8 ½ Women

8 ½ Women

1999 · 121 min · EN · R · 5.5 (70 votes)
Dir. Peter Greenaway · Starring John Standing, Matthew Delamere, Vivian Wu, Annie Shizuka Inoh, Toni Collette, Claire Johnston · Music Frank Loesser

“If every man thinks of sex once every nine minutes, what does he think of the other eight?”

DramaComedy

After his wife dies, middle-aged 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. As a year passes, the women begin asserting their own power.

VIBE

A dreamlike, melancholic exploration of desire and loss. It feels like wandering through a surreal, European art film, where the lines between reality and fantasy blur, leaving a wistful, contemplative mood.

surrealmelancholiceroticwistfulquirkyslow-burnarthousesurrealistEuropean cinemacharacter studygriefdesireidentityloss
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loss of loved oneharemillegal prostitutionfather son relationship