Showing posts with label Danielle Darrieux. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Danielle Darrieux. Show all posts

Thursday, 5 March 2020

8 Femmes (2002)



A man is murdered, and the eight women in his household each seem to be more eager than the others to know the truth.

A tongue-in cheek homage to Agatha Christie-styled murder mysteries, staged as a closed-room musical and with an otherwise great cast playing their roles in exaggerated hysterics, is not really something one can feel nostalgic for.

On rewatching: Watchable, but could have been so much better...

Halliwell**: "Highly artificial, witty, enjoyable pastiche of a country house murder mystery, with bravura performances from its stellar cast, representing four generations of French acting, who burst into song at unexpected moments."

Maltin**1/2: "Wonderful opportunity to watch some of France's most formidable females in an odd whodunit-melodrama-musical...Fun to a degree, especially when the actresses sing and dance, but awfully forced."

Thursday, 20 October 2016

Marie-Octobre (1959)



Fifteen years after WWII, a group of ex-resistance fighters are brought together by Marie-Octobre, so that the former members of the network can finally relive one fateful night and find out who betrayed their murdered leader.

Old-fashioned, Agatha Christie-style whodunnit, stagebound and talkative, but well-staged and entertaining nevertheless.

Halliwell (no star): "Stultifying one-set talkfest employing Hitchcock's long-discarded ten-minute take."

Friday, 25 September 2015

5 Fingers (1952)


During WWII the valet to the British Ambassador to Ankara sells British secrets to the Germans while trying to romance a refugee Polish countess.