Product: 8 Women (2002)
Rating: 5.0
If you see one French musical murder mystery this year.....
After the absorbing "Under The Sand", director Francois Ozon has completely changed tack with this delightful confection starring some of French cinema's most legendary and indeed most beautiful actresses. Taking his cue from the stereotypical murder mystery with suspects trapped in a secluded mansion, Ozon has transformed this into a colourful and sometimes even camp (in the best sense of the word) film with women at the centre.It is difficult to single out individual performances - however the two youngest actresses, Virginie Ledoyen and Ludivine Sagnier suffer a little in the presence of the great firmament of acting. Catherine Deneuve, as always is luminous while Firmine Richard gets the best song, and her delivery gives it added pathos. Emmanuelle Beart is sultry, Fanny Ardant is vampy and the grande dame of the cinema, Danielle Darrieux ("Voluers! Assasins!") adds great comic touches. However, by a nose the most outstanding performace has to be Isabelle Huppert's spinster, Augustine. It would have been easy to go over the top with her character (and at times she veers dangerously close) but she is able to pull back and her "singing moment" challenges Richard's for being the most heart-breaking.The film does betray its theatrical origins sometimes but this lends itself to the artifice that Ozon wishes to create. Once you have got over the unlikely scenario of suspects in a murder breaking into song, you will sit back and thoroughly enjoy this winning musical.