8 Women - A Bipolar Whodunit
Quick Thoughts: 8 Femmes (2002)
A family's patriarch's death exposes the absurd drama binding them all.
Sense prevents me from calling François Ozon the French Pedro Almodóvar, but there is certainly much in the comparison between the two filmmaker's styles. Most obviously, both embrace the pastiche and camp as a means of abrasively exploring female narratives. 8 Women then feels quite like Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown or What Have I Done to Deserve This. The success and limitations of each of these films lie in their outlandish presentation of females defined by extreme emotion and eccentric violence. Meandering through a dense whodunit plot, 8 Women is as nonchalant as it is melodramatic. Its construction of comedic moments and humorous caricatures is entertaining and its constant plot reversals and reveals are dizzying. This all lends to the construction of a bipolar explosion of ego and passion under an existential proposition of love. The end goal of this, however, is questionable. Seen as a film about there being 'no happy love,' 8 Women could be read as a satire with pessimistic assertions; its only positive element being the tumultuous, seemingly unbreakable bond between various women. With the promise of love reduced to a lie producing constant misery, this presents a melodrama with no happy ending, no harmonious construction about it. This conventional inversion has its impact, but little logic. The absurdity built into 8 Women leaves one hesitant to have a positive opinion on its successes for fear of appearing too much of an optimist. And, yet, engaging its social critique and fingering through its endless cultural references seems tiring. 8 Women is an engaging film to be lost in, shockingly choppy and dry as it can be, but becomes something of a lump to talk about and figure through.
A family's patriarch's death exposes the absurd drama binding them all.
Sense prevents me from calling François Ozon the French Pedro Almodóvar, but there is certainly much in the comparison between the two filmmaker's styles. Most obviously, both embrace the pastiche and camp as a means of abrasively exploring female narratives. 8 Women then feels quite like Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown or What Have I Done to Deserve This. The success and limitations of each of these films lie in their outlandish presentation of females defined by extreme emotion and eccentric violence. Meandering through a dense whodunit plot, 8 Women is as nonchalant as it is melodramatic. Its construction of comedic moments and humorous caricatures is entertaining and its constant plot reversals and reveals are dizzying. This all lends to the construction of a bipolar explosion of ego and passion under an existential proposition of love. The end goal of this, however, is questionable. Seen as a film about there being 'no happy love,' 8 Women could be read as a satire with pessimistic assertions; its only positive element being the tumultuous, seemingly unbreakable bond between various women. With the promise of love reduced to a lie producing constant misery, this presents a melodrama with no happy ending, no harmonious construction about it. This conventional inversion has its impact, but little logic. The absurdity built into 8 Women leaves one hesitant to have a positive opinion on its successes for fear of appearing too much of an optimist. And, yet, engaging its social critique and fingering through its endless cultural references seems tiring. 8 Women is an engaging film to be lost in, shockingly choppy and dry as it can be, but becomes something of a lump to talk about and figure through.
