2012 Cannes Marathon: 3 Women

(Winner of the Best Actress Prize to Shelley Duvall at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival)

Written and Directed by Robert Altman, 3 Women is the story of a young woman who moves to California where she becomes attached to her new roommate while hanging out with a pregnant artist and her cowboy husband. The film is essentially Altman exploring the world of identity as it is inspired by Ingmar Bergman‘s 1966 classic Persona. Starring Sissy Spacek, Shelley Duvall, Janice Rule, and Robert Fortier. 3 Women is a mesmerizing yet haunting film from Robert Altman.

Arriving from a small town in Texas is a young woman named Pinky Rose (Sissy Spacek) who gets a job working at a health facility for elderly people where she meets a vivacious, chatty woman named Millie Lammoreaux (Shelley Duvall). Pinky is intrigued by Millie as she shows her around as Millie is often talkative about her life while the shy Pinky is drawn to her. When Millie’s old roommate Deidre (Beverly Ross) has moved out to live with her boyfriend, Pinky answers the ad where Millie takes her to a saloon that is run by a former stuntman named Edgar Hart (Robert Fortier) while his wife Willie (Janice Rule) is a silent mural painter who is currently pregnant. While Pinky is amazed by this new world and by Millie, things eventually start to crumble as Millie becomes annoyed by the naïve Pinky who is secretly reading Millie’s diaries.

On one particular night when Millie wants to have a dinner party with Deidre and some friends, things go bad when Pinky makes a mess of herself as she later meets Deidre who couldn’t come to the party due to an engagement. Millie decides to go out on her own where she returns with a man at the apartment leaving Pinky in distress where she does something that would shock everyone at the apartment. Feeling guilty, Millie calls Pinky’s parents (Ruth Nelson and John Cromwell) where Pinky eventually wakes up from her coma where her behavior shocks Millie. Notably as Pinky starts to refer to herself as Millie as she becomes quite dominant as she flirts with Edgar leaving Millie confused about what had just happened. Yet, it would be an event that would force the two to get back together where things become more confusing on who these women are.

The film is about two different women who become roommates in a Californian apartment where they each display very different personalities. In the course of the film, one is entranced by her while the other starts to feel annoyed by her presence. An incident based on one woman’s desire to be with a man where her roommate would do something that would nearly kill her. Suddenly, behaviors change where the two women’s personalities start to change through elements of surrealism and drastic events that would have these two women collide while there’s another woman wandering around in the background who is truly alone in this strange world.

Since this is a film about identity, Robert Altman is more concerned about who these two women are and why there’s this other woman who is always in the background painting murals or looking at the ones she already made. Both protagonists are women named Mildred though it’s a name Pinky hates until she decides to call herself Millie in the second half to annoy the other Millie. The screenplay that Altman creates is very loose in its storytelling though it has the approach to dialogue and over-lapping dialogue that he’s known for. Yet, he changes gears from the first half to the second half where they very chatty Millie becomes more silent while Pinky becomes less caring and crueler the same way Millie was. Then there’s Willie who is this silent woman in the background as she rarely speaks where she creates this art that seems to say a lot about the world of identity.

Altman’s direction is a wide mix of styles ranging from very straightforward yet wandering compositions to surreal images such as the film’s opening credits where water seems to wade around the camera as the shot is focused on these murals. A lot of these surreal moments with the camera wading in the water in these strange montages is obviously a nod to Ingmar Bergman’s Persona for the way these two women named Mildred are linked. The direction has Altman creating some amazing close-ups and two-shots where one character is in focus while another is in the background either blurred or looking at that other person. Altman is always fixated on these two women where the travel around the Californian desert to go to this ruined saloon where there’s men having target practice or Willie doing her art all by herself.

The direction also has Altman trying to create an intimacy with the two women where he would find ways for one character to dominate another as he is also interested in what’s going on outside of this apartment where there’s always something going on. There’s a lot of shots in these apartments yet he remains focused on these three women. The film’s climatic ending where all three women become the focus of the story reveal a lot of character changes that happens. Notably the film’s ending where the women become one in the same but all have different personalities and such where it’s an ending that is very strange and almost anti-climatic. Yet, it’s effective for where these women where early in the film to what they become at the end. Overall, Altman creates a truly dazzling yet hypnotically-ravishing drama about the world of identity.

Cinematographer Chuck Roscher does a superb job with the film‘s very dream-like yet colorful cinematography to play out the sunny Californian deserts to the nighttime exteriors in the apartment scenes. Editor Dennis Hill does excellent work with the editing by creating surrealistic montages filled with dissolves and jump-cuts to play out these strange dreams while a lot of the film is quite straightforward in its approach to cutting. Art director James D. Vance does great work with the design of the apartment Millie and Pinky stay along with the spa they work and the saloon that they hang out at. The mural design by Bohdi Wind is incredible for the way it plays out the surrealism of the film as well as the idea of three women being linked to one another.

Sound editors David M. Horton and Bill Phillips do wonderful work with the sound to play out the intimacy of the apartments as well as some of chaotic nature of some of the parties and target practices that the characters encounter. The film’s score by Gerald Busby is brilliant for its woodwind-driven score led by a flute to play out some of the film’s dramatic and surreal moments.

The film’s cast is phenomenal for the ensemble that is created as it includes some notable small performances from Beverly Ross as Millie’s former roommate Deidre, Craig Richard Nelson and Sierra Pecheur as Millie and Pinky’s bosses, Leslie Ann and Patricia Ann Hudson as twin spa workers, Maysie Hoyt and Belita Moreno as a couple of spa workers, and as Pinky’s parents, John Cromwell and Ruth Nelson. Robert Fortier is excellent as the ex-stuntman turned cowboy who tries to woo Millie and Pinky with his cowboy ways. Janice Rule is great in a small but very entrancing role as the artist Willie who often wanders around painting or looking at her murals as she rarely speaks in the film.

Finally, there’s the duo of Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall in fantastic performances in their respective roles of Pinky and Millie. Spacek brings a wonderful innocence to her character as Pinky in the film’s first half in the way she displays herself physically or how she often looks at Millie. In the second half, Spacek brings a much wilder performance as a woman who is loose and confrontational in the way she deals with Millie. Duvall has a great sense of charm to the way she presents Millie as she starts off as this talkative yet absorbed woman who likes to have fun without any care for anyone. Then in the film’s second half, she’s grounded back to Earth where she acts kindly to Pinky’s parents and deal with much wilder Pinky. Spacek and Duvall have amazing chemistry in the way they act together as two opposites where they each bring the best in each other as they’re the highlight of the film.

3 Women is a marvelous yet captivating drama from Robert Altman that features remarkable performances from Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall. The film might not be one of Altman’s most accessible films but it is certainly one of his most imaginative for the way he explores the world of identity and how women try to create other personas for themselves. In the end, 3 Women is a truly evocative yet intoxicating film from Robert Altman.

Robert Altman Films: (The Delinquents) - (The James Dean Story) - Countdown (1968 film) - (That Cold Day in the Park) - M.A.S.H. - Brewster McCloud - McCabe & Mrs. Miller - (Images) - The Long Goodbye - Thieves Like Us - California Split - Nashville - Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson - (A Wedding) - (Quintet) - (A Perfect Couple) - (HealtH) - Popeye - (Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean) - (Streamers) - (Secret Honor) - (O.C. and Stiggs) - Fool for Love - (Beyond Therapy) - (Aria-Les Boreades) - (Tanner ‘88) - (Vincent & Theo) - The Player - Short Cuts - Pret-a-Porter - (Kansas City) - (The Gingerbread Man) - Cookie’s Fortune - Dr. T & the Women - Gosford Park - The Company (2003 film) - (Tanner on Tanner) - A Prairie Home Companion

© thevoid99 2012

2012 Cannes Marathon: Missing (1982 film)

(Winner of the Palme D’or & Best Actor Prize to Jack Lemmon at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival)

Based on Thomas Hauer’s book, Missing is the story of a man and his daughter-in-law trying to American journalist Charles Horman during 1973 coup in Chile. Directed by Costas-Gavras and screenplay by Costas-Gavras and Donald E. Stewart, the film explores the search of a man from his own wife and father as they also encounter a world ravaged by chaos following the fall of Salvador Allende. Starring Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, Charles Cioffi, Janice Rule, and John Shea as Charles Horman. Missing is an intense suspense-drama from Costas-Gavras.

Days after Pinochet’s coup against Salvador Allende in 1973 Chile, left-wing journalist Charles Horman and his friend Terry Simon (Melanie Mayron) has just returned from Vina del Mar as they have a scoop about what’s been happening. With Horman’s wife Beth (Sissy Spacek) living in Santiago as she is helping out other people in the city, Charles believes something is happening as he suddenly disappears. With Beth trying to find her husband, her father-in-law Ed (Jack Lemmon) arrives to help out though he believes that it’s Charles’ fault due to his own political idealism. While Ed asks some American officials in the U.S. Ambassador (Richard Venture), its consul Phil Putnam (David Clennon), and a naval captain in Ray Tower (Charles Cioffi) to help out, Beth remains unsure.

While Terry reveals what Charles was looking for and why they were at the Vina del Mar, Beth and Ed look for clues as Ed wondering what is taking so long. With Beth frustrated with the government as she and Ed talk to locals about what might’ve happened, Ed starts to believe that the Americans might be covering something up as he confronts them over what is taking so long. He and Beth decide to take matters into their own hands as they read Charles’ notes over what he found in Vina del Mar as it reveals that the man he and Terry met in a naval engineer named Andrew Babcock (Richard Bradford) might’ve played a role in the coup. After talking to one of Charles’ colleagues in David Holloway (Keith Szarabajka) who had been taken away and interrogated with another journalist in Frank Teruggi (Joe Regalbuto).

Ed and Beth continue their investigation with the help of freelance journalist Kate Newman (Janice Rule) as they reveal that Charles also met a colonel in Sean Patrick (Jerry Hardin) at Vina del Mar where they also meet Tower at a party. Ed and Beth make a discovery about what probably did happen to Charles as Ed would search for answers on his own. What happens would force Ed to confront the people he trusted with finding his son.

The film is about a man and his daughter-in-law trying to find his son during the 1973 coup of Chile where two different political views of young and old are shaken by a troubled world as they’re just wanting find out what happened to this man that has disappeared. While it’s a film that is essentially a mystery of sorts with a lot of political drama set in the mix against this backdrop, it’s a film that also raises questions about the role of the American government in this military coup that is led by Pinochet. Yet, it’s the human drama that Costas-Gavras and co-writer Donald E. Stewart, with additional contributions from John Nichols, are interested in as a father is just trying to figure out what his son and daughter-in-law were doing in Chile and why did his son suddenly disappear like that. While the government would make claims that the disappearance is staged where Charles’ wife would rebuke that it’s bullshit.

Driving the story is this tumultuous relationship between a man and his daughter-in-law where neither seems to agree with each other politically or socially yet their relationship grows once they take matters into their own hands in the investigation. Part of the film is told in flashbacks as Ed and Beth Horman is talking to people about what happened while reading some of Charles’ notes. For Ed, it gives him the chance to understand the son he often has differences with as he also learns that Charles might have done nothing wrong. This would have him and Beth questioning their own government as they also have to seek forces outside. The screenplay that Costas-Garvas and Donald. E. Stewart does play up the suspense with these flashbacks and chilling scenes where Ed and Beth have to encounter places that is brutal and have an air of death.

Costas-Gavras’ direction is truly entrancing for the way he captures a world that is en-ravaged in chaos as it is told from the perspective of its main characters. Shot on location in Mexico to avoid controversy in Chile, the film does have this very realistic portrayal of a country where people are taken away by soldiers as the camera doesn’t shy away from what Charles Horman, his father, and his wife are seeing. With a lot of startling shots as the camera moves around to capture the locations or to follow the characters as they walking towards the hallway. The direction is always making sure that is something is happening as it includes some intimate moments in the room where meetings happen.

One notable scene is a meeting where Ed questions the government as Costas-Gavras keeps the camera still to let the drama unfold in a very understated yet engaging manner. The way he lets the actors play things out while framing them in a scene is also among one of the film’s highlights. Notably in the third act where things do cool down for the film’s big revelation as Costas-Gavras doesn’t have to do a lot for the audience to side with the Hormans. He just lets the actors play out their emotions as the film’s ending reveals troubling aftermaths about what the American government didn’t want people to know. Overall, Costas-Gavras creates a truly incredible yet haunting film about a man trying to find his son with the help of his daughter-in-law.

Cinematographer Ricardo Aronovich does superb work with the film‘s cinematography from the sunny locations of the city and beaches to some of the more entrancing interior and exterior nighttime scenes to play up stark mood of the film. Editor Francoise Bonnot does excellent work with the editing to maintain a mostly straightforward approach to the editing while it includes a wonderful use of dissolves to play out Charles‘ abduction scene. Production designer Peter Jamison, with set decorator Linda Spheeris and art directors Lucero Isaac and Agustin Ituarte, does nice work with the recreation of the chaos of Santiago including the stadium and the scenes at the morgue.

Costume designer Joe I. Tompkins does very good work with the costumes from the more casual, lively clothes that Beth wears to the more business-like suits that Ed wears to differentiate their characters. Sound effects editor Michele Boehm does fantastic work with the sound from the way helicopters are heard to the array of gunfire and explosions that play out in the tense atmosphere that Beth and Ed are in. The film’s score by Vangelis is wonderful for its brooding yet intense synthesizer-driven score for some of the film’s suspense scenes as well as more low-key pieces in the film’s less-dramatic scenes.

The casting by Wally Nicita is brilliant for the ensemble that is created as it includes appearances from Richard Bradford as the naval engineer Andrew Babcock, Joe Regalbuto and Keith Szarabajka as a couple of Charles’ journalist friends, Jerry Hardin as a colonel that Charles and Terry befriends in their investigation, and Richard Venture as a U.S. ambassador who is hiding secrets that makes Ed unsure of what is happening. Janice Rule is excellent as a freelance reporter who aids Ed and Beth in uncovering Charles’ notes while Melanie Mayron is very good as Charles’ friend Terry who also gives Ed and Beth insight into what they’re trying to find. David Clennon is quite fine as a young U.S. consul who tries to hide the truth from Beth and Ed while Charles Cioffi is superb as a slimy naval captain who makes Beth uncomfortable during a stay at his home in a flashback.

John Shea is terrific as the idealistic Charles Horman who is trying to discover what is happening around him as he would end up disappearing over what he might’ve uncovered. Sissy Spacek is great as Charles’ wife Beth who is intent on trying to find her husband while aiding her father-in-law as Spacek definitely holds her own as she has some amazing chemistry with a legend like Jack Lemmon.

Lemmon’s performance in the film is truly the highlight as Lemmon displays a true sense of mastery in the art of acting. From the way he tries to impose his ideas towards his daughter-in-law to the way he reacts to the things around him as he becomes more disillusioned with his own government. The scenes where Lemmon has these intense monologues about what the U.S. government should be doing is very engaging over what Lemmon could do. The scene where he’s in a stadium as he tries to talk to his son among this group of people is heartbreaking to watch. Notably in the physicality in how he reacts to startling news as his performance is a true master class in what acting should be.

Missing is a phenomenal film from Costas-Gavras that features magnificent performances from Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek. The film is definitely one of the great suspense-dramas that allows the audience to follow a couple of people in search of a man against a period that is crucial. It’s also a film that reveals the way the American government can play a role in creating tense situations like this forcing those to question their government. In the end, Missing is a marvelous yet provocative film from Costas-Gavras.

Costas-Gavras Films: (The Sleeping Car Murders) - (Shock Troops) - Z - The Confession (1970 film) - (State of Siege) - (Special Section) - (Womanlight) - (Hanna K.) - (Family Business) - (Betrayed (1988 film)) - (Music Box) - (The Little Apocalypse) - (Mad City) - (Amen.) - (Le Couperet) - (Eden is West)

© thevoid99 2012