They sing, they dance, they kill: Catherine Deneuve and seven other great French actresses try to solve a murder between musical numbers in Francois Ozon's delicious 8 Women.8 Women * Written and directed by Francois Ozon * Starring Catherine Deneuve Catherine Deneuve (French IPA: [ka'tʁin də'nœv]), (October 22, 1943, in Paris, France), is an Academy Award-nominated French actress. , Fanny Ardant Fanny Marguerite Judith Ardant (born March 22, 1949 in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, France) is a French actress. Ardant grew up in Monaco until age 17 when she moved to Aix-en-Provence to study at the Institut d'études politiques d'Aix-en-Provence. , Isabelle Huppert Isabelle Anne Huppert (French IPA: [iza'bɛl y'pɛʀ]) (born March 16, 1955, Paris) is a French actress. She was raised in Ville d'Avray, a western suburb of Paris. , and Emmanuelle Beart * Focus Features Imagine if Agatha Christie had written The Women, and producer Ross Hunter hired Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Jacques Demy de·my n. pl. de·mies Any of several standard sizes of paper, especially paper measuring 16 by 21 inches. [Alteration of demi-.] to collaborate on a musical version of it in French with an all-star cast. Believe it or not, that's the simplest way to describe 8 Women--the latest and most purely entertaining work from openly gay rising French auteur auteur (ōtör`), in film criticism, a director who so dominates the film-making process that it is appropriate to call the director the auteur, or author, of the motion picture. Francois Ozon. Even if you're not familiar with the names mentioned above, it's hard to dismiss the fun to be had from a movie starring Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Beart, Virginie Ledoyen Virginie Ledoyen (born Virginie Fernandez on November 15, 1976 in Paris) is a French actress. She was a print model from the age of 2 and later took on the stage name "Ledoyen" after the maiden name of her maternal grandmother, who had been a stage actress. , and that most legendary of French actresses, Danielle Darrieux Danielle Yvonne Marie Antoinette Darrieux (born May 1, 1917 in Bordeaux, France) is a French actress and singer. Career She is the daughter of an army doctor who died when she was seven years old. . The only problem is drawing the attention of digital effects-besotted moviegoers. But perhaps they're a lost cause anyway. It's Christmas and everyone has arrived at the country estate when "Monsieur" is suddenly discovered with a knife in his back. The phone lines have been cut, and a snowstorm makes outside contact next to impossible. So all the prime suspects are nicely arrayed to play the whodunit game. Was it the beautiful but unhappy wife (Deneuve)? The resentful maiden aunt (Huppert)? The mysterious, ultrachic sister (Ardant)? The too-beautiful maid (Beart)? The motherly moth·er·ly adj. 1. Of, like, or appropriate to a mother: motherly love. 2. Showing the affection of a mother. adv. In a manner befitting a mother. black housekeeper (Firmine Richard)? The unmotherly mother (Darrieux)? Or are the two principal detectives, the victim's daughters (Ledoyen and Ludivine Sagnier), somehow to blame? It wouldn't be fair to give too much away, but suffice it to say that the usual sort of suddenly revealed secrets is made spicier by the revelation of a lesbian affair or two. Or is it three? Not that there's anything much at stake in all of this, for Ozon isn't a realist, and the same-sex dalliances he discloses are pure Hollywood fantasy. Few women ever manage to look as drop-dead chic as the ones we see here embracing on the living room rug. Moreover, that embrace isn't meant to examine same-sex passion so much as it is to recall plush A-picture romance in all its Hollywood glow. And that's why Ozon has set his stow in the 1950s, with Ledoyen clearly meant to recall Audrey Hepburn and Sagnier a combination of Sandra Dee and Hayley Mills Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills (born April 18, 1946) is an English actress. Biography Mills is the younger daughter of the actor Sir John Mills and the playwright Mary Hayley Bell. She is also the younger sister of actress Juliet Mills, who appears on the U.S. . An added blast from the past comes from the songs the actresses get to perform at key dramatic moments. Some are pure ye-ye pop tunes like "Papa t'es plus dans l'coup" ("Papa, You Don't Get It"), performed by Sagnier like Chantal Goya Chantal Goya (born Chantal Deguerre June 10, 1946 in Saigon), is a French singer and actress. Chantal Goya started her career as a yé-yé girl, singing a catchy mid-'60s hybrid of girl-group pop and French chanson. on speed. Others are talk-sing numbers like "Message personnel," which gives Huppert's incredibly neurotic aunt--she seems to be channeling Agnes Moorehead in Dark Passage--a chance to calm down and sing from the heart. There's also a number dealing deftly with same-sex affairs, "Pour ne pas vivre seul" ("So as Not to Live Alone"), performed with casual subtlety by Richard. And saving the best for last, Danielle Darrieux, all 85 elegant years of her, sings "Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux" ("There Is No Happy Love"), a poem by Louis Aragon set to music by Georges Brassens. Clearly, in taking on femininity with a capital f in this fashion, Ozon has out-Almodovared Almodovar. He could well continue in this vein. But it's a fair question to ask if he might try another route. As a gay filmmaker, he has dealt with male-male affairs only in passing. It would be nice to see him make an 8 Men. Now, who can we cast for that? Ehrenstein is the author of Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1928-2000. Find the Advocate interview with Francois Ozon and reviews of his films at www.advocate.com |
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