8 WOMEN
France, 2001, 110 minutes, Colour.
Danielle Darrieux, Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Fanny Ardant, Virginie Ledoyen, Emmanuelle Beart, Firmine Richard, Ludivine Sagnier.
Directed by Francois Ozon.
French writer-director, Francois Ozon, has tackled a diversity of genres in the last five years: broad satire in Sitcom to a profound portrait of a lonely woman in Under the Sand. Here he directs 8 women. He is said to have wanted to do a remake of the 30s Hollywood classic, The Women, but the rights were not available. So, with the help of Agatha Christie-like whodunits, he found a 60s play and set his drama in an isolated mansion at Christmas time. A murder is announced and the 8 women in the house are manipulated by one of the characters into a series of revelations about themselves and their interactions with the dead man (husband, father, brother, master...). Revelations and clues come thick (very thick and often almost unbelievably) and fast (as if it was all being made up on the spot with whatever plot 'development' suddenly came into the mind of the writer). But, we accept it because that is the kind of film it is - unless you are an absolute realist and the whole thing will seem too absurd for words.
And, if you think it absurd, you will be driven mad by Ozon's device of giving each of the 8 women a song, into which they suddenly burst (a bit like the phrasing of this last part of my sentence!). The songs and the choreography are a means of revealing and developing character - and, if you are still accepting the artificiality of the piece, they work, although I am not sure that Catherine Deneuve is totally at ease with the choreographical gyrations she is asked to perform. Nevertheless, she is still mesmerising.
With Catherine Deneuve in the lead and bringing 1950s bourgeois glamour to her performance, we are off to a good start. Her mother is played by veteran Danielle Darrieux who was making films in the early 1930s. Still on the glamour side, we have a vivacious Fanny Ardant as the victim's imposing sister (and her song is on the mesmerising side as well) and a maid who prefers to be mistress in Emmanuelle Beart. There are two daughters in the house, a young teenager, Ludovine Sagnier, and the ingenue, Virginie Ledoyen (The Beach). Firmine Richard is the kindly housekeeper with a secret.
Most disturbing, however, is an almost unrecognisable Isabelle Huppert as the disagreeably petulant and critical 'old maid'. But, the director relents and she has an opportunity for final glamour. This is the kind of film that it is. The final twist occurred to me right at the beginning, but that is also what you might expect.
1. Ozon and the variety of his work, playing with genre, styles? Satire, savagery, depth, surfaces, his homage to other film-makers?
2. The Agatha Christie-like background, the isolated mansion, the interiors of the house, the '50s, an old-fashioned style screenplay, the characters, the murder, the piling of clue on clue, the diverse revelations? An old-fashioned whodunnit?
3. The influence of Douglas Sirk, the women, their styles, clothes, manners?
4. The introduction of the songs, interpolated, for each character, the different styles of choreography, the complete artificiality?
5. The situation, Marcel, his marriage to Gaby, father, businessman, his partner, his relationship to his mother-in-law, his sister? The reconstruction of the night and each of the women visiting him and clashing with him, everyone involved? The plot against him, Catherine and her plot to expose them all? The culmination in him shooting himself?
6. The portrait of the women, their gender, their types, age, class, sex, sexual orientation, interactions? Love, hatred, fidelity, betrayal, neuroses, ambitions, selfishness, cruelty?
7. The situation, Suzon and her arrival, the young girl arriving for Christmas enjoyment, the ordinariness of the situation, the scream and the revelation of the death, the phone lines cut, the gun, light and darkness, the passing of the day, the building up of the truth games?
8. The audience able to suspend disbelief about the characters, the creaky plot, the songs - or it simply seeming absurd?
9. Catherine Deneuve as Gaby, her age, glamour, as a mother, as a wife, her snobbery, bourgeois, her relationship with Marcel, with the father of Suzon, her relationship to Suzan, to Catherine? Her own mother - and the revelation that she had killer her husband? The clashes with Augustine? Her snobbish attitude towards Louise, the clashes with Pierette, her being packed and ready to go, the manager of the factory as her lover, the encounter with Pierette and the lesbian kiss, her song?
10. Mamy and her age, her daughters, her relationships with them, an alcoholic, hiding her drink, in the wheelchair, suddenly getting out of it, the truth about her killing her own husband, her relationship with her daughters, the relationship with Marcel, her miserliness, her bonds? Singing with Catherine on the stairs?
11. Suzon, age, pretty young girl, study in London, her return home, her bonds with Catherine, singing with Catherine and her mother, boyfriends, the news about her pregnancy, the irony that Marcel was the father, her upset, her snobbish attitude towards Louise? Her song with the doll and Catherine?
12. Louise, the saucy maid, her reaction against Gaby and Suzon, her being a mistress to Marcel, her past relationships, the photo of Romy Schneider as a former employer, her rebelling, letting her hair down literally, her song with the two different styles and the two different facets of her personality?
13. Chantal, her role as a servant, place in the household, her African background, pleasant, the news about her playing cards, coming in and out of the house, her infatuation with Pierette, sexual orientation and discussions, her song?
14. Isabelle Huppert as Augustine, her austere appearance, sharp, nasty and neurotic, taking the brioche, her constant criticisms, the toilet at night, not reading, her despising of Suzon? The fights, the petulance? The transformation, her glamour, her singing at the piano?
15. Pierette, her relationship to Marcel, her background as an exotic dancer, age, coming because of the phone call, tantalising people, her exotic song, lesbian orientation, money and its management, giving it to the manager, kissing Gaby?
16. Catherine, her age, appearance, with her mother, singing with Suzon and her mother, her explanation of the whole plot, firing the gun, her devotion to her father, the shock ending with him killing himself?
17. The overall effect of artifice, characters and issues, a homage to the films of the '50s?
