8 WOMEN (8 FEMMES)

Viewers might think that a French movie like 8 WOMEN, which features some of the most talented actresses of four generations over the last 50 years, would be an Oscar-caliber, captivating drama. They would be wrong, however.

8 WOMEN is a laborious, unfunny, rather stupid satire presenting a condescending view of the great 1950s melodramas directed by Vincent Minnelli (THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL) and Douglas Sirk (IMITATION OF LIFE and ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS). Shot in luscious color, the movie tells what happens when the rich patriarch of a family dies a brutal death stabbed in the back. Catherine Deneuve plays the man’s wife, Gaby, and Isabelle Huppert plays Gaby’s mousy sister, Augustine, who’s living in the chateau with Gaby’s stingy mother, played by Danielle Darrieux. Danielle starred in several famous French movies in the early 1950s, including LA RONDE, directed by Max Ophuls, one of the most talented directors of his day.

These three characters, and five other women in the patriarch’s life, become stranded in the snowbound chateau. Egged on by Gaby’s two younger daughters, the women decide to conduct an investigation into the man’s murder. Adultery, incest and homosexuality are among the many revelations in the story.

8 WOMEN is pretty much a wasted effort, and it wouldn’t be surprising if the writer and director, Francois Ozon, were wasted on drugs when he conceived of adapting this play by Robert Thomas. Not only is 8 WOMEN a campy melodrama and a campy mystery, it also is a campy musical, with each actress singing a song that reveals her inner passions. This mishmash just doesn’t work, unless you’re a jaded, politically correct, pagan humanist with nothing better to do. For example, the homosexual revelations in the movie are played in a satirical, arch manner that seems to appeal to the self-righteous attitudes of politically correct people who hate the Law of God. The final song tries to reclaim the high ground by talking about the pain that always comes with romantic love, which truly never fully satisfies, but this is a vain, weak attempt to add some depth to an inconsequential story.