Park Your Cinema 2026: 8 Γυναίκες (2002)

Eight women, one Christmas weekend, one body in the bedroom — that is the setup for François Ozon's *8 Femmes* (2002), screened at Megalo Prasino — the central lawn at ΚΠΙΣΝ — on Friday 31 July 2026 at 21:00, as Park Your Cinema returns for its 2026 summer slate. The Renzo Piano park slopes from the Lighthouse down toward the canal; come dusk, a wide screen rises at the top of the slope and Athens lays out blankets on the grass.

Ozon assembled a cast that crossed three generations of French cinema in one frame. Catherine Deneuve, Fanny Ardant, Isabelle Huppert and Danielle Darrieux — Darrieux a star since the 1930s — share the house with Emmanuelle Béart, Virginie Ledoyen, Ludivine Sagnier and Firmine Richard. Each of the eight gets a song, an original number composed by Krishna Lévy in the idiom of postwar French chanson, and each is a suspect. The film took the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at Berlin 2002, and an Ensemble Award at the European Film Awards the same year, where the cast accepted as a single unit.

The Park Your Cinema audience self-sorts: cinephiles who already know the film and come for the Lévy score, parents pulling kids in for an open-admission Friday, couples who use the lawn as date geography, neighbours from Kallithea who walk in through the south gate.

| Aspect | Details | |--------|---------| | Setting | Megalo Prasino, open-air projection on the Renzo Piano park slope | | Vibe | Picnic and blanket — children stay awake, conversation continues during the film | | Sound | Outdoor PA, Greek subtitles on French original | | Door | Open admission, first-come for seating areas; lawn is unrestricted |

The film runs 111 minutes. Ozon directs it as part Agatha Christie chamber piece and part Demy musical — Sirk colours, claustrophobic blocking, each actress given a soliloquy in song. You watch the women turn on each other in increasingly intricate accusations; the snowbound house outside is a black-and-white painted set, and the artificiality is the point. By the time Ardant and Deneuve are alone on screen, you understand the film has been about something other than the murder all along.

If you want a dark thriller with stakes outside the frame, *8 Femmes* keeps its violence offstage and its tone bright. But if you want eight of the most celebrated actresses in French cinema sharing one set, one camera, and one composer for 111 minutes, this is the Park Your Cinema night to commit to.

ΚΠΙΣΝ sits at the south end of Syngrou, accessible by tram from Syntagma or by the dedicated bus from Akadimia. Megalo Prasino opens at 19:00 — earlier arrival means a flat patch closer to the screen; later means standing at the rim. Bring a blanket and water. Athens summer nights along the canal cool faster than the city centre; a light layer matters once the film starts. Open admission.

A 2002 chamber musical with eight of France's most celebrated actresses, one murder, and the breeze off Faliro Bay — Park Your Cinema's late-July Friday holds the whole frame.