Images (film)

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Images
Directed by Robert Altman
Produced by Tommy Thompson
Written by Robert Altman
Starring Susannah York
Rene Auberjonois
Marcel Bozzuffi
Cathryn Harrison
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
MGM
Release date(s) 18 December 1972
Running time 101 Min
Language English
IMDb profile

Images is a 1972 psychological thriller directed by Robert Altman.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

As the film begins, Cathryn (Susannah York) receive a series of disturbing and eerie phone calls in her home one dreary night. The female voice on the other end suggests to her that her husband Hugh (Rene Auberjonois) is having an affair. Her husband comes home, finding her in complete disarray. Hugh attempts to comfort her, but then he is gone, and she sees a different man who is behaving as if he were her husband. She screams in horror and backs away, only to see her vision of the figure revert back to her husband.

Hugh attributes her outburst to stress, and decides to take a vacation to the countryside at an isolated house. But as she dwells there, Cathryn delves into darker delusions as the stranger returns, and she finds it difficult to determine what is reality and what is in her mind.

[edit] Cast

Susannah York in Images
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Susannah York in Images

[edit] Awards

1972 New York Film Critics Circle - Nominated - Best Actress (Susannah York)

Susannah York and Hugh Millais in Images
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Susannah York and Hugh Millais in Images

1972 Cannes Film Festival

1973 Academy Awards - Nominated - Best Music, Original Dramatic Score (John Williams)

1973 BAFTA Awards - Nominated - Best Cinematography (Vilmos Zsigmond)

1973 Golden Globes - Nominated - Best English-Language Foreign Film

1973 Writers Guild of America - Nominated - Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen (Robert Altman)

[edit] Miscellanea

  • Reportedly, the film's original negative was burned by Columbia Pictures.
  • This rumor, long believed to be true, has turned out to be false. MGM's home video wing released a DVD in the fall of 2003, apparently from a new print struck from an existing negative.
  • Susannah York is accredited for writing the children's story that she reads throughout the film's duration.
  • The name of the five main characters are actually taken from the names of the actors who portray them, only having rearranged their names (for example, Susannah York plays the character Cathryn, while Cathryn Harrison plays the character Susannah).
  • Film critic Roger Ebert provides some background upon the movie in his review:
    • "Altman shot "Images" (1972) in Ireland during the wet autumn months of 1971, and premiered it the following May at Cannes. It won Susannah York the award for best actress (it's the role she's most proud of), but left its Cannes audiences mostly confused. It isn't the sort of film you feel affectionate about. It's complex and cold, although not nearly as hard to understand as some of the first reviews suggested.
    • Columbia picked up the distribution rights (Altman was a hot property in 1971) and entered "Images" in the New York Film Festival. Inexplicably, neither of the two principal film critics for the New York Times (Vincent Canby and Roger Greenspan) chose to review it, and it was dismissed in a blistering and largely unperceptive review by Howard Thompson ("a mishmash"). And that was that. The film never achieved a normal commercial release in America. It had its Chicago-area premiere last February at Northwestern University and its first theatrical 35mm showing last weekend at the Biograph. It undoubtedly will return in one or another repertory series." [1]
  • Roger Ebert went on to describe the film as "an intelligently constructed and spectacularly well-photographed film." [2]
  • Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide honors the film with ***1/2 out of ****. He describes the film as "difficult but fascinating" and that it may be "off-putting at first, but worth the effort to hang on."

[edit] Technical Notes

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Films directed by Robert Altman
The Delinquents  • The James Dean Story • Countdown • That Cold Day in the Park • MASH • 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 • 3 Women • A Wedding • Quintet • A Perfect Couple • HealtH • Popeye • Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean • Streamers • Secret Honor • O.C. & Stiggs • Fool for Love • Beyond Therapy • Aria • Vincent & Theo • The Player • Short Cuts • Prêt-à-Porter • Kansas City • The Gingerbread Man • Cookie's Fortune • Dr. T & the Women • Gosford Park • The Company • A Prairie Home Companion
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