Take the creme de la creme of French actresses, trap them in a country mansion during a snowstorm, swathe them in outfits to die for, add a strong dash of Agatha Christie and toss in one dead body.
Voila! It's "8 Women" — a delectable, frothy, often over-the-top 1950s murder mystery by director Francois Ozon.
Catherine Deneuve rules over an ensemble that could make men weep: Fanny Ardant, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Beart, Danielle Darrieux, Virginie Ledoyen, Ludivine Sagnier and Firmine Richard.
Based on a play by Robert Thomas, "8 Women" harks back to a time before cell phones and DNA tests, when a wealthy man can be murdered in his bedroom and everyone in the house has a good reason to want him dead.
But who wants it most?
J'accuse, they all cry, as secrets emerge, little lies unravel and petty jealousies erupt with the force of Vesuvius.
Deneuve is the family's matriarch, a well-kept beauty who has no intention of letting her husband's financial troubles endanger her bourgeois lifestyle. Ardant is his sister, a siren in need of cash; Darrieux, his needy mother-in-law; Huppert, his spinster sister-in-law; Ledoyen and Sagnier, his spoiled teenagers; Beart, his seductive maid; and Richard, his loyal housekeeper.
So much for the plot and cast of characters — let's get to the clothes.
Oscars were made for costumes like this.
Deneuve overflows a fitted, low-cut, deep green dress — it is the holiday season, after all. Ardant is wrapped in the best red dress in many a season, a square-necked number that has trouble staying buttoned. Beart ignites new fantasies about French maids, especially ones in their mistress' faux tiger coats. Ledoyen evokes Audrey Hepburn in a salmon-flecked suit, Sagnier plays the ingenue in a light green wool top. And Huppert looks uptight in screaming red plaid. Ah, but wait until she shifts into the evening gown.
Fashionistas will sigh — but music lovers will cry at Ozon's camp idea to have each actress sing a well-known French pop melody that serves to better reveal each character.
The first, by Sagnier, was a hoot, with bouncy choreography that evoked Susan Sarandon in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." It went down from there — and fast.
Deneuve and crew were wonderfully game, but the songs have tediously similar arraignments.
Ozon, who also directed "Under the Sand" and "Water Drops on Burning Rocks," put a great cast together and they embraced his vision of an all-female classic crime thriller. If the music wasn't up to the rest of the production, c'est la vie.
"8 Women" is rated R for some sexual content. Running time: 113 minutes.
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