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Movies / On DVD / 8 Women
8 Women

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8 Women (2002)

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Reviews Counted:111

Fresh:87

Rotten:24

Average Rating:6.9/10

Consensus: Featuring some of the best French actresses working today, 8 Women is frothy, delirious, over-the-top fun.

Runtime: 1 hr 51 mins

Genre: Comedies

Synopsis: From French director Francois Ozon, 8 WOMEN is a character drama and musical set in a country home during Christmastime in the 1950s. Though the atmosphere seems light and festive, when the host,... From French director Francois Ozon, 8 WOMEN is a character drama and musical set in a country home during Christmastime in the 1950s. Though the atmosphere seems light and festive, when the host, Marcel, is stabbed in the back, one of the eight women in the house must be the culprit. The youngest of the bunch, Catherine (Ludivine Sagnier), is a teenager who loved her Daddy and also loves police novels. Her sister, Suzon (Virginie Ledoyen), is a student in England who has traveled home for the holiday. Their mom is Gaby (Catherine Deneuve), the ungrieving wife of Marcel, who never reveals too much. Grandma, who goes by Mamie (Danielle Darrieux), is an alcoholic who reveals that she's not as innocent as she looks when she walks right out of her wheelchair. Marcel's sister, Pierrette (Fanny Ardant) arrives mysteriously just after the murder. The maids, Louise (Emmanuelle Beart) and Chanel (Firmine Richard), are obviously up to no good as their stories keep changing. And the neurotic and hilarious Augustine (Isabelle Huppert), Gaby's sister, is the aging virgin who is just plain unstable. As each of these women interrogate each other, each singing her own song as a type of encrypted confession, there are some very funny moments. 8 WOMEN unfolds like a demented CLUE, with absurd tidbits of information--Chanel is actually an exotic dancer; Gaby and Louise are lesbian lovers--coming straight from Ozon's quirky sense of humor. A magnificent set, a snowy backdrop, and candy colored costumes complete this wacky tongue-in-cheek affair. [More]

Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Beart, Danielle Darrieux

Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Beart, Danielle Darrieux, Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Ledoyen, Ludivine Sagnier, Firmine Richard

Director: Francois Ozon

Director: Francois Ozon
Screenwriter: Francois Ozon
Producer: Olivier Delbosc, Marc Missonnier
Composer: Krishna Levy
Studio: Focus Features

[See More Credits]

Reviews for 8 Women

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 >> >|
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There cannot be many people who wouldn't want to pay to see Deneuve smash a bottle over the head of an old woman in a wheelchair.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
12/10/08
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This is a style of camp so broad that even the most bovine straight can get it.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
01/26/06
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The enfant terrible of French cinema, François Ozon’s brave foray into the mind of not one, but eight, women is a gloriously-executed examination of what lies beneath the manicured façade of the female species.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
04/23/03
Lucy Muss
Lucy Muss
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Each performance is beautifully controlled, notably Huppert's devastating comic turn as Augustine, and integrated into a seamless ensemble.

Full Review Source: Sight and Sound | comment Comment
12/03/02
Ginette Vincendeau
Ginette Vincendeau
Sight and Sound

An oddity, not without charm.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
12/02/02
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Highly recommended.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
11/30/02
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

There's just enough of a hint at something interesting beneath the surface to make you wish Ozon had actually had the nerve to really go for it.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
11/28/02
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

Leave your sense of reason at the door and surrender yourself to the oo-la-laughs.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
11/11/02
Laura Bushell
Laura Bushell
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

An Agatha Christie drawing room mystery crossed with the '50s setting and melodrama of Douglas Sirk crossed with the musicality of Jacques Demy with some Aaron Spelling bitchery thrown in for good measure.

Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | comment Comment
12/28/08
Michael Dequina
Michael Dequina
TheMovieReport.com

Frothy, racy frivolity starring such French all-stars as Danielle Darrieux, Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert and Emmanuelle Béart.

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
08/07/08
Mark Halverson
Mark Halverson
Sacramento News & Review

Ozon's notion of derision is perfectly carried out by his multi-generational name cast.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
06/11/08
Lisa Nesselson
Lisa Nesselson
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Klopt elementen van een Agatha Christie whodunnit, een frivole chansonmusical en de kleurrijke melodramas van Douglas Sirk op tot een luchtige souffle, als is de kooktijd wel wat lang.

Full Review Source: bibloi.com | comment Comment
10/02/07
Boyd van Hoeij
Boyd van Hoeij
bibloi.com

Some may find Ozon's rigorously clever deconstruction of so many conventions a little too French for their tastes, but cineasts and worshippers of les femmes at their most fatales will find this farce wonderfully fierce.

Full Review Source: Premiere Magazine | comment Comment
09/17/03
Glenn Kenny
Glenn Kenny
Premiere Magazine

Excepcional policial-comédia-drama-musical com um elenco fabuloso, direção de arte e figurinos notáveis e direção firme e elegante de Ozon.

comment Comment
07/25/03
Pablo Villaca
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena

In a film season dominated by male-oriented action flicks, 8 Women provides the feminine charm and sophistication to soothe the film-loving connoisseur in all of us.

Full Review Source: Palo Alto Weekly | comment Comment
05/20/03
Tyler Hanley
Tyler Hanley
Palo Alto Weekly

How much viewers enjoy this depends on to what extent they're able to focus on the shining stars at the center while ignoring the narrative debris surrounding them.

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment Comment
04/16/03
Matt Brunson
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing

The film starts to feel like decorative misogyny.

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
03/07/03
Sydney Morning Herald
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

...the true spirit of the film is in the story of desperate women who will do desperate things to make themselves happy, no matter who they hurt.

Full Review Source: Oscar Guy | comment Comment
02/16/03
Wesley Lovell
Wesley Lovell
Oscar Guy

The musical numbers are what ultimately undo the movie.

Full Review Source: Mark Reviews Movies | comment Comment
01/26/03
Mark Dujsik
Mark Dujsik
Mark Reviews Movies

A fluffy, super saturated 50's chick murder mystery - with songs!

Full Review Source: Cinerina | comment Comment
01/25/03
Karina Montgomery
Karina Montgomery
Cinerina
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 >> >|
all

Latest News for 8 Women

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