i just finished watching robert altman's 3 women. (which happens to have been made the same year i was.) i've heard about it, and when the criterion collection dvd came out i know i made a little note somewhere that i should watch it. i hadn't thought about it again, though, until i ran into it on accident at the library.essentially it's about identity theft, and how fluid the sense of self can be. people acting the way they think they should, how we assume that's who we are, but what if we aren't? what if we just decide to be someone else? what if we swap identities? at the end of the film no one is where they were when the film started, and it's confusing, and not confusing at the same time. the whole film is sort of off, a strange ending seems reasonable. i don't know, i liked it. you might not. it reminded me of wim wenders a little. it has that slow pace, the long shots, the spare dialogue.
it's an odd movie, creepy and sort of sad and pretty to watch. the only thing i didn't like about it was the god-awful soundtrack. the scoring was so predictable and heavy-handed, and at times it was actually so loud you had a hard time hearing what the characters were saying. the composer only worked on a few things, thank god. it would be interesting to see the film without the music--i think it would improve it. i know it's dumb to get stuck on that one point, but oh god it was awful.
sissy spacek was incredible, she does creepy in a way no one else can. she can be freaking you all while making you feel sorry for her at the same time. shelley duvall is one of my favorite actresses ever, so of course i loved her. i wouldn't necessarily say that she's a great actress, but what she does well, she does very well. i'm surprised the film was made when it was, when i think of late seventies films i don't necessarily think of anything this interesting.
i'm not sure i loved the film, but out of all the films i've seen the past few weeks this was one of the best. i feel like a lot of what i've seen lately has been shocking for the sake of shocking (closer, a history of violence) or has tried too hard (hysterical blindness). i don't even think altman knew exactly was this film was about, or where it was going to go, so even though the subject is weird and dramatic it doesn't feel like it's trying to impress you with how bizarre it is.
but i did seriously, honestly, deeply hate the goddamn score. it was puke-tastic.
2 comments:
I love 3 Women. It's one of my favorite movies. Oddly, I don't remember the score at all. Usually, a bad score really bothers me, but I'm blanking on it. Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek are great, great, great. I have to admit, though, I disagree with you one million billion trillion percent on A History of Violence. That is also a great, great movie. So carefully composed, so beautifully acted, the sex scenes were great (and I usually hate sex scenes in movies), and had so much to say about violence as a natural part of our existence. I loved it.
a history of violence had it's moments, to be sure, but i thought everything after the front lawn scene was extraneous. and when did william hurt start sucking so badly? but i agree with you on the rest of it, up until the lawn.
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