Atli Hafsteinsson What sort of film 8 Women is depends on whom you ask. Some may call it a whodunit, some may call it melodrama and yet others may call it a postmodern who's-who. But it's not really any of these. It is a quite uncategorizable French film that's in parts murder mystery, in parts musical. In any case, it's a searing, enjoyable character piece exploring 8 fascinating female figures.Presumed to be set in 1950s France, eight women assemble at their countryside home ready to spend Christmas together. But the celebrations are put on hold when Marcel, the only man in the house, is found stabbed to death in his bed. Since it's snowed in, it's clear that one of the eight women committed the murder. Fueled by this fear, the eight women begin to interrogate each other, and as they do, the real meat of the story unfolds. Suffice it to say, nothing is what it seems.8 Women takes a set-up that Agatha Christie made famous in books like "And Then There Were None" and plays with it in a very tongue-in-cheek way. At the same time it still, astonishingly, manages to be very moving. It takes itself just seriously enough, as evidenced by the movie's most famous trait; the song and dance numbers. Each woman gets a little song sequence to herself, in which she gets to revel in her character. It should be noted that all of these are already well-known French songs, such as "Pile oú face" sung by the minxish Emmanuelle Béart in her iconic maid's outfit, and "Toi jamais" by Catherine Deneuve. The brilliance of these scenes is that unlike in most musicals, the characters are very much aware that a song and dance is going on. When the movie's first song kicks in, the mother enthusiastically starts dancing along, to the grandmother's consternation, and afterwards can be heard humming the chorus to herself. It's a cheeky breaking of the 4th wall that has not its like in any other movie. These music scenes give a great charm to the movie, so much so that there was even a soundtrack album released.The murder mystery is the movie's setup, but far more important are the women themselves, as evidenced by the title. 8 Femmes is as much a story about the female psyche as it is a crime drama, and each of the eight women is a fascinating character in her own right. Of particular note, though, is the high-strung, hypochondriac spinster Augustine, performed by an electrifying Isabelle Huppert. Fanny Ardant is then spellbinding as the victim's estranged sister Pierette, a femme-fatale who seems quite above the drama most of the other women are up to their necks in, but delights in taking part in it. Catherine Deneuve is also strong as the matriarch, Gaby, who struggles to keep her well-ordered world from falling apart as more and more secrets are revealed. Adultery, lesbianism, incest, the plot only thickens every time someone opens her mouth.If all the above seems like a very far-fetched blend, that probably stands to reason. But everyone involved is determined to tell this ridiculous story with love and passion. The cast is all big French names, young and old, which is something Hollywood could definitely learn from, from the young and vivacious Ludivine Sagnier as the victim's bratty teenage daughter Catherine to grande dame Danielle Darrieux in the role of the spiteful grandma. This movie is one of the reasons why there are awards for ensemble casts, and indeed the film garnered the Silver Berlin Bear and the European Film Award for this very reason. These actresses and their characters are the heart of the film. The delivery is sharp and biting across the board, and thus the film is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny on many occasions.8 Femmes is, at the end of the day, a riveting mish-mash of film genres, told both with love, intrigue and tongue firmly planted in cheek. It's a fascinating, slightly self-conscious tribute to both film genres and actresses as much as it is an entertaining crime story. Parts of it will ask you to suspend your disbelief, but even so, the film reels back in even its biggest doubters with a superb plot twist towards the end. Still, what's important here is to what the movie's title so aptly pertains; the eight women. Let them take you on a ride you are unlikely to ever forget.

pepe4u22 What a terrific little foreign gem to watch . All the actresses involved were spot on in their acting and the movie moved along with a breezy and wonderful pace. As I watched the movie I noticed in one scene a picture of Ms. Denueve in her youth but she still looks radiant in this movie. The plot is been there done it but with a couple of twists and the musical numbers are wonderful two stand out the first with the mom and her daughters and the other was when the two daughters were in their room. I know some people do not like subtitles but to me I rarely notice and the movie was wonderfully entertaining. I highly recommend it to watch.

lastliberal A group of the best French actors: Catherine Deneuve (Indochine), Isabelle Huppert (My Mother, The Piano Teacher), Emmanuelle Béart (The 4 Musketeers), Fanny Ardant (Paris, I Love You), Virginie Ledoyen (The Beach), Danielle Darrieux (Dangerous Liaisons, Persepolis), Ludivine Sagnier (Paris I Love You, Swimming Pool), and Firmine Richard gather together to present a mystery-comedy-musical feast that was pure delight.One would immediately think that a film called 8 femmes and featuring incest and lesbianism would possibly be a bit salacious, but that is far from the truth. This was a film about women, and their vices and secrets and jealousies.There was a mystery - Gaby's (Catherine Deneuve) husband is found dead; and, of course, all of the women are suspect for different reasons. There is the comedy as the layers keep being pealed like an onion to reveal the truth. While this is going on, we pause eight times to hear a song by each of the women. What fun! This was an enjoyable film and the chance to see eight of France's best act and sing should not be missed.

B J Or, usually, the work would not stop there. Here it did.The renowned actresses try their best. I can't even say that the plot is bad because it could have worked (the two points I gave are to be derived from that). The problem was that the story just got lost and the movie became a parody of itself. It does not do well as a crime, comedy or musical movie in any manner. 1. Musical? You would need to be able to sing and dance for that to decent melodies. Forget it. I am a musical fan, believe me, this is not a musical in any respect. It is true that there are attempts at some screeching to music-like tunes but saying that there be singing and music is simply not true. 2. Comedy? In as much as this is ridiculous, yes. I also have to admit that I am not an admirer of the so called "French humor" (in case this phenomenon exists at all, anyone encountered it yet?), and could not recognize any comedic parts in here either. 3. Crime time line lost. As a result of the genre mix, the crime line that could have been doing well (I even venture to say that in the beginning, you do have suspense), fades away very soon.4. Lack of characters that are at least interesting. The female characters depicted are to the greatest extent unlikeable and unlikely.A good deal of the screening time tries to deal with the tangled interpersonal relationship of the eight women, but due to lack of time and artistic virtues on behalf of the director (oh yes, it is true, sorry), it just gets out of bounds and is incomprehensible and uninteresting. There is no likeness whatsoever to Agatha Christie's any works (except maybe the very early and lame Mary Westmacott love stories she started with). I do not know, why 8 Femmes has such an excellent rating at IMDb, I suppose it can be derived from the general respect for the cast members, but otherwise, this movie did not work for me, it did not work in any genre it attempted to form the part of, and is should not be legal to have such casts wasted all for nothing.