8 Femmes (2002)

Directed by François Ozon. Starring Isabelle Huppert, Fanny Ardant, Catherine Deneuve, Virginie Ledoyen, Emmanuelle Béart, Danielle Darrieux, Firmine Richard, Ludivine Sagnier, Dominique Lamure. [R]

Not a long-delayed sequel to John Ford’s 7 Women; not a great movie, either, but it is a great opportunity to see an armload of talented, high-profile French actresses do their thing. Eight ladies at a country estate (family members and housekeeping staff) are all suspects when the master of the house is found murdered in his bed, but this is hardly a conventional murder mystery—if anything, it’s more of a musical comedy with heightened theatrical overtones! Too artificial and self-conscious for its own good, the movie both sends up and embraces lush Sirkian melodramas and feisty Hitchcockian puzzlers. Although unspectacular as a whole (the start-to-finish narrative is hard to care about, and the wrap-up isn’t as clever or satisfying as it should’ve been), the anachronistic music breaks are mostly delightful, and it’s fun to watch this cast at work even with spotty material. Set in the 50s, and inspired by a same-named play from that decade by Robert Thomas. Romy Schneider “cameos” in photograph form.

66/100