‘3 Women‘ (1977) belongs to a category of Robert Altman‘s films in which dreams play an important role. The American director mentioned Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Persona’ as one of the main sources of inspiration and ‘3 Women‘ indeed inherits from the Swedish master’s film the themes of ambiguous relationships and the mirroring of identities between two women as well as the narrative structure with a violent and traumatic event that divides the story into two very different acts. And yet, Altman‘s film is original in many other respects. Instead of the claustrophobic atmosphere and minimalist, almost abstract, setting of ‘Persona’, we are dealing here with an almost naturalistic section of reality, surrounded by the wide horizons and the sun-burnt vegetation of the Californian desert. There is also a strong feminist message in the film, and a smoldering violence that we are not surprised when it breaks out. The second part of the film also includes an identity mystery, almost like in a thriller. It is one of the keys in which the film can be interpreted. Almost every critic and viewer has their own interpretations of this film. I will mention a few and perhaps those who want to avoid spoilers should stop their reading here.
Spicy is a young woman from Texas who lands for her first job at a geriatric therapy spa clinic, in an isolated place in the desert. Millie, an older employee, is the one assigned to guide her. She seems to be an extroverted and talkative woman who knows the surroundings well, including the bar and the interesting men, namely the local police and Edgar, the bartender. Willie, his wife, tolerates his infidelities, is expecting a child and never speaks, preferring to express herself through disturbing paintings that decorate the walls of the buildings and the swimming pools. Spicy is fascinated by Millie, but soon she and we, the viewers, realize that behind her exuberance lies immense loneliness and repeated failures in relationships with men and everyone around her. Spicy becomes Millie’s roommate, but the relationship between the two women deteriorates, until the incident that traumatizes Spicy physically and psychologically occurs. What happens from here on is open to interpretation. Does Spicy suffer from amnesia? Are the couple of too aged people who have come to visit her from Texas, whom she does not recognize, her parents? Is Spicy perhaps carrying out a premeditated plan to take over Millie’s identity, like a kind of she-Ripley case? Or is it all just a dream, the fruit of the young woman in a coma’s delirium? The ending is marked by yet another traumatic event, which we do not see, we are only told about, but did it really happen?
You will not find answers, because Robert Altman left the mystery for the viewers to solve, and the discussions sparked by this film continue to this day for those who have seen it or will see it. It is precisely in this ambiguity of identities, in the permanent presence and from different perspectives (as characters, in mirrors) of the twins, in the multitude of possible options that the strange power and charm of this film lies. Unlike Bergman’s women in ‘Persona’, the two main heroines in ‘3 Women‘ are not only strange, but also bizarre, each in her own way. Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek had Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullman as terms of comparison, and I think what they achieved in this film is on par. Shelley Duvall gives one of the best performances of a career in which – also because of her appearance – she was cast to often only in supporting roles, while Sissy Spacek, who was 27-28 when ‘3 Women‘ was filmed, excels in the role of a girl about 10 years younger. Shelley Duvall was also, it seems, the one who created the frescoes on the sets, which contribute to the strange and tense atmosphere of the story, along with the discordant and very appropriate music composed by Gerald Busby. Altman probably wanted to emphasize the dreamlike nature of the story, but a quarter of the too-long minutes that graphically present Spicy’s dreams or delusions would have been enough. It is perhaps the only aspect to criticize in this film, one of Altman‘s best, which comes close to being a masterpiece.