If one is to be crazy and potentially dangerous to those in the immediate vicinity it is probably best to be crazy and dangerous in as wide an array of lovely floral prints as can be mustered even if so doing does not help one keep track of time or space in the least and if there is a country cottage available in which to be clad in floral prints, dangerous and crazy, and space to roam about in, let there also be rollicking ponies and peacefully baa-ing sheeps to co-occupy that space because there might as well be even if their presence cannot alter the outcome of the story one seems to be writing or being written by, it is altogether more pleasant that way.

Part of the Film School Dropouts Challenge
Week 27: Robert Altman

An immersive, compelling and creepy tale of mental illness, desperation and sexuality that's unsettling throughout with its eerie and noisy score, striking editing (there's some awesome transitions in this), and its dream-like imagery. Its small-scaled, simple yet effective, and wholly atmospheric and expressive, it draws you into its dreamy, strange world and doesn't let go. Susannah York delivers an Oscar-worthy, energetic performance of a woman going through a mental breakdown, slowly loosing grip on reality, its through her fractured mind the film is seen. Man, those screams... haunting. Didn't know much about this one going in, but it has turned out to be one of my favorites from Altman. Fans of 3 Women would dig this as this gives a similar vibe, and is different from what Altman is known for. Give this one a restoration for christ sake, Criterion! It really deserves one. Its an overlooked gem.

Images is a lot of things, but what struck me the most is the way it exemplifies Robert Altman's talent for filmmaking. I'm a huge fan of Altman's loose method of storytelling, but to see him craft a really tight story supported by fantastic technical elements was a treat.

Hard not to compare this to films like 3 Women, Persona, A Woman Under the Influence, and Mulholland Drive. While I don't think it's necessarily as complex as those other films, it's so strong in its convictions that it doesn't matter.

The scariest film I've seen by Robert Altman. So simple and disorienting. Susannah York is incredible, men are terrible. I want to remake this in the mountains of North Carolina. The camera pans, cuts, and aural overdubs shake the sense of what's real and what isn't. I don't mean to romanticize, but schizophrenia creates its own poetry in the sense the self that's become Other needs a language to define and exist in its detachment from reality while the tension just boils over throughout. Terrifying.

Schizophrenia
Makes for scary events, and
For good film fodder.

One of Altman's best and most under-appreciated films. Oddly enough his only out & out 'horror' film and one of the few films Altman wrote himself. It is one of the most cinematic depictions of schizophrenia in film and it, as others have said, serves as a precursor to Altman's later film 3 Women; also a indictment against misogyny and the treatment of mental illness by others, in particular men. Very well acted by Susannah York and Rene Auberjonois and superbly shot by the great Vilmos Zsigmond. A very disturbing watch, one of the few horror films to make me jump out of my seat recently I must say.

My choice for alternative tag-line:
"I'd tell myself stories, play in the woods... I'd make up a friend."

It's probably not as good as 3 Women, Altman's other psychological film. But Images works really well as a horrific portrait of schizophrenia, a thriller about a woman who can't make sense of her past and her present, and is torn apart by her conflicting feelings towards the three men in her life.

OCTORROR FILM 3: letterboxd.com/mennomail/list/mennos-octorror/
Great film about a woman going mad. Really scary at some points. For me the soundtrack by John Williams and Stomu Yamashta really stood out.

A feminist take on The Shining, before The Shining was even made. Terrifying, beautiful, and surreal. Forgotten Altman gold.

If one is to be crazy and potentially dangerous to those in the immediate vicinity it is probably best to be crazy and dangerous in as wide an array of lovely floral prints as can be mustered even if so doing does not help one keep track of time or space in the least and if there is a country cottage available in which to be clad in floral prints, dangerous and crazy, and space to roam about in, let there also be rollicking ponies and peacefully baa-ing sheeps to co-occupy that space because there might as well be even if their presence cannot alter the outcome of the story one seems to be writing or being written by, it is altogether more pleasant that way.