France’s gayest director, Francois Ozon has made the year’s gayest film. 8 Women, which cries out to be remade with a cast of drag queens, stars four generations of the best actresses in France. It’s the hoot…and the mystery…Gosford Park should have been.
Seven of the women live with Marcel in his snow-covered country house. Gaby (Catherine Deneuve) is married to him but has her own bedroom. Suzon (Virginie Ledoyen) and Catherine (Ludivine Sagnier) are their daughters. Mamy (Danielle Darrieux), Gaby’s mother, and Augustine (Isabelle Huppert), Mamy’s younger, spinster daughter, are both living on Marcel’s charity. Chanel (Firmine Richard) is the longtime maid and Louise (Emmanuelle Béart) the new chambermaid.
It’s Louise who goes to wake Marcel and after screaming announces, “Monsieur is dead, with a knife in his back.” The women soon learn they’re stranded with no way to contact the outside world. That doesn’t mean someone can’t get to them, as does Pierrette (Fanny Ardant), Marcel’s sister who was estranged from him.
Eight women, eight suspects; and the secrets start pouring out. You’d never think eight women could have so many secrets, let alone keep them…until today. Aside from the boring financial matters there are infidelities, a pregnancy, lesbianism, illegitimacy, incest, even an old murder. Eight women, 80 motives.
If you can’t figure out for yourself that Ozon’s tongue is in his cheek he gives you an extra hint by throwing in musical numbers, one for each actress.
The lesbian and bisexual characters and the director’s orientation are enough to earn 8 Women a place in queer history, but future Gay Studies classes ought to deconstruct it as a perfect illustration of the elusive “gay sensibility.” In the meantime queer audiences should lap it up as perfect entertainment.