3 Women (1977)

THE FILM:

Sometime before the production of 3 Women, Robert Altman had a dream. That night, genius was spawned in that man’s dream. The concept and story of 3 Women was created at that particular moment. The next morning he awoke, with a surprisingly vivid memory of the previous night’s dream. It felt too real and atmospheric to be just a dream. Altman decided to scrap the memory as he had to dash to the airport. As he was on his way driving to the airport he was still contemplating the eerie existence of his dream. He was not alone in his car when he was trying to get to the airport. He suddenly stopped his car at a film studio and pitched 3 Women. Five to ten minutes surpassed before Altman exited the studio’s premises with a next film in mind. Yes, he had unexpectedly entered the studio, pitched his film, was given the green light and left all in five to ten minutes. That’s how you pitch a film! Oh, and guess what? He caught his plane.

The next step in the pre-production of 3 Women was casting. I doubt much thought was given to who would play the character of Millie Lammoreaux. Shelley Duvall had participated in several of Altman’s previous films and would star in another of his later films (the ill-fated, live-action, big screen adaptation, Popeye.) Shelley Duvall was given the part immediately as it was thought up for her. Altman had not only imagined the film in his dreams, he imagined the casting. The other main character, Pinky Rose was played be Sissy Spacek. This was a daring decision on behalf of Robert Altman, but Altman was all about daring. At this point in her career, Spacek had only demonstrated her talent in Brian de Palma’s Carrie (a role she was directed to go over-the-top with). Carrie is the opposite of Pinky Rose. Pinky was written and envisioned with careful control, the opposite of Carrie. But Altman did as his dream appeared, and it worked for him.

3 Women appeared in the Cannes Film Festival, where Shelley Duvall won the best actress award. It is currently under the status of one of Altman’s greatest films. It currently has a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.7 on IMDb. The most popular and the greatest manner in which one could experience 3 Women would be through The Criterion Collection, the near perfect restoration of a near perfect film.

THE PLOT:

Millie Lammoraeux works as a therapist for the elderly in an elderly care centre. She is socially isolated as her co-workers belittle her. However, Millie acts as though she is oblivious to this fact as she continues to inform people about her gourmet recipes. Then one day Pinky Rose arrives in the centre. She is young and has just been given a job in the centre. She seems to discover an immediate attachment between herself and Millie. After Millie's roommate moves out, Pinky moves in with her. As time goes by we notice Pinky seems to be slowly morphing with her personality into Millie's persona. After an argument, Pinky jumps off of her diving board into a pool.

When she wakes up in the hospital, she is an entirely different person. What's worse is, so is Millie. It is almost as though they have switched personalities... but even more sinister events await the women...

THE CRITICISM: 

Robert Altman takes on a very visual experience with 3 Women. He uses so many cinematic aspects to out elicit his meaning. To start off, I should inform you that the idea of 3 Women is dreams. Everything comes back to dreams. To start off with, the colour schemes are perfectly selected to revolve around dreams. When I say the one word... dreams what colours do you see? I personally have always imagined white and blue as the colours of dreams, and I believe that Robert Altman had the same opinion. Everything is made out of those two colours. Water is another aspect of 3 Women. The film begins on the camera, and we spend a lot on the observing the water. What does the water symbolize? I have come to believe that it represents dreams. Water is made up of blues and white and it gently flows, relaxing us... like dreams. As well, when you look into the water, you see your refection. What are dreams, if not also reflections on yourself? Just another reason why 3 Women is a dream is because of the camera movement. Dreams are a time to recharge your energy, you are relaxed. The camera in 3 Women slowly floats around... relaxed... observing.

Everything about 3 Women helps us build the creepy and eerie atmosphere and style. To start us off, the repetitive piece of music that we hear over and over again, is sharp... and yet soothing. It frightens us... but on such a dark level. 3 Women gets off on atmosphere. There is something in the air of 3 Women, every scene is filled with the creepiest stylistic decisions imaginable. 3 Women has many scenes of where we see creepy paintings. The paintings are demonic resembling creature... at the end of the film it suddenly struck me, they're supposed to be three women.

3 Women takes off as a character drama, and ends on so much more. The actresses in the lead roles are just fabulous. They both show their versatility as they swap personas and demonstrate that there a more than one persona they can act as. Millie, played excellently by Shelley Duvall, nails it as she makes as cringe at her character's awkwardness. Although Sissy Spacek is not quite as good as Duvall, she is almost equally brilliant. 

The beginning of 3 Women is very slow. The point of this is to make the second half appear to be very unexpected. Surprise is what made 3 Women such a disturbing and unique experience for me the first time. 

It is time to examine 3 Women in an sharp eye. As I mentioned earlier, this film was based off of Altman's dream. Everyone's dreams as themselves as a character. Then who is Robert Altman in 3 Women? The only man in the film with a big role is Edgar, the third woman's husband. Or could Altman ever been a woman? I don't know, because I have never had a dream in which I was a woman, or anyone other than myself for that matter. There are moments in 3 Women where Edgar does get a little... physical with every single character. That said, in real life, was Altman involved with multiple women at the time?

3 Women,

1977,

Directed by Robert Altman,

Starring: Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Janice Rule

10/10 (A+)

Ranked:
1. 3 Women
2. The Player
3. Brewster McCloud
4. Gosford Park
5. Fool For Love

Fool For Love (1985)

THE FILM:
Fool For Love is not one of Robert Altman's most popular films, nor is it among his most successful films (box office wise), nor is it considered to be among his greatest films period. It was submitted into the Cannes Film Festival, not because it was a great film, but because it had big names attached.

Fool For Love is based off of a play by Sam Shepard. Shepard is a great play-write, and a great actor. If you want to see a great film based off a play by Shepard, be sure to check out Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas. Both Fool For Love and Paris, Texas have performances from the great character actor, Harry Dean Stanton. I won't make any comparisons, I'll all of that for THE CRITICISM section, below.

At the time Fool For Love was released, Altman was on a binge. He was making several plays into films. This was his fourth in a row. It's predecessors include Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, Streamers and Secret Honor. Of those three films, all of them are considered to be better than Fool For Love.

I'll come right out and say that the general consensus of Fool For Love is that it's bad. Not terrible, just bad. One might speculate that something was lost in the transfer of actors and director. The original director was Sam Shepard, himself. The stars of the play were Ed Harris and Kathy Baker. Perhaps people couldn't imagine anyone else in the role? Well, changing directors and actors never harmed Elia Kazan's A Streetcar Named Desire!

I can't say too much about Fool For Love, because it's not a very popular film. Where does it stand today? Well, it still manages to hold a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, however, most of the critics who liked it did not love it, they just found mild appeal. Fool For Love also holds a contradictory 5.7 on IMDb at the moment. Fool For Love is not a classic, it is simply an Altman film.

THE PLOT:
May is an unhappily woman who is spoken for at the moment when she meets her long lost love, Eddie. He is a cowboy drifter who manages to fill her mind with sensual thoughts. The same can be said for Eddie, who misses May with a passion. As they re-encounter each other they decided to re-kindle their passionate romance. Between intense session of making love and bickering back and forth, there seems to be chemistry between May and Eddie.

All seems a little too perfect until a problem arises. As I mentioned earlier, May is currently spoken for. Her boyfriend, Martin doesn't seem to fond with the concept of his 'gal sleeping around with other men. Just when matters couldn't seem to get worse, in walks an old alcoholic man who seems to know some secrets than could be very hurtful to the couples romance if they are released to the public. Will May and Eddie manage to continue their affair... or will something put a stop to their everlasting love for each other?

THE CRITICISM:
When a film revolves around people exchanging dialogue for the entire film... they will tend to overact. In Fool For Love, there are two people who overact. Kim Basinger yells and screams the entire film. I cannot stand to see this in films, because the truth is nobody express themselves so audaciously. Sam Shepard has the same problem, in fact, he may even have a bigger problem with overacting in Fool For Love. This was fairly shocking since Sam Shepard and Kim Basinger are both great actors. One reason for this, could be do to the fact Fool For Love, being originally a play would be written for stage actors. When you're on the stage, you want your power and energy to be felt by everyone in the room. Therefore you do project your voice and you articulate words in a different manner than you would in both reality and on film. I can speculate all day why there is overacting in Fool For Love, but all I know is that they do overact.

There are also two good performances in Fool For Love. The first belongs to Harry Dean Stanton, who is quite good at the beginning slips a little in the end of the film when he joins Kim Basinger and Sam Shepard on the island of people who overact. Harry Dean Stanton's character is an alcoholic old man, so perhaps the alcohol in his bloodstream could be to blame for his overacting at the end of the film. Randy Quaid is also quite good in Fool For Love. He does not come into the film until there are only forty or so minutes left, which is unfortunate, because he is the only character I could stand. Perhaps the only reason I noticed Randy Quaid delivering a good performance may be because everything else is bad in comparison.

My biggest problem with the characters in Fool For Love were with May and Eddie (Kim Basinger and Sam Shepard). Over the course of the film, we get to know and understand all of the characters, and I really did not want to know any more about May and Eddie. I seriously could not stand them! The character to start off with are very cliche. Eddie is the cowboy drifter who has one woman... and only one. May is a woman trapped within a tragic dilemma! MY GOD! Could I care any less? The film opens at an interesting time in their relationship. However, their relationship seems as thought it was made solely for the sake of the film. I was long tired of watching how May would yell at Eddie and then he would walk away... and suddenly she'd fall in love with him again... and then she'd get angry and yell at him for awhile. We follow down this very aggravating cycle and I just would love for it to come to an end. I'm telling you, there's a scene when Eddie stomps out after May yells at him to leave. He then walks into his car, and for five minutes May circles his car, with a sad-puppy kind of face on. Eddie walks out of his car after five minutes of it, and he embraces her. She the swings her knee up and it collides with Eddie's genitalia. Ouch...! Then she walks off into the distance. After managing to get up he talks to Harry Dean Stanton... and then he goes back and bickers with May. Altman is not delicate with us, he make this plot points drag on and on... forever. Nothing really happens until the end of the film when Randy Quaid arrives (with the exception of a scene when a psycho lady drives up and shoots at them for a long time). And when we get to the point when something happens... oh boy... Fool For Love gets even worse.

Here we go, plot twists galore. Don't read on if you want to see Fool For Love. One of the plot twists tell us that May and Eddie... are really brother and sister! YEP. A whole lot of incest. However, it is told to us in that worst way imaginable.




EDDIE: I didn't find out she was my sister until it was too late.
MARTIN (Randy Quaid): Too late?
EDDIE: ...until we'd... fooled around...
MARTIN: (gasps as he almost chocks on his alcohol) NOOO!

There you go, totally realistic. There are a few more to follow, but I won't spoil any more. You can read on now, no more spoilers. 

Fool For Love is a very boring film, and a very stupid film. It seemed very unworthy of Altman at first, then I figured that he might be laughing at us. He was never one for terrible melodrama, this does not seem like something the great Robert Altman would release... was Robert Altman making a self-parody with Fool For Love? Did the actors now? Think about that if you watch the film, because I'd love to know what you think.

Fool For Love is a painful experience if I've ever been through one. Terrible acting and melodrama takes over this waste of camera film.

Fool For Love,
1985,
Directed by Robert Altman,
Starring: Sam Shepard, Kim Basinger, Randy Quaid
5/10 (D-)


Ranked:
1. The Player
2. Gosford Park
3. Fool For Love