{"id":36288,"date":"2016-09-27T20:14:09","date_gmt":"2016-09-28T03:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/?p=36288"},"modified":"2016-09-27T20:14:09","modified_gmt":"2016-09-28T03:14:09","slug":"challenge-week-36-3-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/challenge-week-36-3-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenge Week 36: 3 Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, that was absolutely nothing like what I expected. Here’s what I expected: a complex and realistic character study of three women with a complicated friendship. Like, I dunno, Interiors<\/em> crossed with Frances Ha<\/em>. Here’s what the film is: a fever dream of shifting and merging identities, sometimes violently, always awkwardly, and often disturbingly. I was fascinated.<\/p>\n

Apparently the idea for the film came to Altman in a dream, which I totally believe, because this is very unlike any of the other Altman films I’ve seen. Sissy Spacek is a shy, wet-behind-the-ears young girl who gets a job at a spa and quickly idolizes a confident and chatty Shelley Duvall who shows her the ropes. But Duvall’s confidence is somewhat misplaced, as becomes painfully obvious when she has lunch over at the doctor’s building and thinks she’s flirting wildly with everyone when they’re really ignoring her completely. Spacek is enthralled, though, follows Duvall everywhere, and quickly manages to become her roommate. Then they meet the third woman, a nearly silent Janice Rule, the very pregnant wife of Duvall’s landlord who spends all her time painting bizarre primitive art on every concrete surface she can find.<\/p>\n

\"tf-roommates\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The film definitely pulls some themes from Ingmar Bergman’s Persona<\/em>, especially in the way Spacek and Duvall’s character seem to merge and swap identities, and feed off each other’s psyches in an almost vampiric way. Rule’s character is more of an enigma, but kind of an oddly grounding one, until the surreal and disturbing final scenes.<\/p>\n

I tell you, I’ve seen seven or eight Altman films before, and nothing would’ve prepared me for this. Finding out a filmmaker you thought you had a handle on has a whole other side to him is kind of amazing. I will say I was more intrigued and incredulous at the film than truly loving it, but I’ve found it difficult to get out of my head and am definitely planning to rewatch it before too long. And delve further into Altman’s filmography because apparently there are still surprises in there!<\/p>\n

\"tf-split\"<\/p>\n

Stats and stuff…<\/h3>\n

1977, USA<\/em>
\nwritten and directed by Robert Altman<\/em>
\nstarring Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Janice Rule<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m ranking all my Challenge films on Flickchart (as I do all the films I see), a movie-ranking website that asks you to choose your favorite between two movies until it builds a ranked list of your favorites. Just for fun, I will average out the rankings and keep a running tally of whose recommendations rank the highest. When you add a film to Flickchart, it pits it against films already on your chart to see where it should fall. Here’s how 3 Women<\/em> entered my chart:<\/p>\n

3 Women<\/b> > Being There
\n3 Women<\/b> > The Cure
\n3 Women < The Mummy<\/b>
\n3 Women < [REC]<\/b>
\n3 Women < Prometheus<\/b>
\n3 Women < Rocky<\/b>
\n3 Women < 21 Grams<\/b>
\n3 Women < Homicidal<\/b>
\n3 Women < The Decline of Western Civilization<\/b>
\n3 Women < Topsy-Turvy<\/b>
\n3 Women < Little Children<\/b>
\n3 Women<\/b> > Lone Star<\/p>\n

Final #924 out of 2701 films on my chart (75%)<\/p>\n

It is now my #4 Robert Altman film, my #1 Sissy Spacek film (but Badlands<\/em> is too low), my #2 Shelley Duvall film, my #13 Feminist Film, my #32 New Hollywood film, and my #11 film of 1977.<\/p>\n

3 Women<\/em> was recommended by Joseph Brown, a friend from the Flickcharters group on Facebook.<\/p>\n

A few more screenshots…<\/h3>\n

\"tf-sissy-smile\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-spa\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-pool\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-duvall-spacek-smiles\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-street\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-rule\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-rule-mural\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-mural-sissy\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-sissy-madeup\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, that was absolutely nothing like what I expected. Here’s what I expected: a complex and realistic character study of three women with a complicated friendship. Like, I dunno, Interiors crossed with Frances Ha. Here’s what the film is: a fever dream of shifting and merging identities, sometimes violently, always awkwardly, and often disturbingly. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3027],"tags":[3223,1978,3224,2304],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/tf-feat.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14537,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/my-2010-in-film-three-by-robert-altman\/","url_meta":{"origin":36288,"position":0},"title":"My 2010 in Film: Three by Robert Altman","author":"Jandy","date":"January 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"[My list of favorite films released in 2010 will be going up on Row Three in mid-January, so I want to do something a bit different here. This series will include any films I saw for the first time this year and loved, regardless of release date. It may also\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Altman-banner.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":25522,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/50dmc-19-a-movie-im-surprised-i-enjoyed\/","url_meta":{"origin":36288,"position":1},"title":"50DMC #19: A Movie I’m Surprised I Enjoyed","author":"Jandy","date":"July 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The 50 Day Movie Challenge asks one question every day, to be answered by a few paragraphs and a clip, if possible. Click here for the full list of questions. Today's prompt: What's a movie you're surprised you enjoyed? There are quite a lot of these, actually, as I've been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Nashville.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":28930,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/classic-horror-carrie\/","url_meta":{"origin":36288,"position":2},"title":"Classic Horror: Carrie","author":"Jandy","date":"October 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It's taken me a few years, but I finally got around to seeing Carrie this year, a classic horror film that's been on many of my to-watch lists, including both my yearly horror watch lists AND the New Hollywood marathon list I went through last year (but never made it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Carrie-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35861,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/challenge-week-17-thirteen-conversations-about-one-thing\/","url_meta":{"origin":36288,"position":3},"title":"Challenge Week 17: Thirteen Conversations About One Thing","author":"Jandy","date":"May 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I knew almost nothing about this going in it, an ignorance I'm trying to maintain for these challenge films as much as possible. Turns out it's an ensemble piece with interlocking stories, a narrative structure that I pretty nearly always enjoy, and this was no exception. The major stories follow\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/tf-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":34143,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/blind-spots-2014-days-of-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":36288,"position":4},"title":"Blind Spots 2014: Days of Heaven","author":"Jandy","date":"May 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Terrence Malick has a way of making the most ordinary things seem positively monumental, even Biblical. That tendency has hit an apex, perhaps, with The Tree of Life (and To the Wonder, probably, which I haven't seen, but the priest character isn't in there by accident), but even as far\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/bs-Days-of-Heaven01.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3840,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/new-hollywood-the-long-goodbye-1973\/","url_meta":{"origin":36288,"position":5},"title":"New Hollywood: The Long Goodbye (1973)","author":"Jandy","date":"September 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Elliott Gould's Philip Marlowe is a mumbling, ambling fellow who's smarter than most everyone around him, but aloof enough not to bother pointing it out, except barely under his breath in a kind of on-going ironic mutter that feels more like an interior monologue than actual speech. He's bemused at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/longgoodbye.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36288"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}