Images
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Movie Reviews of Images
Movie Review: Ambitious thriller that fails due to heavy handedness.
Summary: 3 Stars
'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.
Movie Review: Imperfect but interesting, complex early Altman
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a a film I'll definitely watch again. I have the feeling it could feel even stronger on repeated viewings. A character study of a schizophrenic from inside her subjective point of view, so the whole story is told by an unreliable narrator. Some fascinating moments, and good tense twists as we (and she) wonder what's real. The film isn't wildly stylized, so the line between hallucination and reality is truly, effectively blurry. On the other hand a lot of the style feels awkwardly dated, and some story elements feel manipulative and not easy to believe. For example, she's very obviously a potentially dangerously disturbed woman, but her husband seems to barely take that in. Even if he's the supercilious prig that Rene Abougenois plays him as, his complete ignoring of her state feels like a cheat. And some twists just feel like they were `a cool idea' at the time, but not rooted in deeper character or story elements. A little like Nic Roeg, but not at his very best. All that said, certainly a must see for any Altman fans - it's not quite like anything else he ever did - although '3 Women' could be seen in some ways as a more mature follow up.Movie Review: Altman Directs Susannah York
Summary: 3 Stars
Susannah York delivered the boldest performance of her career in this intriguing, deliberately-paced drama, written and directed by Robert Altman, about a schizophrenic woman who is haunted by hallucinatory apparitions of lovers, past and present.
The 1972 release is a mind teaser. Neither the viewer nor Susannah knows quite what is genuine and what isn't, thus when she starts killing these apparitions, we don't really know if she's murdering a ghost or a real person.
Rene Auberjonois and Marcel Bozzuffi co-star.
For the DVD, Altman supplies audio commentary and an on-camera interview.
© Michael B. Druxman
Movie Review: Surrealist, Horror, Psychological Thriller, Art Film
Summary: 3 Stars
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.Movie Review: Pretentious
Summary: 2 Stars
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.