3 Women (1977)
3 Women (1977), written, produced and directed by Robert Altman.
A strange, drifting film, developed like a thriller that never arrives. Until, in a way, it does. Altman said it was a tale if identity (personality?) theft.
We study three mysterious women:
Shelley Duvall: so friendly and outgoing, trying so hard, but always snubbed and ridiculed. She gets her recipes and fashions from low-grade women's magazines she thinks are elegant.
Sissy Spacek: a spooky, stalker-like kid who has a bizarre transformation.
Janice Rule: mostly unspeaking, heavily pregnant, an artist who paints lizard-men on concrete surfaces. I wouldn't ask her what they mean; probably wouldn't like the answer.
Mysteries: are the old couple who show up at the hospital really the parents? And the final scene where the three women seem to be living different lives...
Made in his usual spontaneous, unplanned style: "Scripts are overrated".
From some previous reviews:
...it would seem I am not much of an Altman fan, but I liked this one better than the others. His commentary track helped me to understand his approach. The director can't do everything for the audience; they have to contribute, too.
More of his thoughts:
Sissy Spacek was like a space alien learning how to be human by imitating others. (I'm not certain if he meant the actress or the character she was playing).
He fired only three people when making movies, all cinematographers and all for (honest) creative differences. They wanted to light each scene and angle perfectly, but Altman wanted different movies, where the audience was more like a voyeur peeking into unplanned life.
"I don't know how actors do what they do, and it's none of my business".
"The actors are not there to act the emotions. The audience has to discover that within themselves. Movies today have too much acting."
The title, location, and two of the stars came to him in a dream. In the dream he would wake up, jot down extensive notes, sleep and continue the dream, repeat... but that was just a dream, not reality.
Criterion Blu-ray.
