Images (1972)

Director:

Robert Altman

Writers:

Robert Altman (written by)
Susannah York (book)

Release Date:

18 December 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror

Tagline:

A motion picture of the extra senses.

Plot:

Schizophrenic housewife, engulfed by terrorizing apparitions, kills off each, unknowing if these demons are merely figments of her hallucinatory imagination or part of reality.

Plot Keywords:

Mental Breakdown | Stabbed In The Chest | Husband Wife Relationship | Shot In The Chest | Surrealism

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Susannah York	...	Cathryn
Rene Auberjonois	...	Hugh
Marcel Bozzuffi	...	Rene
Hugh Millais	...	Marcel
Cathryn Harrison	...	Susannah
John Morley	...	Old Man
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Barbara Baxley	...	Voice on telephone (uncredited)

Directed by
Robert Altman

Writing credits
Robert Altman		(written by)
Susannah York		(book "In Search of Unicorns")

Produced by
Tommy Thompson	....	producer
Al Locatelli	....	associate producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
John Williams

Cinematography by
Vilmos Zsigmond

Film Editing by
Graeme Clifford

Production Design by
Leon Ericksen

Makeup Department
Toni Delaney	....	makeup artist
Barry Richardson	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Sheila Collins	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Seamus Byrne	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Rodney Holland	....	sound editor
Noel Quinn	....	boom operator
Liam Saurin	....	sound recordist
Doug E. Turner	....	dubbing mixer (as Doug Turner)
Stomu Yamashta	....	(sounds ) (as Stomu Yamash'ta)

Special Effects by
Jerry F. Johnson	....	special effects (as Jerry Johnson)

Camera and Electrical Department
Earl L. Clark	....	assistant camera (as Earl Clark)
Jack Conroy	....	gaffer
Paddy Keogh	....	grip
Nico Vermuelen	....	assistant camera

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Jack Gallagher	....	wardrobe

Editorial Department
Robin Buick	....	assistant editor
Michael Kelliher	....	assistant editor
David Spiers	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Stomu Yamashta	....	musician: sound sculptures
John Williams	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Transportation Department
Arthur Dunne	....	transportation captain

Other crew
Joan Bennett	....	continuity
John Collingwood	....	production accountant
Jean D'Oncieu	....	assistant to producer
Raymond Ray	....	clothes: Miss York

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation
• Hemdale Film
• Lion's Gate Films

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1972) (USA) (theatrical)
• Hemdale Film Distribution (1972) (UK) (theatrical)
• Suomen elokuva-arkisto (1980) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Audio Visual Enterprises (1989) (Greece) (VHS)
• Lorimar Home Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (VHS)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2003) (USA) (DVD) (widescreen)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2003) (USA) (VHS) (widescreen)
• Video Medien Pool (VMP) GmbH (19??) (West Germany) (video)

Other Companies

• Ardmore Sound  studio
• De Lane Lea Sound Centre  re-recorded

Also Known As:

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M | Sweden:15 | UK:X | USA:R | Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 (1980) | Argentina:16 | Portugal:M/16

Filming Locations:

Ardmore Studios, Herbert Road, Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

It was long rumored that the film's original negative was burned by Columbia Pictures. This rumor turned out to be false when MGM's home video wing released a DVD in the fall of 2003, apparently from a new print struck from an existing negative.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Lost Highway (1997)

A brilliant and disturbing journey inside one woman's mind

"Images" is another great movie from the master of the living paintings, Robert Altman. It is a brilliant, scary, beautiful, and very disturbing journey inside one woman's mind that was leaving her as the movie progressed. What we saw was not a ghost story but a very real descent to the world of nightmares and monsters that would not stop torturing the struggling and guilty mind for a second.

Susannah York as Cathryn, a young, beautiful writer who tries to finish a children's book in a remote country home is simply breathtaking. She carries the movie (which only has five characters) almost by herself and being present in every scene, she is equally sympathetic and frightening. In his interview on DVD, Altman mentioned that he had started making the movie in Milan with Sophia Lauren. As much as I admire Lauren, I don't see anyone other than York playing Cathryn. While watching her, I kept thinking of her Alice in Pollack's They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). Alice, one of the participants and victims of a killing dance marathon, loses her mind by the end of the movie and the scene where she breaks down mentally, was heartbreaking. Altman himself reminded me of the witches from Shakespeare's Macbeth that would throw all kinds of ingredients in their cauldron. The director mentioned how he would add the new details to the script as the real life situations changed: York was writing the children's book about Unicorns at the time - we can hear the long parts of her book in the background. I am not too crazy about the book but the idea seems to be brilliant. York had informed Altman that she could not make the movie because she was pregnant but Altman just decided to add her pregnancy to the script. There is some dry humor in the movie - all five characters have the first names of the actors who played them: Susannah played Cathryn and young Cathryn Harrison plays a girl named Susannah, Rene Auberjonois, Marcel Bozzuffi, and Hugh Millais played three men in Cathryn's life - Hugh, the husband, Rene - the neighbor, and Marcel, her dead lover (who was quite alive for a dead man, at least in her memory). John Williams wrote an absolutely unforgettable score for the film (it is not a melody, rather some strange, persistent, scary, and disturbing sounds - very experimental at the time, it is still quite unusual).

As for its visual site - the film that was made during one wet November in Ireland is brilliantly dark and hypnotizingly beautiful. I am jealous of everyone who was able to see it in all its glory on the big screen at the theater - it would be impossible to forget.

8/10