#8 women

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[la-cocotte-de-paris]

Isabelle Huppert’s Wardrobe Test for 8 FEMMES (2002)

[einaudis]

december in movies [8/31]: 8 femmes | 8 women (2002) dir. françois ozon "Listen. I'm going to tell you a nice Christmas carol."

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Emmanuelle Béart

8 Women 2002, François Ozon

[neoyan]

8 femmes Director François Ozon

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8 Women (8 femmes) (2002) François Ozon

December 18th 2023

[tourneurs]

“I’d rather be accused of sin than murder.”

8 Women (2002) dir. François Ozon

[stillinstarshollow]

Emmanuelle Béart in 8 femmes (2002)

[cultiest]

Gaby in 8 femmes is a stronger woman than I because if a woman ever looked at me the way Pierette does during Gaby's song I'd fall to my knees right there

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MOVIES I WATCHED THIS WEEK (#195):

What an unusual film experience!

A PUBLIC PROSECUTOR AND A TEACHER is the very last silent film from Korea (made in 1948!), a morality tale and a flowery melodrama. A kindhearted teacher helps a very poor student of her, a hungry orphan. Years later, she's accused of an accidental murder, and he, who's grown to be a successful lawyer, thanks to her help, is able to save her from a guilty verdict.

But the wordless story is explained via the voice of an overly-emotional orator, "The Last Crying Byeonsa", who gives a running commentary of every detail of the story, in a most unusual way. It is reminiscent of old traditions of oral story-telling. His sorrowful and plaintive interpretation makes this an unbearable tragedy, and the most memorable aspect of this film. (Via).

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"Say, you haven't happen to see a white.... Wang?!"

MURDER BY DEATH was a spoof of the Agatha Christie-type whodunit mysteries, with an ensemble cast that included a rare performance by Truman Capote, a youngish, gayish James Cromwell, and another of Peter Seller's offensive Charlie Chan impressions. it was full of all the old whodunit cliches, down to the blind butler, done in a mid-70's Woody Allen joke style. The only somehow-original point was the opening title sequence which was composed of Charles Addams caricatures. 2/10.

RIP, MAGGIE SMITH!

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6 MORE WITH ISABELLE HUPPERT:

8 WOMEN (2002) is another whodunit murder mystery, but very different. A delightful feminine Christmas comedy, taking place in an isolated snowbound estate, played by an all women cast. Eight of the best French actresses of the day, including sisters Catherine Deneuve and Isabelle Huppert, the gorgeous Virginie Ledoyen, Fanny Ardent and teenage Ludivine Sagnier ham it up. Full of surprises, the best one is that every so often, somebody suddenly starts singing and dancing, (like the Clip Above), or as in 'Toi jamais' or the final shot with Georges Brassens' 'Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux'. Also, nearly everyone secretly is or at least ends up gay! 8/10.

🍿 (Re-visiting the PARC MONCEAU episode from 'Paris, je t'aime', just to see the cutest Ludivine Sagnier again. This was the Alfonso Cuarón short when she was Nick Nolte's daughter.)

🍿 MAMA WEED, my first stylish, fun film by French director Jean-Paul Salomé. A wonderful crime comedy where Isabelle Huppert is a badass Arabic-French translator working for the Narcotic department of the police, but who "Breaks bad" and learns how to deal. Like ‘Personal Shopper’ it ends in the deserts of Oman. 9/10.

🍿 Hotel Vivier Cinémathèque looks like a glamorous short riddle, where Huppert is presenting 5 interactive gaming scenarios, Fantasy, Crime, Comedy, Horror and Animation. But actually it's a whimsical presentation of the 2021 spring collection by some fancy shoe designer.

🍿 "Austria is a country that produces neuroses and also produces culture".

MICHAEL H – PROFESSION: DIRECTOR is an insightful 2013 documentary about director Michael Haneke. It starts with 'Amour' and goes back all the way to 'The Seventh Continent'. Obviously it contains references and interviews with Isabelle Huppert who starred in his 'Time of the wolf' and 'The piano teacher'.

I'm glad that I've seen all his movies [except of 'Funny Games', naturally] so I don't have to watch them again.

🍿 SCÉNARIO DE 'SAUVE QUI PEUT LA VIE, a visual essay proposed by J-L Godard in connection with his 'Every man for himself' (1980). I only watched it because of Isabelle Huppert. His usual stream of consciousness approach mixing up movements, snippets of sounds, words, montage of ideas, unfinished conversations, colours... 1/10

🍿 I was ready to hate the short 3D installation VIRTUAL EMBALMING (2020), "a digital remembrance as a document for the future", but I didn't. Huppert and 2 other women were asked how they wanted to be remembered, and the artist built interesting, artsy alters to their visions.

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It was obvious that the new "Crime Comedy" WOLFS is a mediocre piece of junk from its very first scene when frantic Amy Ryan kept hysterically talking to herself, and from when her "fixer" arrives, and finds a cliched parking spot right in front of her posh NYC hotel. It's a low-rent, uninspired, boring 'Michael Clayton' clone about a 'cleaner', where even the Croatian folk dancing scene felt forced and joyless. Like a copy of a copy of a copy, degraded through the endless, talent-less story-telling. 3/10.

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40'S NOIR WITH LIZABETH SCOTT AND BURT LANCASTER X 2:

🍿 "I'm Mrs. Alexis Richardson."

"You say that like it was spelt in capital letters."

"Ha. Sit down."

Are you telling me or asking me?"

"Please. You know, you're quite an attractive man."

"Keep goin'."

"How far do you want me to go?"

"I'm at the plate. You're doin' the pitching."

I discovered Lizabeth Scott, the beautiful actress with the "smoky voice", because her long Wikipedia page is unusually extensive. She never made it "BIG", but made it big enough to star in 22 hard-boiled, mid-tiered Noir classics in the 40's and 50's.

In I WALK ALONE (1947), good guy Burt Lancaster, released from 14 years in prison, confronts his ex-buddy, bad guy Kirk Douglas. Scott is the sultry nightclub singer, dangling as a bait. Deception, betrayal, retribution... 6/10.

🍿 DESERT FURY is a strange melodramatic Western Noir which is played out in glorious Technicolor. It got beautiful 19 year old Lizabeth Scott who can't get along with her casino owner mom Mary Astor. There's good-guy sheriff Burt Lancaster who's in love with her. And then there's two gangsters who come to their Nevada desert town, who are blatantly a gay couple. They had been together for 15 years, and now one of them falls for young Scott. It's bulky 1947 cars and giant shoulder pads for the ladies, with a Miklos Rosza score working overtime, but it's all so mixed up, with such unclear message.

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X-RAY (1977), my 10th by Krzysztof Kieślowski, in which men that are being treated for tuberculosis at a sanatorium share their thoughts about their lives.

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THE ONE AND ONLY, my 7th film by favorite director Susanne Bier. A frothy romantic comedy, which was both critical and a huge commercial success in Denmark when it came out in 1999. With the always-delectable Sidse Babett-Knudsen, but everybody else on the cast was utterly forgettable, and the story was as cliched and boring as can be. 2/10. [*Female Director*]

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Buster Keaton's 1921 THE PLAYHOUSE is remembered mostly for the first half, in which he plays all the roles, dozen or more, of an elaborate variety show. In the second part he falls in love with a twin. At one point he is dressed and made up as a chimpanzee.

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THE WAY THE EAGLE SHITS is an anti-capitalist screed, an angry cry about wealth inequality and unjust distribution of assets, and it doesn't mince words, or use euphemisms. The Poor are fucked, it shows, in 1975 and today.

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KONCERT, an early, whimsical film by Hungarian István Szabó, which was nominated for an Oscar in 1962. 3 guys on a piano bicycle ride by the Danube, and people join them in an impromptu performance. 2/10.

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MUYBRIDGE'S STRINGS (2011), my second artsy animation by Koji Yamamura (After 'Franz Kafka’s a Country Doctor'). A mixed-up theoretical metaphor about (one of) the fathers of motion pictures. The 'Strings' are the ones his horses triggered galloping in front of the battery of cameras, which took the photographs that later created the illusion of movement. 2/10.

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"I want an unwritten life..."

THE BROTHERS BLOOM (2008), my third strike-out from Rian Johnson (After the 2 boring Benoit Blanc stories). Always looking for a good grifters story, but I couldn't get into this one, even after 3 attempts, and had to bail out midway.

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(ALL MY FILM REVIEWS - HERE).

[duinlam]

“Mais on ne croit rien, on voit.”

8 Femmes.

- Robert Thomas -

8 femmes (2002) ‘8 Women’.

Directed by François Ozon.

Catherine Deneuve - Fanny Ardant

[workinghardforthemoney]

catherine deneuve as gaby in '8 women' (2002)

[dearladyaudrey]

Virginie Ledoyen , “8 Femmes” (François Ozon, 2002).

[bluen3hey]

2002  8 femmes

[costumeloverz71]

Suzon (Virginie Ledoyen) Pink dress.. 8 Women (2022).. Costume by Pascaline Chavanne.

[luckypluckychair]

8 femmes / 8 women | 2002

Director: François Ozon

Production designer: Arnaud de Moleron / Set decorator: Marie-Claire Quin