February 20, 2005
Robert Altman turned 80 today. I hope my brain and creativity hold out for as long as his has.
Sort-of in celebration, I watched his 1977 film Three Women this afternoon. It was one of the most frightening films I've seen in a long time, and would make an excellent triple feature with Bergman's Persona and Lynch's Mulholland Drive. And the connections between the three films are certainly far from tenuous; Altman claims Bergman's film as an inspiration for his own, and also explained that the entire story came to him in a dream. Likewise, Lynch has suggested that the inspiration for turning his failed TV pilot into a feature also was based on a dream he had. All three films, of course, are about two women who grow close over a period of time - so close that they somehow switch personas. All three feature stunning performances from their lead actresses (Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek, Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullman, and Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring). Of the three, Altman's film is the most subtle, which makes the terror of its climax almost (if not quite) more shocking than the film break in Persona or (most definitely moreso than) the discovery of the corpse in Mulholland Drive. Another viewing or so, and it might just become my second favorite Altman film (after McCabe & Mrs. Miller).
On a completely unrelated note: the trailer for A Scanner Darkly is amazing - it appears to be a perfect realization of Dick's novel (particularly in regards to the scramble suits, which would never have worked so well in live action).
Posted by David Lowery at February 20, 2005 11:10 AM