8 women

‘Eight women are confronted with the murder of a man with whom they all had a relationship based on kinship, romance and/or professional dependence. As they search amongst themselves for the culprit, they are forced to let down their defences, admit to their lies, reveal their secrets and disclose something about themselves that had hitherto been carefully concealed. (…) From Ludivine Sagnier to Isabelle Huppert and Danielle Darrieux, François Ozon presents several generations of post-war French cinema stars and provides all these great ladies with a compelling platform rich in relationships and allusions. What a delight to watch them! He consistently signals that this is merely a game, which he orchestrates with subtle delicacy and a style full of feints for the sake of entertainment and pure pleasure: anti-naturalistic, full of clever allusions to film history, but above all to the numerous connotations that the eight actresses have created over the course of their careers – some longer, some shorter – as icons of French cinema.’ (Horst Peter Koll, Filmdienst, Feb 2019)