8 ½ Women (1999)

Following the death of a mother, a father and son open up a brothel in their Genevan estate after watching 8½ (1963).

Director:

Peter Greenaway

Writer:

Peter Greenaway

Stars:

John Standing, Matthew Delamere, Vivian Wu

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Standing	...	Philip Emmenthal
Matthew Delamere	...	Storey Emmenthal
Vivian Wu	...	Kito
Annie Shizuka Inoh	...	Simato (as Shizuka Inoh)
Barbara Sarafian	...	Clothilde
Kirina Mano	...	Mio
Toni Collette	...	Griselda / Sister Concordia
Amanda Plummer	...	Beryl
Natacha Amal	...	Giaconda the Baby Factory
Manna Fujiwara	...	Giulietta / Half Woman
Polly Walker	...	Palmira
Elizabeth Berrington	...	Celeste, Emmenthal Maid
Myriam Muller	...	Marianne, Emmenthal Maid
Don Warrington	...	Simon
Claire Johnston	...	Amelia, Philip's Wife

Storyline

After his wife dies, 55-year-old businessman Philip Emmenthal, at the prompting of his playboy son Storey, populates his Geneva villa with eight and a half concubines. Three are from Kyoto, where Storey manages Pachinco palaces. Each has a distinctive personality: a nun, a child bearer, a gambler, a student of Kabuki, a horsewoman with a pet pig, a maid. Philip throws off his strait-laced and repressed attitudes, immersing himself in pleasure. After about a year, the women begin to assert their own power. Side adventures pre-figure the household's breakup, and the women depart in one way or another, one at at time. Philip's fate is in the hands of Palmira, his favorite.

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Plot Keywords:

brothel | pubic hair | breasts | female full frontal nudity | lust | 

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Taglines:

If every man is supposed to think of sex once every nine minutes, what on earth does he think of in the other eight?

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong sexual content including dialogue and pervasive nudity

Details

Country:

UK Netherlands Luxembourg Germany

Language:

English Italian Japanese Latin

Release Date:

10 December 1999 (UK)

Also Known As:

8 femmes 1/2

Filming Locations:

Japan

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$92,000, 28 May 2000, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$417,517, 23 July 2000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Woodline Productions,Movie Masters,Delux Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

[All trivia items for this title are spoilers.]

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Quotes

Philip Emmenthal: I like sleeping. You were conceived in this bed.
Storey Emmenthal: You weren't sleeping then.
Philip Emmenthal: No... but I have a feeling your mother was.

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Connections

References Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)

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Soundtracks

On a Slow Boat to China
Written by Frank Loesser
Performed by John Standing, Matthew Delamere

User Reviews

Not bad at all.

I went in expecting the worst and left completely turned around. 8 1/2 Women doesn't hold a candle to The Pillow Book, The Cook the Thief..., or his earlier Drowning By Numbers, but I had fun! It was almost like Peter Greenaway does Woody Allen (wanna talk about film makers who purge their sexual fantasies on screen!) With the exception of a couple of scenes, the visual style of this film is stark and simple (much like Drowning...) and relied heavily on smart dialogue, which at times got a bit over the top, intellectually speaking, but kept the film going. I never got bored with it, I never got too disgusted, and even if I can't recommend it to most of the people I know, I still feel it's a strong feature.

Now, even though this is Greenaway Lite, it still isn't for people who didn't like any of his earlier films. But even if you only liked The Cook The Thief, you should give this one a chance. Forget that you have hang ups about sex and sit back and watch the perversion unfold! Pure, sick fun!