3 Women (1977)

Director:

Robert Altman

Writer:

Robert Altman (written by)
(more)

Release Date:

25 May 1977 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

1 woman became 2/2 women became 3/3 women became 1

Plot:

Shy, reclusive girl Pinky starts work at a sanitarium and becomes emotionally attached to her fellow worker...

Plot Keywords:

Birth | Stillborn Child | Cafeteria | Bar | Memory Loss

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Shelley Duvall	...	Mildred "Millie" Lammoreaux
Sissy Spacek	...	Pinky Rose
Janice Rule	...	Willie Hart
Robert Fortier	...	Edgar Hart
Ruth Nelson	...	Mrs. Rose
John Cromwell	...	Mr. Rose
Sierra Pecheur	...	Ms. Bunweil
Craig Richard Nelson	...	Dr. Maas
Maysie Hoy	...	Doris
Belita Moreno	...	Alcira
Leslie Ann Hudson	...	Polly
Patricia Ann Hudson	...	Peggy
Beverly Ross	...	Deidre
John Davey	...	Dr. Norton
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dennis Christopher	...	Soda delivery boy (uncredited)
Barrie Youngfellow	...	Connie (uncredited)

Directed by
Robert Altman

Writing credits
Robert Altman		(written by)
Patricia Resnick		uncredited

Produced by
Robert Altman	....	producer
Scott Bushnell	....	associate producer
Robert Eggenweiler	....	associate producer (as Robert Eggenweiller)

Original Music by
Gerald Busby

Cinematography by
Charles Rosher Jr.		(as Chuck Rosher)

Film Editing by
Dennis M. Hill		(as Dennis Hill)

Art Direction by
James Dowell Vance		(as James D. Vance)

Makeup Department
Kaye Pownall	....	hair stylist
Monty Westmore	....	makeup artist

Production Management
William A. Sawyer	....	post-production supervisor (as Bill Sawyer)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Carol Himes	....	second assistant director
Tommy Thompson	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Michael C. Ayers	....	property assistant (as Michael Ayers)
Richard Valesko	....	property master
Bodhi Wind	....	murals

Sound Department
David M. Horton	....	sound editor
Chris McLaughlin	....	sound
Bill Phillips	....	sound editor
Richard Portman	....	sound re-recording mixer
James E. Webb	....	sound (as Jim Webb)

Visual Effects by
J. Allen Highfill	....	visual consultant

Camera and Electrical Department
John Bailey	....	camera operator
Robert Bennett	....	dolly grip (as Robert L. Bennett)
Robert E. Dawes Jr.	....	first assistant camera
Tim Evans	....	gaffer
John Garcia	....	best boy
Harry Rez	....	key grip
Glenn K. Shimada	....	second assistant camera (as Glenn Shimada)
Jacque E. Wallace	....	best boy grip

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Jules Melillo	....	wardrobe

Editorial Department
Mark Eggenweiler	....	assistant editor
Maysie Hoy	....	assistant editor
Tony Lombardo	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Tom Walls	....	music editor

Other crew
Mike Kaplan	....	publicist
Michael Parloff	....	flute soloists
Dan Perri	....	title designer
Patricia Resnick	....	production assistant
Ann Tait	....	production accountant
Tommy Thompson	....	production executive

Production Companies

• Lions Gate Films

Distributors

• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (1977) (USA) (theatrical)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Modern Film Effects

Other Companies

• DeLuxe Laboratories  color (as DeLuxe)
• Westwood Editorial  post-production services

Also Known As:

Robert Altman's 3 Women (USA) (complete title)
Three Women (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

USA:124 min (FMC Library Print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:AA (original rating) (1977) | UK:PG (re-rating) (2006) | Iceland:12 | Canada:PG (Ontario) | West Germany:12 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Desert Hot Springs, California, USA

Company:

Lions Gate Films

Trivia:

While shooting the scene where Pinky drinks the beer in one gulp, Sissy Spacek threw up on the first take, but immediately tried again and succeeded on the second take.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Millie and Pinkie prepare for dinner party, the time line is way out of whack. Scene begins in early morning, as Millie wakes Pinkie and tells her she is going grocery shopping for the dinner. Millie returns from store (presumably within an hour or so), Pinkie carries out garbage after spilling shrimp cocktail on herself and, en route to trash cans, meets dinner guests who say they can't come because they're on way to a beer joint instead - a scene that would have occurred no later than mid-morning and means that seven or more hours are unaccounted for.

Quotes:

Millie Lammoreaux: All right, Pinky. How come you stole my car? Pinky?
Pinky Rose: I didn't steal your car. I borrowed it.
Millie Lammoreaux: You did not. You didn't even ask.
Pinky Rose: Couldn't find you.
Millie Lammoreaux: You didn't try very hard.
Pinky Rose: I tried hard.
Millie Lammoreaux: You did not. You could've at least told Doris or Alcira of somebody. Who took you there to go in and get my keys?
Pinky Rose: Tom.
Millie Lammoreaux: Pinky, I had to call the police and everything. They're sittin' in there right not waitin' on me. They think somebody stole my car.
Pinky Rose: They're sittin' in there, huh? Well, aren't you the lucky one?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in A Decade Under the Influence (2003)

3 Women

I saw "3 Women" in 1977. I went back to the cinema and saw it two more times, before I wrote a review. Though I have seen it many other times since then, today I do not recall every detail. Nevertheless I remember its story dealt with three women whose solidarity allows them to survive in a world dominated by insensitive men. Two of these women move the story, the third one does not have a direct influence on the events, but she is a key figure. There is no puzzle here, no enigma to decipher. It may be based on Robert Altman's dream, it may have a dream sequence, but it is quite linear and direct, with little relation to dreams' structure (or lack of it). I say this today but after finding my review in my files, I think it's ironic and makes me laugh at myself. By 1977 I had not read Susan Sontag's "Against Interpretation" yet and I was trying to decipher what the butter meant in "Last Tango in Paris". But I must admit that I find interesting some of the research I did and a few interpretations I made. I found then various leitmotivs in the movie: first, the grotesquely erotic murals painted and shot at by Willie (Janice Rule), that illustrate the oppressive situation of woman in phallocratic societies; water, which --according to Dane Rudhyar-- stands for collective consciousness and astral world, a symbol that for me tacitly connected the three women (and that has played an important role in other Altman films: "McCabe & Mrs. Miller", "Streamers", "Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean", "The Gingerbread Man", "Dr. T & the Women", frozen in "Quintet", and even in "HealtH", "Popeye" and "O.C. and Stiggs"); the image of twins Peggy and Polly, duplicated in Alcira and Doris, mirroring the Millie-Pinky duplicity; and the clinic, as a metaphor of social and moral decay while its members attempt at efficiency. It may sound crazy but I even made a connection between the pool of the boarding house (owned by Willie) and a woman's womb (Willie's), where the temporary symbiosis of Pinky Rose (Sissy Spacek) into Millie Lammoreaux (Shelley Duvall) takes place. Today I consider all these more hints than cryptic data, and sometimes they are even too obvious –as the line when Millie says something like "Sometimes Peggy can be Polly, and Polly can be Peggy", gun-crazy Edgar as a symbol of sexual inadequacy and male authoritarianism, and the delivery of the dead child as a metaphor of the sterility of this kind of relationship between men and women. As I remember it today, it is a sad story of female bonding as a means of survival in a consumerist society, narrated in a beautiful cinematic style, with remarkable performances by all. (Funny, although Duvall had won the Best Actress Palm d'Or in Cannes, in my review the one who impressed me the most was Rule, because she was able to transmit so much with less than a dozen of lines). By far, it's my favorite Robert Altman movie and one of his masterpieces.