Terrific Terrific Terrific

Definitely one of my absolute favorites.

The dream quality of this film is spot on. Robert Altman made a film from dreams he had and that's exactly how you feel watching this, as if you're dreaming it yourself.

I've got the DVD and I can only watch it when I'm alone. I don't want anybody interrupting Millie making her chocolate pudding tarts!

I don't think people should try and figure out the ending, just remember what Altman said that he'd like Edgar to be buried underneath all the tires.

Like many dreams, it ends without concluding, and seems to shift toward deeper and more disturbing implications just before fading out.

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This film is at the top of my favorites list. What's the big attraction? A few key elements: the performances of Shelley Duval and Sissy Spacek are mesmerizing. The dialogue is fascinating. It's mundane, realistic, poetic, evocative and subtley hilarious all at the same time. The end of the film is ambiguous enough to be a little frustrating, but the rest of the film makes up for it.

Some of the best little moments:

Millie walking down to the pool in her fashionable yellow hooded robe, with the hood on.

Pinky walking out of the spa after work, behind the twins, and adjusting her stride to imitate how the twins are walking.

Millie walking out of the spa after work and prattling on to her two co-workers who aren't even listening to her.

Upon her first sight of the Dodge City Bar, Pinky stares wide-eyed and says with total sincerity, "What is this place? Disneyland?!!"

When Millie is driving Pinky's parents to visit their comatose daughter in the hospital, Millie says to them, "I just know Pinky's going to wake up when she sees you."

In the hospital, when Pinky's mother has Millie unwrap the present she has brought for her daughter, it turns out to be an innocuous plaque to hang in a kitchen--and Millie has absolutely no idea how to respond to it or what to say. Shelley Duval's expression is priceless: she is lost, bewildered, uncertain, but as always must maintain a calm and cool facade. It is a beautifully understated performance.


Some things I didn't catch until I'd seen the film many times:

1) When Pinky is in the apartment with Edgar and spits beer on him playfully, she is imitating "Dirty Gerty", the old woman's face hanging at the Dodge City bar that spits on you when you pull on it.

2) While Pinky is in a coma in the hospital, there are shots in which Millie and Willie stand looking at her through a glass wall. There are two panes of glass in that wall, which create a double reflection, which echoes the film's theme of multiple personality.

3) In one of the moments where Millie says hello to the elusive "Tom" down at the pool, his only response is to cough as he walks by, as if to let her know he still has a cold, to keep her away from him.

For everyone who liked this film, I highly recommend viewing Ingmar Bergman's Persona: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060827/), a film that was obviously an inspiration to Altman, and for that matter David Lynch and David Fincher. If you've never heard of it, it becomes difficult to explain without giving too much away, but knowing that it's a surrealist film in the same vein as Three Women, Mulholland Dr. and Fight Club will give you somewhat of an idea...

What can I say?

I am obssessed with it! It's marvelous!

Yes.

Great movie! This filling the air fantasy color! It is the unusual beauty, three women like three different flowers, they sometimes repel one another, sometimes mutually attracts, extremely wonderful and is mysterious!

I agree it’s a very good movie that gets better with each viewing.