very clear here everyone's having fun, especially Isabelle Huppert, Fanny Ardant, and Virginie Ledoyen, who get to make fun of the deadly serious roles they're known for (such as in The Piano Teacher, Elizabeth, and A Single Girl, respectively). Ludivine Sagnier, who is both frightening and scorchingly sexy in Ozon's more recent film Swimming Pool, is the exact opposite here: the young, bouncy, innocent daughter who seems to wear her mind on her sleeve.Sets and costumes are bright and lush, like they were back in the day when color in film was a novelty. The songs are a delight: diverse, character-appropriate, and irretrievably French. And while all eight actresses really sing their songs, Ozon adds to the campy fun by having each actress lip-synch to her own voice while engaging in the kind of cheesy choreography one expects from cinematic song-breaks (Sagnier's "Papa T'Es Plus Dans l'Coup" is probably the best example of this).My only real complaint is with the DVD itself. There are no special features (the French DVD has interviews, behind-the-scenes stuff, and more), the English subtitles are irremovable, and French subtitles aren't even offered. The chapter breaks are awkward; a couple even cut into the beginning of songs. I got the feeling that the folks at Universal just didn't care enough about the film to give it the DVD treatment it deserves.I highly recommend this film, but remember: despite the previews and the all-star cast, don't expect for a minute that this is a serious movie. Think of it more like "What if the French had made Clue".