5. 3 WOMEN, dir. ROBERT ALTMAN, 1977
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about midway through watching our last film, i knew i wanted the next film to be 3 women. i have seen it already, but not for awhile, and, it is the sort of movie that having seen it once or twice means very little, it is brimming over, one is lucky to digest a very watery (yet, nonetheless thrillingly captivating) abstraction after the first or second viewing. i think watching the american friend made me think of 3 women not because there is plot-line similarity, but because there is a similar indefinable quality to the nature of the human relationships set before the viewer, one that simultaneously confounds us and mesmerizes us, and makes us want to understand, and to know more.
4 comments:
it's great that "the american friend" led you to this. i didn't think of it myself, but i can understand the resemblance--there's a certain sweetness to the main relationships in both movies, but a strangeness, too, and a utility. an oblique buddy movie--my favorite kind!
throughout i was thinking this felt like bruno ganz's movie, at least in screen time, but the title "the american friend"...by the end you understand that tom is the thematic protagonist of the film, its guiding force, its survivor. and rhan pointed this out to me--did you see how many filmmakers were cast in this movie?
there are so many different incarnations of the tom ripley character in different movies. i need to read patricia highsmith's books one of these days!
anyhow, i thought this was a solid, beautiful movie--the color and light!--and i agree with last week's commenter about the greatness of robby muller. "down by law" has some of my very favorite shots and remains one of my very favorite movies.
can't wait to watch "3 women." i have seen it before, and loved it, but i agree that it's the kind of movie that bears revisiting. this is the perfect excuse.
shelley duvall needs to marry me
i just (re-) watched this last night. i think it might be my favorite movie of all time. i always hesitate to choose a "one", because it seems so entirely surrendered to the moment in the mind - in a year it might change (and, i could have watched another always-loved film last night and potentially felt the same obsessed way). however, 3 women, again, completely captivated me from the second it started, until the credits were completely through and the dvd main menu came back up on the screen. the performances, the imagery, the subtext, the altman-many-conversations-happening-
in-the-distance, the spaces open for interpretation... watching it i felt like, "thank god this exists."
i have a bit of a 3 women plan for the new year. not fully thought out, but it largely revolves around me watching 3 women on a schedule. like, once a month, for the year. i don't know what else i will impose on myself relatedly, but i'll figure it out. i think there is just so, so much here.
i tried to address it in the new post, but i'll say it here, too: 3 women is one of those films that as soon as you see it, you think, "that is one of the most incredible films i have ever seen." i totally understand your wanting to watch it on a schedule in the new year. it's just....great.
it is remarkable to think that this film came out the same year as star wars, which of course came along and changed (ruined?) everything. altman's commentary was great--did you listen to it, too?
shelley duvall is another one of those actresses (like ruth gordon!) who is so natural and consistent from film to film, i can't help but think that her performances from film to film are just different, but relatively minor, stretches and extensions from her own personality. maybe versatility is overrated. she is breathtaking in this one.
perfect choice. :)
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