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8 Women [2002]
![8 Women [2002]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51smxUC8YPL._SL160_.jpg)
RRP: £12.99
Our Price: £4.98 (subject to change)
Yes, but ...
Review date: 2008-11-01 Rating: 6 out of 10
Yes it's wonderful, but spoilt to a considerable extent by the compulsory subtitles which intrude upon the visual, and distract from the aural, beauty which make it so special. It's the sort of film that can be watched several times, so even someone who didn't speak French could have enjoyed it "au naturel" after a while. Indeed I would go so far as to say that it cannot be fully appreciated in this state. Whether this extraordinary situation is due to disdain for the English consumer, or an act of sheer philistinism, is a mystery, but 1 or 2 stars have to be subtracted for desecration on this scale.
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Reviews
A feast - and fun!
Review date: 2008-02-05 Rating: 8 out of 10
Reviewers highlighting the misogynist nature of this movie have been taking it all far too seriously. It's a visual feast. It's a lot of fun. I enjoyed all eight songs, despite having no love of musicals. And the ending (no spoilers!) was wonderfully funny. The plot really doesn't matter, nor does the nature of the society in which the director grew up, nor the views of those people who get squeamish watching gory comedy (which this mostly isn't). Just enjoy eight women.
Each of the eight women has a character, a song and a secret. The songs work. They don't interfere with the action. They're beautifully done. The plot itself, as mentioned elsewhere, is increasingly preposterous and largely irrelevant.
I admit that did find I had to concentrate more than usual on the subtitles, because with anything up to eight women in the room at one time this is a very quick-witted film, and there is much verbal dexterity to be missed.
Whatever you may say of Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert and other, relatively senior artists, it is the youngest, Ludivine Sagnier, who steals the show in more ways than one. She was about 22 and successfully playing sixteen I think. Sagnier gets the first and best song, and easily the best part. She even manages to upstage her screen sister in the middle of the movie when it's the older girl's turn to sing, so much so that she exits stage right and leaves a teddy bear to continue dancing with the renowned Virginie Ledoyen (Les Miserables, The Beach).
Needing little more than one room, perhaps even one act, '8 femmes' could of course be made to work well on stage.
There is no subtext. The end is hilarious, not tragic, more like a big Mel Brooks gag than any kind of social comment.
8 Women, where the murder is almost irrelevant, the songs are great and the women...ah, the women
Review date: 2007-12-26 Rating: 8 out of 10
8 Women is a lightweight, stylish and funny murder mystery. But forget the murder. The movie really is a terrific excuse to have several of France's greatest actresses strut their stuff. We might as well get the plot out of the way quickly. There's a snowed-in country home, elegant looking and filled with elegant women. A man is found dead and one of the women in the house killed him. Who and why?
In addition to the male corpse, there's the corpse's wife, his mother-in-law, his two daughters, his sister, his sister-in-law, the chambermaid and the housekeeper. In order, they are Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Virginie Ledoyan and Ludivine Sagnier, Fanny Ardant, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Beart and Firmine Richard. And as they tell us their stories, while the corpse stays chilled in an upstairs bedroom, they each sing French pop songs. It's all odd, funny and endearing. If they all look much like a selection of French bon bons, that's because the movie itself looks like a colorful candy box.
Isabelle Huppert is one of my favorite actresses in any language, and it was good to see her play an amusing part for a change. I'm not sure how many other actresses of her caliber can glare and make it funny. Danielle Darrieux at 85 is a wonder. The sight of Fannie Ardant and Catherine Deneuve rolling around on the floor in a semi-Sapphic tussle was gripping. And those who want to have their illusions about tomboys shattered, just watch Sagnier as the youngest daughter here and then as the under-clothed bombshell she played the following year in Swimming Pool.
Who is the killer? You won't find out from me, although that's scarcely the point of the movie. As Darrieux tells us in song, "There is no happy love." Still, murder can be a pleasure when it involves these eight actresses.
8 Women is an easy movie to watch more than once. The DVD picture and audio are first-rate.
A mystery story worthy of Hitchcock
Review date: 2007-12-16 Rating: 10 out of 10
I really enjoyed this movie. It is a thriller/mystery where a murder has been committed and it is plain that it has to be one of 8 women, but who exactly. Everyone appears to have a good reason to have committed the act and the accusations, jealousies and intrigues are rife.
A treat to have some of the very top French actresses all in the same film and the acting is great.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Emmanuelle Beart
Fanny Ardant
Isabelle Huppert
Virginie Ledoyen
Catherine Deneuve
Creators:
Catherine Deneuve (Primary Contributor)
Emmanuelle Beart (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: Pathe Distribution
Manufacturer: Pathe Distribution
EAN: 5060002835661
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2008-01-21
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 103 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2002