Product: 8 Women (2002)
Rating: 5.0
Highly Entertaining and Original Film
This is one of the most enjoyable films I've seen in years. Francois Ozon is the best new director to emerge from France in the past decade, most of his films are considerably darker than this mystery/musical but he shifts gears beautifully (the movie does have a whiff of the comic decadence that is the Ozon trademark.) The movie is beautifully photographed with a glossy look that evokes the American Technicolor films of the 1950's (especially the candy-colored films of Universal from the era such as Douglas Sirk's soap operas.) The movie is in fact set in the 1950's although this point is not stressed. The whole cast is wonderful and for the most part, sing great. I've played many of the song tracks again and again. Ludvine Sagner as a great French teen rock-n-roll number, Frimine Richard sings a very moving ballad, and French film legend Danielle Darrieux (a movie star for over 70 years!!) closes the film with a poignant number. Catherine Deneuve may not be much of a singer but she is still a gorgeous screen presence in her late fifties and recalls Lana Turner here in her chic matron period (although Lana was almost 20 years younger during this stint than Catherine is now!!) I do want to add though my copy of this DVD does not come equipped to turn the English subtitles off as others have also stated. I frankly much prefer EIGHT WOMEN to the recent American film musicals that have made a splash, it's a love letter to eight outstanding French actresses.