"Images" Review

 

by Daniel White

Cinched together with a compelling and nuanced performance by Susannah York (she won the best actress award at Cannes), Robert Altman's Images (1972) is a question mark that remains a mystery.

York plays Cathryn, a London based children's author hard at work on her current project, "In Search of Unicorns" (that could serve as a subtitle for this conundrum). Disturbed by a crank caller who informs her that her husband (Rene Auberjonois) is having an affair, the two decide to retreat to their country home. There, things go from bad to batty for poor Cathryn. Plagued by visions of a dead lover (Marcel Bozzuffi) and harassed by a former flame (High Millais) who shows up with his teenaged daughter (Cathryn Harrison), she appears to descend into madness. Ghosts are shot, lovers stabbed, husbands driven to disgust and distraction. Or are they?

Altman strings us along by having characters sharing first names with the actors in the film. Further mingling of fact with fiction: Susannah York actually wrote a children's book, "In Search of Unicorns."

I have little tolerance for this sort of psychological silliness, but stayed with the flick right up to its baffling, bewildering conclusion. Thank Miss York for that. She makes it worthwhile.

She is aided by a spooky score, benefit of John Williams (with "sounds" by Stomu Yamash'ta) and the gorgeous Irish country side where most of the movie is set. Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond captures it beautifully. I am a great admirer of Robert Altman and I have to hand it to him. For a film that made absolutely no sense to me, I came away impressed. Utterly perplexed but grudgingly respectful.

Distributed by Columbia Pictures (U.S.), and Hemdale Film Distributors (U.K.), Images is currently streaming on Tubi.