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THREE

WOMEN

Written, directed, produced

by Robert Altman

Three Women begins quietly, as the camera focuses on the heavy, puckered leg of an aging woman moving through steaming water. She is linked arm in arm to a younger slim woman who is speaking out loud The scene opens up to a silent roomful of elderly matrons and patrons of a desert health spa which is staffed com pletely by women The younger woman. an attendant. Millie (Shelly Duvall). continues to speak gently and reassuringly, no one speaks to her The deadly silence is accented by a small freckled face pressed against a window The face belongs to Pinky (Sissy Spacek) who

is alert to Millie's every movement Pinky is attracted to this woman. She is waiting to begin her orientation as a health spa attendant.

Pinky and Millie become roomates, developing a "friendship" that is based upon Pinky's adoration and affection. She does not seem to notice that Millie lives in an isolated. non-reciprocal world where fictitious male friends exist and people in general stare past her willing, talkative face This world includes the plastic. arid Hollywood environment in which the male domi nant culture is aggressive. non-expressive, and com

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The three women jom in a final anmihilation of Edgar and the creation of an isolated female family. They take care of the bar Pinky watches the cash register and skins potatoes Willie sits silently on a porch swing Millie acts as a farmhand wife who strictly controls ber family

Milhe finally secures a responsive ear even if it is de complished through a rigid maternal role Pinku can now be taken care of and depend upon a stronger self through a legitimized adolescent role Wille no longer needs to feel heterosexual strife over which she has no control, she can play out the role of hig sister. linking mother and daughter together

Altman presents the final interaction among these women only in terms of simple social roles which ap pear dry. restricted and static. Each woman has found a way to fulfill her needs for nurturing and unity, but in a way that is shallow and devoid of spirit or hope for the future

Is Altman sugggesting that even alternative social structures are undermined by alienation, personal in

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petitive. Pinky tags along with Millie to a mock cowboy bar. Outside, men motorcycle in circles and sharpen their shooting skills at the range. Millie pretends 'hat these faceless creatures respond to her. Only one man, Edgar, an aging drunken Wyatt Earp type. responds to Millie. Initially we do not understand why Altman singles him out.

Throughout these brief adventures. Millie and Pinky meet a third woman. Willie, a pregnant artist who silently draws large murals depicting primitive male creatures towering over crouched, beaten female figures. These paintings can be found on the shooting range, on sidewalks, and on the floor of the swimming pool beneath Millie and Pinky's balcony apartment Willie appears as a tragic. resigned woman who happens to be the wife of Edgar.

We learn that Millie. lonely and desperate, is sleeping with Edgar. Shocked and dismayed by Millie's deceit. Pinky confronts her. Millie viciously rejects Pinky, who leaps into the swimming pool and its mural of warfare. Pregnant Willie saves her. And the true relationship of these three women begins to surface.

Altman's resolution of Three Women moves forward as Edgar abdicates his responsibility as husband on the night of Willie's delivery. Millie and Pinky rush to Willie's side. as the camera zooms back until we can see only struggling figures from distance outside the house. The dramatic process ends in cold stillbirth The potential symbol of unity between female and male is severed.

adequacy and passivity? It seerns so

I am attracted to films which suggest a different way of representing women's experience. Even when these works come out of the dominant culture or when they are directed by men, I want to see what is being said The themes may shed light on women's changing culture and provide insight on newer developing female models, so that we can relate them to our own personal experience.

The subject matter of Altman's Three Women ap pears to be focused specifically on female themes and images; thus the film provokes one into looking more deeply at its meaning and relevance to women What Altman really does is appear to speak to feminist themes but he fails to move beyond the mass of provocativir dream images and female symbols

This film implies that it is profound and that it is com fronting central questions about female incompleteness. suicide, breakdown and rage Altman does not try to explore these questions, he avoids them by presenting paperthin shells of women who have no complexity, no depth.

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Two important issues stand out when I think of this film's relevance to women first, can male subjectivity accurately describe female relationships: and second, can one say anything worthwhile without situating women within their class and power structure?

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November. 1977/What She Wants/page 13