Images

★★★★

(1972)

Robert Altman was hot property in 1972. M*A*S*H, McCabe and Mrs Miller and Brewster McCloud all garnering critical if not commercial success. When Images screened at Cannes in 72 it went by relatively unnoticed by critics despite the fact that Susannah York won a best actress gong for it at the French Festival and has, like many of Altman’s output received little attention since. The film would lead Altman into his most creative period sparking a career best run of The Long Goodbye, Thieves Like Us and Nashville.

Images is a cold and unsettling film, remaining Altman’s only foray into the world of horror, taking most of its psychological cues from the Bergman and Polanski hand book, but nonetheless making a unique and strikingly original film in the process.

We are mostly concerned with children’s author Cathryn (York) as she attempts to finish a book in the Irish country side. Thoughts of her husbands infidelity and her own past mistakes are made clear early on and before long we enter a world of mirrored images, dream sequences and a blurred line between Cathryn’s imagination and her reality.

Shot beautifully by Oscar winner Vilmos Zsigmand, Images certainly looks the part and John Williams score creaks and groans over the whole piece notching up the odd schizophrenic tone to no end. York’s performance is great, and in a time when great horror was infecting the world both commercially and artistically, Images should be recognised along with the Repulsion’s and the Don’t Look Now’s of the period.', 'Images', '