8 Women and True Lies

No review of Barbershop here, I'm afraid, despite the fact that it remained at the top of the box-office chart for the second week running last weekend. It was my girlfriend's birthday, so she got to choose, and she chose 8 Women instead. (She's got a thing about French movies.) As it happened, we'd seen True Lies on DVD the night before, and, to my astonishment, the two films actually have quite a lot in common.

Never mind the fact that both films are chock-full of knowing references for the film-buff crowd, albeit references to very different sets of movies. Ultimately, both films are hugely enjoyable romps which venture deep into camp but which still maintain an extremely high standard in their set-pieces. Pastiche is all too often played for cheap, broad laughs; in these films, it's combined with a genuine love of, and ability in, the genre pastiched.

I'm not sure which film would have been harder to make. On the one hand, François Ozon had to deal with eight superstars, all of whom needed – and received – loving attention. I fear to think, for instance, of how long it took to film the scene where Emmanuelle Béart lets down her hair, transforming herself into a latter-day Marilyn; or of the time spent setting up the lighting for the shot where Fanny Ardant, a wry smile on her face, smokes in the corner by the velvet drapes while watching a classic performance by Catherine Deneuve.

On the other hand, the stunts in True Lies are amazing. Think of Jamie Lee Curtis dangling from Arnold Schwarzenegger's arm, who himself is dangling upside-down off a helicopter silhouetted against the setting sun. Or the pair of Harrier jump jets firing two missiles each at a low causeway, which then explode – one! two! three! four! – each just behind the escaping truck, except the last, which sends the truck flying up into the air along with a section of road. Either of these shots, or any of half a dozen others, probably cost more than the entire budget for 8 Women, and would have taken weeks to set up.

For if it takes a lot of skill to pull off the kind of couture-fest which we see in 8 Women, it surely takes just as much to be able to blow things up with quite the aplomb of James Cameron. Great pure action films are rare indeed: Die Hard would have to be on the list, of course, and Speed, but I'm not sure that Raiders of the Lost Ark really counts, or even James Cameron's own Aliens. (I would include Starship Troopers on the list, however.)

Both 8 Women and True Lies pull off a very difficult balancing act: they're ridiculous enough that we laugh, but accomplished enough that we don't laugh at them. We laugh just because we're having a rollicking good time and because the films have transcended the unbelievable. We love to watch Arnold Schwarzenegger play a world-class tango dancer, just as we relish the super-exaggerated plot twists in 8 Women. But we also genuinely admire whoever came up with the idea of Arnold riding a horse up a hotel elevator, just as we can often barely bring ourselves to read the subtitles in 8 Women, the performances are so magnetic.

Both of these films are highly derivative, and both of them are all the better for it. So do what Arnold should have done in that elevator: get off your high horse and enjoy the ride. Have some fun!

Posted by Felix at 11:10 EST