3 Women

Pinky arrives in a strange Californian town that is as sleepy as it is sunny. She goes to work at a spa, where she meets Millie. Mille is a tall, beautiful woman who has a lot to say but no one to hear it. Once she meets Pinky they become slight but fast friends. They talk and then Pinky moves into her flat. All goes well until a friend og Millies fails to show for dinner. Pinky is blamed, tries to kill herself and then the dream becomes a nightmare. Odd images of the medusa, the three sisters and the horror of lives stuck in the desert.

Altman knew his films divided opinion. Some saw him as a master of the form. Others have seen him as an occasional brilliant film maker that lived more off his name than his talent. I disagree with both opinions but then I would. Altman was the great rock on which many a film maker set their agenda. Altman was exactly like Godard, Ray and Welles before him. They all led a transformation in film, often by simply taking on the fixed language. Some in the form itself but all took on with great aplumb their work. Altmans form is very slight in its use of technique or combinations of ideas in acting, sound, visual and editing. He like the others before him though became a beacon of which millions of film lovers ran too. Often they found films like The Player or Nashville. Others found Short Cuts or MASH. Very few would have found 3 Women. It was outside of the list of must watch and as such held a level of mystery and novelty. When it was finally seen however, it becomes a totally worth while experience.

This film is a superb example not only of Altmans intellegent use of performance but of the themes in film as a whole. The films themes are that of the dual role of women, power of gender politics and of course modern living. The 3 women are submerged in the politics of then and now. They are equally liked and loathed because of how they act externally and how they feel internally. If they are affable, they move up in the world they inhabit but also they might be unable to form connections of value. So they have to compromise. If they are not, then they are restricted in growth but also they might be able to ingratiate themselves by using feminie charms. It might seem absent now but this is how people still feel about the place of others. Throw into the mix the place of the women in this film or in our world. You can see that women are forced to commit to a state that is dictated to them. When the end however comes around, we see what is the alternative and reversed state of play. The dream sequence halfway through suggests that we are all drowning in this world of fix and form.

Excellent stuff but a real challenge for the unfamiliar!