I happened to be in Paris when this was released and saw it there in a brand new arts cinema, the likes of which I had hitherto never experienced. The film too was something of a surprise but I remember wallowing in the experience and being stunned both by the wonderful Irish landscape scenes and the vigorous and varied performance from Susannah York. It is one of those films from the late 60s/early 70s I've been a bit loathe to watch again in case they do not measure up to the image I have in mind. No worries here, some may not be happy with the reality of the 'unreal' scenes but it still looks good, York's performance is even better than I remember and if the story isn't quite as convincing as Repulsion, it is a very good watch indeed. So, if you are interested in what Altman did between McCabe & Mrs Miller and The Long Goodbye, this is it. What a fine trio of films.

Shot in Ireland with only two major locations and a micro cast of six, Robert Altman's IMAGES is a visually innovative, narratively intriguing and thematically cohesive probe into a woman's slow descending into schizophrenia, with a phenomenal leading performance from Susannah York (crowned BEST ACTRESS in Cannes), which also revealingly exhibits Altman's protean sleight of hand.York plays a minted woman Cathryn, a children's author who is currently writing a new book named IN SEARCH OF UNICORNS, which is in fact written by York and Altman applies its text extensively in the diegesis, notably in paralleled with reality, to emphasize on Cathryn's aberrant mind composed with her own imagination. After disturbed by a ostensible series of prank calls and the startling illusions of her dead French lover Rene (Bozzuffi), Cathryn and her husband Hugh (Auberjonois) retreat to her country house where she grew up, a bucolic haven with mountains, cascades and a herd of sheep. There they also reunite with their common friend Marcel (Millais), who is also Cathryn's old-flame, and his teenage daughter Susannah (Harrison), yes, the first names of the five main characters are coined according to the real names of their co-stars. But illusions are tailing her, she sees a double of herself and soon will be embroiled into the complicated sex entanglement with all three men, obviously Rene is dead, Hugh is real, and Marcel seems to be real too, but what about his aggressive intention to get intimate with her, is that also real?Determined to get rid of the bedeviling hallucinations, Cathryn executes "corrective killings" to regain the grasp of her senses and secure her marriage, after two apparently successful clearance, it seems that she is back on the right track to normality, but a fatal third action will prove everything has gone awry, a chilling ending reveals that schizophrenia has completely seized her psyche.Shot by the late maestro Vilmos Zsigmond, IMAGES exhibits his nimbleness of lurking his camera within a confined space, and the surreal segments are fantastically otherworldly, namely, the sex scenes rotates among Cathryn with her three different mates are aesthetically uncanny, and strategises crystal chimes as an indelible cue to provoke Cathryn's delusional condition. John William's eerie score portentously captures Cathryn's emotional upheaval and the mysterious atmosphere, and earned him an Oscar nomination (after all, the movie is not entirely snubbed by the Academy).Susannah York, occupies almost every single scene of the movie, stoutly calls forth the most daring performance of her lifetime, perpetually tormented by apparitions and descending into her own segregated universe with no one to turn to, she feistily fights a losing battle all by herself, it is a helluva display of bravura to behold, where the final revelation in her shower scene is so powerful that it is evocative of her terrific Oscar-nominated turn in Sydney Pollack's THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY? (1969).Overall, IMAGES can be read as a think piece against the overlooked symptoms of mental illness, and a trend-setting thriller as a sound testament that Robert Altman is a virtuoso all-rounder, and left us so many cinematic legacies to hold in esteem!

And my pick is the latter. "Images" seems like an experiment in opaque "art" cinema that Robert Altman just wanted to get out of his system relatively early in his career; so he throws in just about every bizarre shot and incident he can think of, without much regard for internal coherency or logic. The puzzle IN the film gets completed, but the puzzle OF the film never does. The film is similar to the following year's "Don't Look Now"; in both cases you have to sit through a lot of rambling pretentiousness to get to an admittedly memorable shock ending. Susannah York's performance is excellent, but that book she reads aloud from (and apparently wrote herself) should be enough to send any kid or adult to the nearest madhouse! ** out of 4.

I'm not really familiar with Robert Altman - I liked Gosford Park, but that's it. However, the plot summary intrigued me enough to check this long lost film.Yes, like all the other reviews say, there are obvious parallels with "Persona" and "Repulsion". It's the kind of movie that messes with your mind, and I love movies like this. I would like to add that the eerie, bizarre atmosphere of this movie reminded me of David Lynch.We see the movie through the eyes of a schizophrenic woman, and just thinking that someone in real life can go through this gives me shivers. It's also what I like to call a "hallucinogenic" movie, in which the dreamy scenery, the incredible camera work and the twisted dialogue play as if you were on a psychedelic substance.Susannah York gives a strong performance, and the beautiful Cathryn Harrison also make this movie worth viewing.If you like surreal movies, with a haunting atmosphere or psychological subjects, do yourself a favor and dig this good arty flick up. Others should not bother.6/10