3 Women

1977, Directed by Robert Altman. Altman has said that he got the idea to make this movie from a dream. Indeed, some scenes are visually poetic, strange, and dream like. Some scenes are nauseating, in that 70s men in polyester way, a reality you rather wish didn't happen. Shelley Duvall won a best actress award at cannes for her portrayal of Millie Lammoreaux, a girl you're not likely to forget. This isn't the sort of film where the personalities and lives of three women are examined, contrasted and mirrored, and you try to identify with maybe one of them. Nor is it three separate stories with points of intersection. These are sad women, "maladjusted," each existing in her own world. (Janice Rule plays a woman-child, who paints wonderful symbolic figures in empty swimming pools. You will not forget these paintings either. Certain images from dreams are hard to forget.) They look at one another, but there is no sorority. Somehow, by the work of the devil, a filthy disgusting man gets his way with each of them. That man becomes their bond. And then what happens? The women come together. They reposition themselves to protect one another, and in their new arrangement, the man is dispelled. He vanishes, just like that. 5 out of 5 stars.