Rating: 
Summary: Dramatic and Funny
Review: this film was a wonderful french forgein film. it was beautifully shot in only a living room. the costumes and actresses fit their parts perfectly. this story is about 8 women finding out that the father has been killed and that the murderer is one of them. the stories twists and turns keep you thinking till the end. the women give away life secrets in the process of finding the murderer. the actresses will break out into song in the middle of a sentence causing many laughs and bright eyes. the story was intressting and vibrant although only shot in the living room. the characters may seem a bit extravagant but thats what makes this movie a head turner, and a great converstation starter. even after the movie is over i was just as happy as in the beginning, middle and end. a wonderful fabulous movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Mainly for movie addicts
Review: On first sight this is just a whodunnit: during a roaring snow storm the man in the house is murdered and the 8 women who are left behind all have had a reason to murder him. The cast is impressive (where else do you find 8 superstars together in one movie?), but the story line is rather thin. This is because the story is not the major feature of the movie, but the references to other movies and genres are. Unfortunately, when you are not a movie addict (I admit I am not), most of the references will go unrecognized and what remains is a lot of over the top acting and childish, and often not very well sung,songs. A movie which will be certainly enjoyed by people who have a good knowledge of movie history, but it was not for me.
Rating:
Summary: Hot House Roses
Review: "8 Femmes" is a deftly directed, vulnerable as a rose in a windstorm, touching as a sunrise, homage to women directed by Francois Ozon.
The film is populated with the who's-who of France's film world: Darrieux, Deneuve, Ardant, Beart, Huppert. As a contrast it would be as if Spielberg directed a film with: Roberts, Pfeiffer, Stone, Taylor, Sarandon. Thus, "8 Femmes" is eye-poppingly studded with Stars and therein lays a lot of its charm and success.
So what of the film itself? Well, it's an over-the-top who-done-it very much in the mold of George Cukor's "The Women." But whereas Cukor "opens-up" Claire Booth Luce's stage play to make it more like a film and not a filmed version of a play, Ozon does not.
In fact, Ozon closes "8F" with the entire cast standing in line and taking a bow as if it were a stage play; thereby reinforcing, rather than moving away from the artifice of a stage play.
At the films opening, Gaby (Deneuve) is confronted with the murder of her husband seemingly by one of the other 7 women ,as the house is snowbound: no one can come in or out. In reality this sounds an awful lot like an Agatha Christie Mystery like "10 Little Indians" rather than a Douglas Sirk melodrama like "Imitation of Life," which some have suggested. What strikes me as similar to a Sirk movie, is Ozon's attitude towards his women characters: their situations are absurd and silly but they themselves are not. And it is this humanist view of women that suffuses this film with Ozon's obvious love and admiration of women.
Much is revealed on a personal and social ,through dialogue circa 1950's France, level by all the characters which is the nature and style of a play: the characters say a lot but "do" little. And all manner of women from the maid through the maitresse of the house is equally represented...a 2002 ,not a 1950's take on things.
Francois Ozon's "8 Femmes" is a valentine of a movie dedicated to the various-ness, the ambiguity, the power of women. That it was made in France does not diminish its impact nor Universal appeal to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: A dark farce
Review: that can't decide whether it's a murder mystery or a parody of one. Each character has a < gasp! > song, each worst than the last. Its message is the women in any man's life will drive him crazy. Sure, the eight women here are the best that French cinema has to offer, though Catherine Deneuve is a bit of a dumpling despite being typecast as a closet "Sapphist." But the movie's unit setting is more typical of stage than cinema. And it drags, horribly. You might find its compendium of French insults interesting. But if you don't, it's just a director stringing cliches together to abuse both art & audience. Probably not worth your time, and certainly not worth your trouble.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting movie with legendary actresses
Review: To start of, I am not a fan of Francois Ozon, his stories always seemed to be over sexed to sell more tickets. I only decided to watch this movie because of the 8 actresses (Deneuve and Bear especially). The story was shot and acted as a stage play. The colors, setting and the characters all looked perfect. However, this ideal picture is just an illusion for it hid beneath it rotten characters. The eight women are all selfish, murder, greedy and adulterous. Though the characters are not defined completely, the actresses do bring life and a sense of fun in portraying them. Off course, I can not review this movie without talking about the song. Its true none of the actresses is a real singer ( Darrieux and Deneuve did actually record music) nevertheless, the songs were preformed "well". Arden's song - a quoi sert de vivre liber was well preformed and actually better the original version (whish was sung by Nicoletta). The songs are actually hits from the 70's and 60's. Most of the songs are integrated perfectly into the movie to reviel character in their most "naked" moment. The song of the legendary singer Dalida "Pour ne pas vivre seul" was perfectly used - though badly preformed- to illustrate the loneliness of the housekeeper. Ozon again implemented his techniques in sexual tension by over using lesbianism in this movie. However, this is an entertaining movie to watch and to monitor the tension of those 8 "women" that are locked in a small space. Finally, people ask what is the point of the movie? well on the surface it is just a murder mystery however, underlying it is a pessimistic message that true love is hard to get and even harder to keep, or as Darrieux say it in her final number Il y a pas d'amour heureux!.
Rating:
Summary: 8 BEAUTIFUL WOMEN
Review: During a snowstorm, eight women are stranded in a French country home with the corpse of the murdered family patriarch. Slightly bizarre, low-key French film pokes fun at the comedy murder mystery genre while heralding the feminine mystique of domesticity and dominance. It has the added distinction of breaking into song from each of the eight principal players, a strangely satisfying technique that often delivers touching portraits of womankind. This is as intoxicating as a glass of fine French wine.
Rating:
Summary: Une Gemme
Review: Huit Femme is reminiscent of that 80s mystery: Clue. The house is isolated in a snowstorm as a wealthy industrialist is murdered over the Noel saison. Extended members of his family and two servants are the suspects. Every suspect is a woman. Hence the Huit Femme. This movie is packed with renowned French actresses (Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Fanny Ardant, Danielle Darrieux et Emmanuelle Beart). This is an all-star cast, and the actresses display performances befitting their high reputations. There are a number of comic scenes in this movie, like the mother-in-law (Danielle) being locked in a closet, and Augustine (Isabelle) spitting on her sister (Catherine), which helps make this movie enjoyable. But there are serious moments as well, as everyone's individual secret is revealed. This movie is a mixture of comedy, drama and mystery. But what makes this movie a gem are the individual singing performances of the huit femmes. This alone, makes the movie worth watching. If you've always longed to know what it would be like to hear Catherine sing, you can find out in this movie. There is even a kissing scene between Gaby (Catherine) and Pierette (Fanny), which alone, is worth the price of admission. It's not until the very end when we discover who the culprit really is. It's not who you would think. I've seen this movie countless times and I never cease to be entertained. In short, an all-star cast can only create a first-class movie. Merci beaucoup pour ce film. Vraiment superb.
Rating:
Summary: Fine farce with a poignant payoff
Review: 8 women (8 Femmes) is a difficult movie to describe because it is so full of contradictions: it is a drama that is frequently funny (sometimes even intentionally) involving a cast of eight eight supposedly heterosexual women-- half of whom are not--who burst into song at random moments in the film while trying to solve a murder mystery.
Attempting even one of these contradictions has derailed more than one film, but oddly, this actually works for 8 Women by making it both unpredictable and memorable. Its uniqueness, along with an interesting story and a well-known cast (in France), explains why this odd little film--which has just been released on DVD--has won so much critical acclaim.
In French with subtitles, the story is about an extended family stuck in a house together during a bad snowstorm trying to figure out who killed the male head of the household, Marcel (Dominique Lamure). Think Gosford Park meets Clue, with an all-female cast and corny song-and-dance routines.
The eight women referenced in the title include the victim's icy and bitter wife Gaby (played by Catherine Deneuve), and the victim's sexy estranged sister Pierrette (Fanny Ardent). Then there is Gaby's annoying spinster sister, Augustine (Isabelle Huppert), the victim's two teenage daughters Catherine (Ludivine Sagnier) and Suzon (Virginie Ledoyen), Gaby's mother (Danielle Darrieux), the matronly black housekeeper Chanel (Firmine Richard), and the beautiful young maid Louise (Emmanuelle Béart).
As always in murder mysteries, everyone's got a secret they don't want revealed, all of which spill out over the course of the movie as the women attempt to determine who killed Marcel. The undercurrents of tension rooted in class issues, homophobia, sexism, and just plain greed are unspoken drivers in many of the characters' interactions as they alternately insult, comfort, and seduce one another.
Some of the transitions from moments of tense drama to cheesy song-and-dance routines seem rather abrupt and even strange, but perhaps this assessment is more a reflection of the fact that this type of film doesn't fit easily into existing American film genres (since this kind of musical dramedy is not standard fare here anymore, outside of art house theaters). The use of subtitles on top of this unusual combination of slightly-offbeat drama, comedy, and folksy music only exacerbates a feeling of distance between the film and the viewer, especially in the beginning.
But once you get used the pacing and transitions, that distance fades away and the film becomes very enjoyable, even if it never quite loses its surreal feel.
Issues of sexuality, and sexual tension between the women, are always at or just below the surface of the film: whether it's Gaby's oldest sister complaining about being seen as a spinster, the older maid trying to hide her love for Pierrette, Gaby's oldest daughter dealing with the consequences of a college love affair gone awry, Pierrette flirting with Gaby, or Gaby accusing Louise, the young maid, of sleeping with her husband, 8 Women deals with more sex than your standard American teen comedy--and all without a single nude scene.
Although there are plenty of indirect references to lesbianism, it is addressed directly only twice in the film: first, when the relationship between Chanel and Pierrette is discovered and Gaby reacts with homophobic statements like "You need treatment" and the accusation "I let you raise my girls!" But Chanel defends herself, saying "I've done nothing wrong," and sings about how hard it is to be alone. Richard renders Chanel simultaneously tough and tender, motherly (to the girls) and sexual, in a way that keeps you from viewing her as just a housekeeper (although it is frustrating that the only black woman in the film is a maid).
The second time lesbianism is directly addressed is towards the end of the film, when Pierrette is trying to seduce Gaby and tells her "love between women is anything but shocking. It's a form of pleasure you should try, to cleanse you of men."
The fluidity with which the women's sexuality is portrayed in the film is unusual, as is the casual way it is integrated into the story. Although Chanel is a lesbian, the other three women are more accurately described as bisexual--although they are not labeled as such in the film. Perhaps the fact that filmmakers did not feel the need to "define" the characters' sexuality is a result of it being a French film, not an American one (since few countries are quite as preoccupied with labels as we are).
Besides Pierrette and Gaby, the young maid Louise is also not straight: although she was having an affair with Gaby's husband Marcel, she tells Gaby "I became your employee not out of need, or for [Marcel]...but for you, Madame" as she gazes boldly into her eyes. Beart plays Louise with a mix of pride and smoldering sexuality that makes her a complex and compelling character, when she could easily have been just another stereotypical maid-who-sleeps with-the-boss.
Those who have followed Catherine Deneuve's career since her sapphic turn in The Hunger will most likely be surprised to see her singing and dancing in 8 Women, since she usually plays very serious roles. Deneuve is excellent here as usual, however, transitioning back and forth between being a hard, bitter wife and mother to a woman fighting attraction to her sister-in-law Pierrette, whom she publicly scorns.
Pierrette is a free-spirited "exotic dancer" who easily attracts the attention of men and women--such as the housekeeper Chanel (Firmine Richard), who has confused her sexual relationship with Pierrette for love. Fanny Ardent is very convincing as Pierrette, and she makes Pierrette appealing by exuding a warmth and vitality that contrasts sharply with the more somber countenance of the other women.
Overall, 8 Women is a fun, memorable film with many layers that provides a campy but still realistic portrait of a group of women whose sexuality and ethics are not easily defined. So fascinating do these characters and their love/hate relationships with one another become that, by the end of the film, the odd little dances don't even seem that odd anymore.
Rating:
Summary: A dark farce
Review: that can't decide whether it's a murder mystery or a parody of one. Each character has a < gasp! > song, each worst than the last. Its message is the women in any man's life will drive him crazy. Sure, the eight women here are the best that French cinema has to offer, though Catherine Deneuve is a bit of a dumpling despite being typecast as a closet "Sapphist." But the movie's unit setting is more typical of stage than cinema. And it drags, horribly. You might find its compendium of French insults interesting. But if you don't, it's just a director stringing cliches together to abuse both art & audience. Probably not worth your time, and certainly not worth your trouble.
Rating:
Summary: Tuneless "Musical"
Review: I'm admittedly not a fan of Francois Ozon. Having seen several of his films, I haven't been a devotee of his violent and overly sexual stories a la Criminal Lovers. This film seemed like an advancement for him, so I rented it. 8 Women looks great and is a change of pace, but the film cannot overcome its stage roots and most of the songs are forgettable and too weakly sung to be truly enjoyable. The sets grow claustrophobic after a while, and despite the top notch acting, the story gets stale. At one point, I glanced over at my clock and saw that I still had an hour left in this story. Not a good sign when a go-nowhere plot still has 60 minutes left. Most disappointingly, the biggest revelation in the film is thrown away in one line, with no reaction shots added or consequences. And what is the ultimate message? Women are a bunch of dithery, selfish harpies that can drive their men to desperate measures? Sorry, despite it's pre-feminist 1950's setting, this is still annoying. The actors and the colors are a real treat though and the opening credits call to mind the glossy Hollywood movies of the past.
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