Review of 8 Women (2002) by Yang J — 12 Jan 2014

8 Femmes is a high camp romp that is all about the ensemble cast of three generations of great French actresses, from an 84-year old Danielle Darrieux to a 22-year old Ludivine Sagnier, and that includes world stars Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, and Emmanuelle Beart.

Based on the eponymous 1958 play by Robert Thomas, the story is a familiar derivation of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. Marcel, the head of a wealthy country household, is murdered. The eight women in his life - his wife (Deneuve), two daughters (Virginie Ledoyan and Sagnier), sister (Fanny Ardant), mother- (Darrieux) and sister-in-law (Huppert), chambermaid (Beart) and cook (Firmine Richard) - are trapped together in the chateau by sabotage and a snowstorm. Unable to contact the police, they set about trying to deduce which of them is the murderer. Lies are told; secrets are revealed; alliances are made and broken; and in the end there is a surprising double twist.

As a murder mystery, the plot is hardly worthy of, say, Anthony Shaffer. But the plot is not the point, as you realise when the cast first (and entirely unexpectedly) breaks into song. This is not a garden variety country house thriller: This is no-holds-barred family politics, packaged as a tongue-in-cheek imitation of 1950s glam entertainment. Sit back, and enjoy the snappy interaction among the leads, and the gradual revelation of their characters' desires, their petty jealousies, and the gambits they use and have used, against each other and against Marcel, to get what they want. It is occasionally clumsy, always campy, and you might roll your eyes now and then at a particular bit of silliness. But 8 Femmes is worth the ride.