Robert Altman was nominated for seven Oscars in his life, making him one of the most nominated people in this blog. He is well known in many film circles and many consider him "one of the greats". Images also has music by Academy Award winner John Williams, and cinematography by Academy Award winner Vilmos Zsigmond. This movie has all the right people in it, including actor Rene Auberjonois and Susanna York.
Susanna York plays Cathryn, a young newly married woman. She is clearly delusional from the beginning, and it makes me think early on: when your main character's crazy from moment one, it makes you wonder how the movie will keep the illusion of reality. She sees a duplicate of her very early on, walking around, and she begins to see an old lover of hers at about minute 20.
The movie walks a line of having a untrustworthy narrator, and as I often do during movies such as this, I find myself wondering "what is happening in reality?" I guess that is the intention, and to make you think certain things will happen, or certain things won't. I am having an interesting time writing the plot to this, because I don't want to give too much away, but here goes, maybe some slight spoiler warnings here....
Susanna is seeing her old lover, Rene appear randomly, and she's seeing a double of her husbands friend (and apparently her old lover) Marcel. She begins to have conflict with them, wondering why they're there, if they're real, and what to do about it. Sometimes she will see these doubles instead of whoever she is actually talking to as well. It's all about as confusing as it sounds, but it's well done enough to make it watchable and not a clusterfuck.
Intermixed in all this is fantastic, abstract cinematography, creepy music, strange constant allusions to jingling bells and turning wheels, and intense dread. They nailed a creepy, atmospheric presence to this film. There is also a really nice choice here to have a highly sexual plot, but to keep the nudity to a near absolute zero, except in one scene where it is done for a horror effect. This movie was quite expertly made, that much is apparent.
Critics were unsure of it, marketers were baffled, and the movie was basically a bomb. It's not shocking to see why. It's a bit confusing, a bit long, and at one point I felt myself wondering, "Is anything going to happen in this movie at all?" Despite all that, I'm glad to have watched it, and I give it 4, or maybe even 4.5 stars.
What do you think of THIS awful graphic? Pretty classy huh?
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