If the standard box-office fare seems to be lacking in originality these days, at least the French are keeping up with the demand for good entertainment. If you caught it, you probably loved Audrey Tautou in Amelie. In that same vein, France's most recent gift to America is a fun, quirky film that could even have you renouncing Julia Roberts in favor of Catherine Deneuve.
8 Women is a French murder-mystery that doubles as a silly, humorous movie-musical. Starring the stunning and apparently unaging actress Deneuve, the movie begins with the shocking discovery that the father of the house has been stabbed in his bed. The story unfolds as each member of the all-female household attempts to prove herself innocent of the crime, reluctantly spilling well-guarded personal secrets along the way.
Set in the 1950s in an elegant country house, the film is an aesthetic wonder of vibrant color, texture and contrast. Since the movie takes place within a single day, every character remains in her original costume--and what a set of outfits they are: a dainty hot-pink plaid dress over frilly petticoats for the elder daughter, a fitted scarlet dress suit for the father's sister and a jade-green velvet sheath for the mother. Warm lighting and simple, carefully chosen props create a clean, crisp setting in which even the ivory subtitles seem to coordinate with the background. In conjunction with the bright scenery and costuming, the seven songs built into the script lighten the potential weight of the whodunit plot, each its own peak of melodramatic expression for its performer.
Various levels of envy and resentment separate eight characters who are actually all searching for the same thing. For all its fanciful show, 8 Women still reaches its moment of poignancy: Exposed by the confessions of each other's dark secrets, the complex lattice of the women's interrelationships is the real solution to this mystery.
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