Francois Ozon is a daring director who never leaves the audience indifferent... 8 Women can be seen as a mysoginist view of womanhood from the viewpoint of a gay director... However I for one saw this movie as great entertainment and excellent showpiece for France's leading screen divas.
8 Woman is a whodunnit not so far from Agatha Christie's 10 Petits Negres: 8 women each have enough reasons to kill the father, in-law, brother and master of the house. Of course I will not tell who killed the man and why, but it is not so important after all. Because 8 Women is first and foremost about womanhood: all facets of the woman exposed through the revelations, attitudes, manipulations of 8 different women: the girl, the blossoming young lady (Ledoyen), the femme fatale (fabulous Ardant), the femme repressed (hilarious Huppert), the bourgeoise (Deneuve), the old stepmother, the lesbian, the sexual and sexy maid (Beart).
This film is all about the cast performance. All women have their sing-a-song moment very apropos and funny. All actors deliver stunningly, especially Ardant, Deneuve and Beart. It is very lighthearted despite the somber revelations: bright colours, golden 50's nostalgic atmosphere, nice pop tunes with fun choreography.
It is great to see that French directors love their actresses whatever their age... Hollywood learn from this, we don't care much about Pamela Anderson or Jennifer Lopez-like babes... Honestly as a young French guy, the 50-something Fanny Ardant is the one who turned me on the most!
Wholeheartedly, 9.5/10
8 Woman is a whodunnit not so far from Agatha Christie's 10 Petits Negres: 8 women each have enough reasons to kill the father, in-law, brother and master of the house. Of course I will not tell who killed the man and why, but it is not so important after all. Because 8 Women is first and foremost about womanhood: all facets of the woman exposed through the revelations, attitudes, manipulations of 8 different women: the girl, the blossoming young lady (Ledoyen), the femme fatale (fabulous Ardant), the femme repressed (hilarious Huppert), the bourgeoise (Deneuve), the old stepmother, the lesbian, the sexual and sexy maid (Beart).
This film is all about the cast performance. All women have their sing-a-song moment very apropos and funny. All actors deliver stunningly, especially Ardant, Deneuve and Beart. It is very lighthearted despite the somber revelations: bright colours, golden 50's nostalgic atmosphere, nice pop tunes with fun choreography.
It is great to see that French directors love their actresses whatever their age... Hollywood learn from this, we don't care much about Pamela Anderson or Jennifer Lopez-like babes... Honestly as a young French guy, the 50-something Fanny Ardant is the one who turned me on the most!
Wholeheartedly, 9.5/10