Dreams of 3 Women

No, I’m not talking about orgies here, although that theme recurs throughout Robert Altman’s 3 Women (1977). Like Martin Scorsese, Altman is one of the most acclaimed (and prolific) directors who has nevertheless never won a best director Academy Award. Probably rightly so, too. Don't misunderstand me: I like Altman’s films. Short Cuts and The Player are two of my favorites, and Gosford Park was an amazingly clever reinvention of the mystery.

But his films just aren’t best picture material, are they? They’re all really good—that’s why the Academy awarded him the lifetime achievement award this year—but they’re all flawed. It’s as if someone keeps interfering with his films, inserting annoying little traits or characters. Sometimes that overlapping dialogue trick gets confusing or simply grating, and the camera just doesn’t stop moving, zooming in at what seems like inopportune times. Sure, it’s neat, but it’s not best picture stuff.

3 Women is different from anything else he has done. For the first half, I was completely engrossed: the characters were interesting and the plot seemed completely fleshed out. On second thought, the characters were one-sided, but it was completely appropriate, considering the turn-around halfway through the film. The characters had to be one-sided to make the twist work. Everything changes at this point, and the characters begin to morph into one another. I won’t give anything away, but it gets really interesting and quite confusing. The ending seemed like a let-down, but on second thought, it wasn’t. I can’t say what happens, but it gets weird. What we thought isn’t the truth, and all of it becomes very dream-like. It isn’t until the end that we really understand who the three women even are, but even then, we can't be sure that it's the final word.

The film’s confusion and play on reality makes it a precursor to Lynch’s Blue Velvet, which appears ten years later, or even more so to his Mulholland Drive. It’s interesting that Altman made a film like this at all, for it’s a complete departure from any other of his films, which, although perhaps not traditional, at least have somewhat coherent plots. 3 Women kept me guessing during its second half, and I only partially feel as if everything was resolved. In that way, it may be better than a Lynch film where nothing is resolved.

Overall, this film is worth watching. I had never heard of it before, but I think that’s because of its complexity and subtlety on the one hand and its competing simplicity of character and overt metaphors on the other. It may not be a M*A*S*H or Nashville, but it's still good.

Grade for 3 Women: 7