3 Women (1977)

3 Women is a 1977 American film written and directed by Robert Altman, and starring Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Janice Rule.

It depicts the increasingly bizarre, mysterious relationship between a woman (Duvall) and her roommate and co-worker (Spacek) in a dusty, underpopulated Californian town. The story came directly from a dream Altman had, which he did not fully understand but nonetheless adapted into a treatment, intending to film without a script. 20th Century Fox financed the project on the basis of Altman's reputation. A script was completed before filming, although, as with most Altman films, the script was preliminary for what emerged during production.

Roger Ebert named 3 Women the best film of 1977.

For 27 years, the film was unavailable on home video. It gained the reputation of a cult film after frequent broadcasts on television in the 1980s and 1990s. The film was finally released on DVD in 2004 by The Criterion Collection, with a feature-length commentary by Altman. In 2011, it was released on Blu-ray, also by Criterion.

Synopsis

Pinky Rose (Sissy Spacek), a timid and awkward young woman, begins a job at a health spa for the elderly in a small California desert town. There, she becomes enamored of Millie Lammoreaux (Shelley Duvall), a confident and talkative employee. Both natives of Texas, the two begin to develop a friendship and, in spite of their stark personality differences, decide to become roommates. Pinky moves in with Millie at the Purple Sage Apartments, owned by a has-been cowboy, Edgar Hart, and his wife Willie (Janice Rule), a mysterious pregnant woman who paints striking and unsettling murals.

Actors