Images (1972)
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 104m
Director: Robert Altman
Cast: Susannah York, Rene Auberjonois, Marcel Bozzuffi, Hugh Millais, Cathryn Harrison
Synopsis:
An unbalanced writer of fantasy fiction is tormented by the apparition of her dead former lover and drives to her Cumbrian retreat with her husband to escape. There the apparitions return, with the addition of another (live) former lover and her own doppelganger.
Review:
What with Williams' musique concrète soundtrack and a preoccupation with sexuality, violence and perception, Altman's modernist psycho-thriller resides firmly in the wacky-baccy Seventies delirium of films like Boorman's Zardoz, Bénazéraf's Frustration and Malle's Black Moon - this last not just for the presence of Cathryn Harrison! While drawing on works like Repulsion and Persona, it also foreshadows other Altman films, such as Three Women and Quintet. It is an accomplished piece of work, thanks to York's possibly career-best performance and clever camerawork and direction (plenty of zooms, mirrors, and blurry appearance/reality shots). We never stop caring about what happens to our heroine, and the actress's readings from her own children's story, In Search of Unicorns, provide a relatively sane counterpoint to the action. On the debit side, Auberjonois's stilted repetitions of expressions like 'goddamn' and 'sonuvabitch' constitute a major lapse of writing/performance.
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 104m
Director: Robert Altman
Cast: Susannah York, Rene Auberjonois, Marcel Bozzuffi, Hugh Millais, Cathryn Harrison
Synopsis:
An unbalanced writer of fantasy fiction is tormented by the apparition of her dead former lover and drives to her Cumbrian retreat with her husband to escape. There the apparitions return, with the addition of another (live) former lover and her own doppelganger.
Review:
What with Williams' musique concrète soundtrack and a preoccupation with sexuality, violence and perception, Altman's modernist psycho-thriller resides firmly in the wacky-baccy Seventies delirium of films like Boorman's Zardoz, Bénazéraf's Frustration and Malle's Black Moon - this last not just for the presence of Cathryn Harrison! While drawing on works like Repulsion and Persona, it also foreshadows other Altman films, such as Three Women and Quintet. It is an accomplished piece of work, thanks to York's possibly career-best performance and clever camerawork and direction (plenty of zooms, mirrors, and blurry appearance/reality shots). We never stop caring about what happens to our heroine, and the actress's readings from her own children's story, In Search of Unicorns, provide a relatively sane counterpoint to the action. On the debit side, Auberjonois's stilted repetitions of expressions like 'goddamn' and 'sonuvabitch' constitute a major lapse of writing/performance.
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 104m
Director: Robert Altman
Cast: Susannah York, Rene Auberjonois, Marcel Bozzuffi, Hugh Millais, Cathryn Harrison
Synopsis:
An unbalanced writer of fantasy fiction is tormented by the apparition of her dead former lover and drives to her Cumbrian retreat with her husband to escape. There the apparitions return, with the addition of another (live) former lover and her own doppelganger.
Review:
What with Williams' musique concrète soundtrack and a preoccupation with sexuality, violence and perception, Altman's modernist psycho-thriller resides firmly in the wacky-baccy Seventies delirium of films like Boorman's Zardoz, Bénazéraf's Frustration and Malle's Black Moon - this last not just for the presence of Cathryn Harrison! While drawing on works like Repulsion and Persona, it also foreshadows other Altman films, such as Three Women and Quintet. It is an accomplished piece of work, thanks to York's possibly career-best performance and clever camerawork and direction (plenty of zooms, mirrors, and blurry appearance/reality shots). We never stop caring about what happens to our heroine, and the actress's readings from her own children's story, In Search of Unicorns, provide a relatively sane counterpoint to the action. On the debit side, Auberjonois's stilted repetitions of expressions like 'goddamn' and 'sonuvabitch' constitute a major lapse of writing/performance.