Product Description

"One of the most important American directors of our time" (Life), Oscar(r) nominee* Robert Altman delivers a "fascinating [and] compelling" (Interview) thriller that delivers an "original cinematic jolt" (Playboy)! Susannah York, who won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role, is "spellbinding" (Filmex) as a woman whose psychological demons are becoming quite real! Suffering from schizophrenia, Cathryn (York) can't seem to shake her hallucinatory apparitions. Unable to bear the torture any longer, she decides there's onlyone way to clear her mind: Kill the people haunting her in her visions. So one by one, she offs herghosts. But are the people she's killing just figments of her imagination or are they real? *Director: Gosford Park (2001), Short Cuts (1993), The Player (1992), Nashville (1975), M*A*S*H (1970); Best Picture: Gosford Park (2001, with Bob Balaban, David Levy), Nashville (1975)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29971 in DVD
• Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
• Released on: 2003-09-16
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 101 minutes

Amazon.com
Effectively a "lost film" soon after its original release, this dreamlike yet razor-sharp movie from the amazing early-'70s arc of Robert Altman's career was among the most mesmerizingly beautiful color films ever made. Where on this planet did Altman and cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond find such colors, such an awesome fairy-tale landscape? (Ireland, as it happens.) Even more extraordinary was the inside/outside landscape of the heroine's consciousness: this is a movie in which madness is inseparable from imagination. Susannah York gives a brave, supernally freaky performance as a married woman who may be an adulteress, may only be fantasizing about it, may be pregnant, may merely be giving birth to a world. René Auberjonois, Hugh Millais (McCabe and Mrs. Miller's fur-clad assassin), and Marcel Bozzufi play the men in her life, some of whom may be dead, some of whom are going to be. They all exchange names at various times as Cathryn meets herself coming and going, in search of unicorns. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews

great 70s horror classic
I have not seen IMAGES on DVD so I cannot honestly comment on the DVD's quality, but I saw this film last year at a film archive screening, and I have to say I was genuinely freaked out by it. Again, to be honest, a number of my friends found it to be a bit silly, but I was genuinely disturbed by it, in much the same way that I was disturbed by ONIBABA, ROSMARY'S BABY, DON'T LOOK NOW, and DEAD RINGERS. Putting the spectator in the position of a mentally unbalanced person (a la DR. CALIGARI), IMAGES masterfully creates the effect of being trapped within an unstable subjectivity. By the way, the acting and the cinematography are flawless...

most exciting psychological triller!
This is the most exciting psychological thriller ever made,I thought.Direcior Robert Altman's unique style on this film magnificiently presents the see into tormented woman'madness, same as Altman's other film like "that cold day in the park('69)"and "three women('77)". The music on this film(by John Williams) is still more exciting, espesially for the percussion of Stomu Yamash'ta(the famous japanese percussionist known by Red Buddah Theatre of '70s).To my regret, this film isn't released on theatre in Japan.

Fascinating Psychological Portrait
Susannah York gives a fantastic performance as Cathryn, a wealthy English woman who may be mentally unstable. Alone in her home writing a children's book, she is interrupted by the apparent appearance of an old lover. Or is she? When her husband (Rene Aberjonois) arrives home and sees her distress, he whisks her away to their country home - a strangely drab cottage that seems to have been spray-painted black and gray. Her deterioration and inability to distinguish fact and fantasy continue unabated, particularly when her husband has to return to the city. What happens from there is highly open to interpretation.

"Images" is a strange, unsettling film, even for director Robert Altman. The initial pace is glacier-like and will undoubtedly leave many viewers bored and frustrated. However, you need to stick with it, as the film gradually gains momentum and climaxes with almost unbearable tension. The film has been compared to Roman Polanski's "Repulsion"; that film is superior to "Images," but the comparison is not completely inappropriate. Both chronicle a young woman's descent in madness when left alone; however, "Images" is less chilling and somewhat more convoluted, although with many merits of its own.

Filmed on location in Ireland, the film looks absolutely stunning, and the cinematography is so superior that it alone merits a viewing of "Images." Altman's direction is also first-rate and masterful, so much so that it somewhat detracts from the film - I was sometimes too busy watching his directing flourishes to pay attention to small plot details. Overall, "Images" is an intriguing movie-going experience that will likely appeal to many fans of Altman and viewers who appreciate films that can be obscure in nature.