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Norm gives us the nitty gritty on 8 WOMEN!
Hey folks, Harry here with a look at 8 WOMEN which was screened up at MontrÈal's Festival des Films du Monde as the Closing Film! Sounds like it is great. I watched the trailer for the film recently and adored it, so perhaps this one is a winner! Here ya go....
This was the closing film of MontrÈal's Festival des Films du Monde, I think it will be released in the U.S. this fall. Here's a review:
8 FEMMES
As warm and charming as "Gosford Park" was cold and smug, as colorful and fun as Robert Altman's film was drab and boring, FranÃois Ozon's "8 Femmes" is a delightful film for most of its length, and a resounding victory of French over British sensibilities, at least as far as this reviewer is concerned. Gorgeous actresses and visuals abound, as do witty and biting dialogue and ever more outrageous twists and revelations.
Ozon has linked his movie with his childhood attraction with dolls, dressing and undressing them and putting them in all sorts of situations. Hence, "8 femmes" is a film populated with women of all ages and kinds. There is only one male character, man of the house Marcel (Dominique Lamure), but he's murdered as the movie opens and even in flashbacks, we only see the back of his head! What Ozon is interested in is his "dolls", and you can't blame him! There's Catherine Deneuve as Marcel's pampered wife Gaby, Fanny Ardant as his "liberated" sister ! Pierrette, Isabelle Huppert, hilarious as the neurotic, never married Tante Augustine, Virginie Ledoyen as daughter Suzon, back from college for the holidays, Ludivine Sagnier as the absolutely adorable if mischievous 16 year old Catherine, Danielle Marrieux as Marcel's "alcoholic witch" of a mother-in-law, and Firmine Richard and Emmanuelle BÈart as the not-so-discreet housemaids.
The film's "doll house" is a big, lush mansion in which the 8 women and the male cadaver are stranded by a snowstorm. Adding to the theatricality is a nearly real-time narrative, predominant dialogue and musical numbers (!), but Ozon's picture is very cinematic too, if old fashioned. He's manipulated his images to recreate the look and feel of Technicolor, and the result is eye-popping and beautiful. The song and dance numbers are a mixed blessing, ranging from priceless (like Sagnier's "TÃes plus dans le coup Papa") to the downright embarrassing (like Richard's lament). Yet despite corny lyrics and unimaginative arrangements, making "8 Femmes" a musical on top of being a murder mystery and a comedy adds to the unpredictability.
The movie's main pleasure is watching all these great actresses bickering and bitching at each other, with all the old secrets and tensions finally coming to the surface. Everyone is suspecting everyone, and everyone's got a different version of how things happened! Surprises abound, which is nice, but unfortunately Ozon doesn't seem to know when to stop and it gets to be a bit much. By the end, the film loses nearly all plausibility, which I can accept if I take it as an anything-goes screwball comedy (which it sort of is), but Ozon seeks laughs AND drama, which doesn't quite pan out. Still, these are only nitpicks, as "8 Femmes as whole is a treat not to be missed, with a lot more hits than misses.
Norm
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I hope this movie hits the states soon. I would watch just about anything with Catherine Deneuve. Added bonus Isabel Huppert.
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"As warm and charming as "Gosford Park" was cold and smug, as colorful and fun as Robert Altman's film was drab and boring". Did we see the same film? Are you sure you didn't watch Mansfield Park by accident? Gorky Park? Central Park? Anal Apocalypse In The Park? Cold and smug? Drab and boring? Can you spot an ingeniously scripted, impeccably acted, beautifully shot masterpiece when its glaring you in the face? Are you a complete moron? Jeeesh. I'm all for personal opinion, but in this case...well, you're wrong buddy.
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It's a very entertaining movie and I'm anxious to see how well it will be received outside of France. The film has a lot to do with french pop culture... At one point Deneuve says a sentence from Francois Truffaut's "Dernier Metro" and Ardant hidden behind a curtain cries while listening to it (she herself said the same sentence in Truffaut's "la femme d'a cote" and was her lover in real life...) Then we see a picture of the last "Mistress" of Beart and it is Romy Schneider, a big contempory actress of Deneuve, deceised sadly which makes the scene a bitter/sweet hommage. Huppert plays the piano like in her last movie "the piano teacher" Darrieux and Deneuve are once again mother and daughter in a musical ("les demoiselles de Rochefort"),etc... As for the songs, they come from good and really bad hits from french pop in the 60's, 70's and 80's (french people from my generation can't keep a straight face while listening to Beart's number because it's a very obscur/very bad song that was played constantly one summer in the eighties...) I heard that the movie was number one in Germany not so long ago, so it seems that it still plays quite well without the injokes of french references. For me, it's Cuckor's"the Women" of 2002.
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...is about as gorgeous as it gets. She deserves to be a star. Too bad she was in the shithouse that is The Beach.
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Who wouldn't want to see a film named, "8 women"?!? I just hope it comes to SOME theater around me.
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I like the use of color in the trailer although the title regretfully reminds me of that "8 heads in a dufflebag" For me, "Gosford Park" was too cute for itself... all clever and trying too hard "yummy, yummy, yummy" g-g-g-gee, but I did like the end. I think overall "Rules of the Game" was a better and more genuine film... this "8 Women" just looks fun.
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