8 Women

Francois Ozon unites the greatest French actresses of their respective generations, in this curiously whimsical ‘murder-musical-mystery’.

Set in a 1950s bourgeois home on Christmas Eve, a wealthy industrialist is found dead with a knife in his back. Isolated the inhabitants soon realise the murderer is in their midst. Among the suspects are the patriarch’s wife (Catherine Deneuve), his two daughters (Virginie Ledoyen, Ludivine Sagnier), his estranged sister (Fanny Ardant), his mother-in-law (Danielle Darrieux), his sister-in-law (Isabelle Huppert), the chambermaid (Emmanuelle Béart) and his cook (Firmine Richard). All 8 women turn on each other and descend into comical madness as family secrets, love triangles and jealousies are revealed.

The musical interludes and candy-coloured sets are central to the film’s exuberant kitschy quality. It is delightful to see the grand dames of French cinema parody themselves; Isabelle Huppert’s performance as a bitter, OTT spinster stands in hilarious contrast to her usual reserved persona, while Ardant and Deneuve’s increasingly antagonistic relationship plays beautifully to their comparable iconic status in French cinema. We also see Ludivine Sagnier all sugar and spice as opposed to her international breakthrough as a sexually charged menace in Ozon’s immediate follow up, 'Swimming Pool'.

At first glance, the film is essentially an entertaining whodunit, but major cinephiles will also revel in the plethora of cinematic references from French and old Hollywood cinema. Ozon strikes the perfect chord.