8 femmes (2002)  ***1/2

Reviewed 9/21/02

François Ozon’s black comic, murder-mystery, melodrama musical is just an excuse to have an all-star cast of French actresses vamp it up.   Utterly superficial and meaningless, it’s still surprisingly fun.  The movie is similar to GOSFORD PARK in its tweaking of genre without real concern for whodunnit, except it is also the anti-GOSFORD PARK in that forsakes humanism to pile on every lurid convention in the book to comic absurdity.  If you can’t stand an insular world of complete theatrical artifice, stay far away.   If you love Fanny Ardant, Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Beart, Isabelle Huppert and Virginie Ledoyen, run, don’t walk.  Ludivine Sagnier comes off as best singer and dancer, Ledoyen as best eye candy, and Huppert as best ham (surprising given her usual naturalistic roles).  Ardant and Beart have their moments too.