3 Women

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3 Women ★★★ 1977 (PG)

Altman creates a surreal, dreamlike, sometimes creepy tale of women's relationships with each other. Shy reserved Pinky (Spacek) gets a job in a senior care center where she meets Millie (Duvall), a therapist who doesn't seem to acknowledge her invisibility. She immediately idolizes and moves in with Millie, following in Millie's wannabe modern woman footsteps, and slowly begins to take over her life. The two are friends with Willie (Rule), the morose, pregnant artist wife of their landlord who paints frightening figures in the bottom of the building's pool. Admittedly influenced by Ingmar Bergman, Altman deftly handles tragedy, questions of identity, and our dreams' relationship to our waking lives. 124m/C DVD . Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Janice Rule, Robert Fortier, Ruth Nelson, John Cromwell, Sierra Pecheur, Craig Richard Nelson, Maysie Hoy, Dennis Christopher; D: Robert Altman; W: Robert Altman, Patricia Resnick; C: Charles Rosher Jr.