Review of 8 Women (2002) by Tina M — 06 Sep 2009

Watching this movie I discovered a couple of very interesting French actresses. These are Emmanuelle Beart and Ludivide Sagnier. For the others, I knew some of them, like Ledoyen, or Deneuve. Basically the film follows the original theatre play.

There is this man who is killed. He s surrounded by women: 8 women. One of them is the killer. But he is not really dead. And all these femmes, confess themselves like they were in a trial or in a psychoanalysis in order to find the guilty.

Everyone has a skeleton in her cupboard. Everyone has her vices. There is the drunkard, the cocotte, the stripper, the hypochondriac virgin, the lesbian, the one with a secret pregnancy. Despite of her features changed with aesthetic surgery, Beart is a very poignant actress.

She is used to fight for a cause. In her real life she fought for the sans papier in Paris, those who do not have residence permit. What I learnt about Beart is that she is slight, this means that she fights to be seen.

And she is strong. Ludivine Sagnier is just a naive who is trying to put her father s affairs in order. I think the fault of the movie is that it is too much connected with the Theatre version. There are no outside scenes.

The characters spent all their time in the house (off course they are stuck there). To liven up Ozon puts musical scenes. I love skeletons in the cupboard of a family. Families have secrets. Do you remember the incipit of Anna Karenina? Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.