I believe that any fan of French cinema of the last 70 years would like to have witnessed in the studio the filming of ‘8 femmes‘ (‘8 Women‘) made in 2002 by François Ozon. It is a perfect exemplification of the concept of ‘all-stars movie’, with the added value that the entire cast is composed exclusively of women, most of them leading actresses of the French screen from the 30s to the beginning of our millennium. The meeting of these great stars who are each a reason enough to watch a film in which they appear in the credits resulted in an entertainment the likes of which are few in the history of cinema. All in a relaxed atmosphere, giving us the feeling that the director and his actresses had a great time during the filming.
If someone in Hollywood had decided in the 1930s or 1940s to make a period musical based on one of Agatha Christie’s detective novels, this is what the result would have looked like. However, the film adapts a French theater play, so some French hot sauce – that is, humor – can be added. The action takes place in a mansion in the country, it is snowing heavily outside, the telephone lines are cut, the roads are closed and in a short time the isolated building becomes the perfect stage for a ‘whodunit’ with a finite number of characters. The corpse belongs to the owner of the house, an industrialist and the only male in the cast. He had lived surrounded only by women: his mother-in-law, his wife, two daughters, a sister-in-law, a sister, a cook and a chambermaid. The dogs did not bark on the night of the murder, so the murderer is one of the eight women. Each of them carries with her a mountain of secrets, of those that include enough reasons to have been, each of them, the authors of the crime. There is no Hercule Poirot or any other detective, so the women must discover the identity of the murderer themselves by talking to each other. And singing.
The script is well written and the plot holds up well enough as a ‘whodunit’. The musical numbers are of good quality, the best belonging to Firmine Richard, who was perhaps the least known of the eight actresses. The presence on the same screen of Danielle Darrieux, Catherine Deneuve, Fanny Ardant, Isabelle Huppert and Emmanuelle Béart is of course a unique event and the main attraction. The female cream of French cinema gathers in a unique performance. Even Romy Schneider is present and honored with a still photo. The abundance of quotes and details, many alluding to the careers of the actresses and their previous roles, will delight knowledgeable viewers. There is, however, a danger that ‘8 femmes‘ will not hold up well over time, when the brilliance of the stars on the screen will begin to be forgotten. The theatrical style of the text and acting is also emphasized by the final scene where the actresses line up to greet their audience on an imaginary ramp. As spectators, we can only respond to them by bowing back to them with respect.