Images

Rating:
Summary: Ambitious thriller that fails due to heavy handedness.
Review: 'Images' is one of those films with a big reputation that has always been quite difficult to get to see.

I read about this film in the excellent 'DVD Delerium Volume 2' book -and if you love real cult movies then you must get these books kids - and it sounded fascinating: a woman lapsing into schizophrenia keeps hallucinating (or does she), seeing and hearing people from her past who are/are not really there.

The seventies was a particularly great time for such films ('Blood Sisters' and 'Symptoms' are two classic examples), but despite its ambition, 'Images' does not quite hang together.

Susannah York is excellent and the photography (the film is mostly set in Ireland) is generally breathtaking, while the quality of the DVD itself varies, though this may be down to deliberate grain in some scenes. But the film itsel lacks tautness, being a good fifteen minutes too long and it is too heavily laden with intention - the music, by John Williams (before he became boring) and the brilliant Japanese percussionist Stomu Yamashta (whose best music features heavily in Roeg's 'The Man Who Fell To Earth'-and all of this music has never been issued on CD, which is a disgrace) is excellent but there is far too much of it and after a while its disturbing qualities become tedious. Together with the generally poor mono sound, fairytale voiceover monologues from York and the cardboard supporting characters ( a husband who cannot keep saying 'goddamn it' and 'son of a bitch' repeatedly while wearing driving gloves, a brutish Oliver Tobias type artist who gropes at York constantly and a largely indecipherable French ex-lover), the merits of the film become lost in its excessive carping on the same points without moving the story along. The mono sound is poor particularly during York's monologues and the French guys' inaudible mutterings (harden those consonants, man !)

Don't get me wrong, I like obsessive film- makers -Argento, Cronenberg, Roeg, Leone and Kubrick all fascinate me, no matter how overblown or repetitive they become, but against directors like these, Altman just does not cut it.

I can't say I'm an Altman fan (I have seen a few of his pictures and don't really see what the fuss is about him -unlike many auteurs who are at their best when repeatedly focussing on their personal obsessions, Altman has cast his net far and wide with the result that his directorial character is somewhat vague and undefinied -in other words, he could just be a superior Hollywood hack). Proof of this comes in his endless focussing on depending pendant-like baubles throughout the film, which seems to be the limit of his 'Images' imagination.

In short, with some judicious editing and improved sound, this could have been a great film. But Altman is not Roeg, (...). Otherwise, worth having only for the lovely photography.

Rating:
Summary: A house of mirrors
Review: A film that's a little like trying to find your way out of a house of mirrors or an attempt to reassemble an image once it has been split by a prism. Since nothing is as it seems, we may as well be inside a fictionalized world; like the Unicorn story the main character, Cathryn, is writing. This fantasy is read aloud throughout the film creating a framework whose only relevance to the story unfolding, is to reassure us that we have stepped into a world that is a creation of the imagination; however, the fact that is comes from the mind of a schizophrenic is hardly reassuring. A glance at the cast of characters hints that they are not necessarily who or what they seem (Hugh is played by Rene, Rene is played by Marcel who is played by Hugh. Cathryn is played by Susannah and Susannah plays Cathryn). Insanity is not an ordering principle of the mind, but rather a vain attempt to put order to an ever-changing palette of images that may or may not be reflections of images within the mind instead of outside. A very atmospheric film made more so by the disturbing score that is not altogether in sync with the action, another technique that constantly keeps the viewer off balance.

Rating:
Summary: Freaky 70s Altman
Review: After hearing about this being one of Altman's "lost films" I was in a hurry to find it once I learned it had been released on DVD. This is Altman much closer to "3 Women" than to "Nashville." The story is fairly surreal with some great dreamlike sequences here and there. It had me guessing for most of the film and was never boring. If you like well thought out thrillers this is for you. It probably plays best when you've read as little as possible about it too. One of my favorite 70s pieces from Altman.

Rating:
Summary: Freaky 70s Altman
Review: After hearing about this being one of Altman's "lost films" I was in a hurry to find it once I learned it had been released on DVD. This is Altman much closer to "3 Women" than to "Nashville." The story is fairly surreal with some great dreamlike sequences here and there. It had me guessing for most of the film and was never boring. If you like well thought out thrillers this is for you. It probably plays best when you've read as little as possible about it too. One of my favorite 70s pieces from Altman.

Rating:
Summary: great 70s horror classic
Review: I have not seen IMAGES on DVD so I cannot honestly comment on the DVD's quality, but I saw this film last year at a film archive screening, and I have to say I was genuinely freaked out by it. Again, to be honest, a number of my friends found it to be a bit silly, but I was genuinely disturbed by it, in much the same way that I was disturbed by ONIBABA, ROSMARY'S BABY, DON'T LOOK NOW, and DEAD RINGERS. Putting the spectator in the position of a mentally unbalanced person (a la DR. CALIGARI), IMAGES masterfully creates the effect of being trapped within an unstable subjectivity. By the way, the acting and the cinematography are flawless...

Rating:
Summary: Surrealist, Horror, Psychological Thriller, Art Film
Review: I love Altman, especially from this period, but IMAGES is an aquired taste. It's what would have happened if Maya Deran had made psychological thrillers instead of art films, or if Hitchcock had followed the avant-garde (instead of leading it). It's an interesting experiement, and I enjoyed it, but I would only recommend it to hardcore fans who like the art films of the era (like Antonioni's work). The fact that Altman had a structured story makes it less "fun" than M*A*S*H or NASHVILLE, but film buffs will still find a lot of amazing concepts.

Rating:
Summary: Surrealist, Horror, Psychological Thriller, Art Film
Review: I love Altman, especially from this period, but IMAGES is an aquired taste. It's what would have happened if Maya Deran had made psychological thrillers instead of art films, or if Hitchcock had followed the avant-garde (instead of leading it). It's an interesting experiement, and I enjoyed it, but I would only recommend it to hardcore fans who like the art films of the era (like Antonioni's work). The fact that Altman had a structured story makes it less "fun" than M*A*S*H or NASHVILLE, but film buffs will still find a lot of amazing concepts.

Rating:
Summary: FORGOTTEN CHILLER
Review: Robert Altman's freaky fairy tale IMAGES (MGM) disappeared shortly after it's 1972 release. Susannah York is a married children's author who may or may not be a schizophrenic adulteress fantasizing about being pregnant and killing her "ghosts". Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond perfectly captures the evanescent Irish setting. Especially haunting is Stomu Yamashta's brilliant sound design. Altman's most original -- perhaps best -- film.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Psychological Portrait
Review: Susannah York gives a fantastic performance as Cathryn, a wealthy English woman who may be mentally unstable. Alone in her home writing a children's book, she is interrupted by the apparent appearance of an old lover. Or is she? When her husband (Rene Aberjonois) arrives home and sees her distress, he whisks her away to their country home - a strangely drab cottage that seems to have been spray-painted black and gray. Her deterioration and inability to distinguish fact and fantasy continue unabated, particularly when her husband has to return to the city. What happens from there is highly open to interpretation.

"Images" is a strange, unsettling film, even for director Robert Altman. The initial pace is glacier-like and will undoubtedly leave many viewers bored and frustrated. However, you need to stick with it, as the film gradually gains momentum and climaxes with almost unbearable tension. The film has been compared to Roman Polanski's "Repulsion"; that film is superior to "Images," but the comparison is not completely inappropriate. Both chronicle a young woman's descent in madness when left alone; however, "Images" is less chilling and somewhat more convoluted, although with many merits of its own.

Filmed on location in Ireland, the film looks absolutely stunning, and the cinematography is so superior that it alone merits a viewing of "Images." Altman's direction is also first-rate and masterful, so much so that it somewhat detracts from the film - I was sometimes too busy watching his directing flourishes to pay attention to small plot details. Overall, "Images" is an intriguing movie-going experience that will likely appeal to many fans of Altman and viewers who appreciate films that can be obscure in nature.



Rating:
Summary: Pretentious
Review: The only reason why I saw this was because of Susannah York. This shows she was more capable of the dix she played in "The Killing of Sister George" and was a fine actress. Otherwise this movie is blah. It's okay to make a surreal other world but you have to make it interesting. The men in this movie are so disgusting one can't blame her for getting mad anyway. For another pointless film of this caliber see Secret Ceremony.