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By PAUL BRENNER
One of the most overlooked
and under praised American films from the 1970s
has been rescued from the scrap heap by Criterion.
Robert Altman's "3 Women" crept into theaters
around the same time as Woody Allen's "Annie Hall"
in 1977, and where "Annie Hall" was heaped with
praise (but not the glory -- that was left for
"Star Wars," which was also released that year),
"3 Women" was generally ignored or considered
Altman's magic mushroom kiss-off to his '70s Crown
of Thorns as American cinema's iconoclastic
satirist of society and pop culture. It certainly
turned out to be a kiss off, for Altman's post "3
Women" features ("A Wedding," "A Perfect Couple,"
"Quintet," "Health") barely achieved theatrical
distribution and, after the critical and
box-office drubbing of "Popeye," Altman retreated
to filming stage plays until his resurgence with
"The Player" and "Short Cuts" in the 1990s.
Altman's hallucinatory dream film (based upon a
dream Altman had after taking his wife to a
hospital emergency room for a serious illness),
concerns an empty-headed naïf, Millie (Shelley
Duvall), whose barren personality is filled with
cultural banalities (magazine articles,
advertisements, convenience foods recipes); her
phony posings and shallow posturings make The
"Stepford Wives" look like Charles Bukowski. Into
her world comes Pinky Rose (Sissy Spacek), who is
even most innocent than Millie. Pinky is a blank
slate, an alien looking to take over a
personality. She sees Millie and tells her that
she is perfect. Millie says "Thank you" and soon
Pinky is taking over her personality and Millie
and Pinky's identities become porous and confused.
On the sidelines is the silent Willie (Janice
Rule), an artist who paints frightening and erotic
murals as she awaits to have her husband Edgar's
(Robert Fortier) child. Millie's paintings stop
the action in the film as the camera in moody
reveries pans over the paintings with accompanying
atonal music. As the film progresses, the
typically Altman laceration of American culture
becomes subsumed with Millie's paintings and "3
Women" melds into a fevered nightmare of the
subconscious as if Igmar Bergman had set "Persona"
in Palm Desert. Millie, Pinky, and Willie exchange
personalities and, in the end, each becomes an
aspect of an ultimate Uber Woman (with The Male
buried underneath a pile of old tires).
On its release in 1977, "3 Women" was greeted with
much head scratching and, if not that, acute
indifference. Altman, perhaps tired of satirizing
American culture and pretty much exhausting film
genres to invert, sought to stretch himself,
turning his art loose on a much more disturbing
and thought provoking (if at times pretentious)
venture. In "3 Women," Altman brilliantly
succeeded in applying his style to a new film form
and where Altman could have gone from there is
anyone's guess. Unfortunately by 1977 the great
flowering of creativity that was 70s cinema was at
an end and film studios (after the financial
windfall of "Jaws" which was the first film to
open in over 1,000 theaters at once) wanted the
bottom line and quick profits. In the coming era
of event movies, the small and quirky Altman
productions didn't stand a chance. "3 Women"
offered a possibility that was never pursued,
which leaves the film as a one-of-a-kind exercise
that stands out as much today as it did in 1977.
Special Features on the DVD include an audio
commentary by Altman, a stills gallery, trailers,
and TV spots. |
