Wonderful character development!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

'Images' ranks at the very top of the films about (female) madness along with Ingmar Bergman's 'Persona' and Roman Polanski's 'Repulsion'. Perhaps inferior to 'Persona' in most aspects, Altman's 'Images' is still hauntingly interesting film with amazingly dedicated performance from lead actress Susannah York who is nearly in every scene of the movie. The haunting and eerie score by John Williams complimented with percussion sounds by Stomu Yamashta over magnificent cinematography by visionary Vilmos Zsigmond alone is the reason to watch the film because it is fantastic visual treat.The film follows children's author Cathryn who receives disturbing phone call that suggests that her husband is having an affair. After that, Cathryn tries to cope with her own sins and inner demons until she loses the boundaries between reality and imagination. The film has eerie surreal atmosphere so the story and events are confusing so it is easy to loose track as a viewer as much as the protagonist is confused. Although the film feels like some twisted meditation, the story line is actually coherent and seemingly out of place details fall into right place by the end.Visually magnificent film with powerful and layered performance by Susannah York. 'Images' is recommended for the fans of psychological horror and thriller. Definitely much more than just an art house horror experiment.

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.

Robert Altman doing a psychological horror film. Hmm, okay, seemed interesting. After all, the creator of "MASH" and "The Player" was talented and courageous enough to helm a film of almost every genre available, with limited resources and presenting his own method of cinema: free of rules, realistic, artistic and almost always fascinating despite the lack of audience for the majority of his works. Drama, comedy, sci-fi, musical, thriller, film-noir...you name it: he made it all. Unfortunetaly "Images" isn't the kind of film where I can say I was enthralled or deeply invested. It was too much on and off, with wonderful sequences put together with prolonged dreary moments that managed to obscure its qualities. The final scene comes and you wondered how simplistic and off-putting most of the film were. Susannah York plays Cathyrn, a children's book author in need of peace and quiet to finish her latest work, and those solitude moments will be find at a country home along with her husband (Rene Auberjonois). Well, not really. As the days move, she sees strange visions that disturb her peace and sanity, or the least of that she still has. From strange phone calls telling her husband is having an affair to appearances from a ghostly former lover (the always effective Marcel Bozzuffi); strange noises and occurrences; and the odd behavior of a neighbor/friend of the family (Hugh Millais) who happens to be a former lover of Catheryn and who still feels a deep attraction to her, so peculiar and intrusive to the point of the man seducing her while the clueless husband is on the room next to them. Are those visions and scenarios real or imagined? And what are they're meaning to the woman? Sane or going crazy? We go to movies like this to find out how it all gets together. The problem with "Images" is that, after years of watching horror films or even psychological thrillers one gets easily fed up in seeing clichés after clichés. I was remind of the brilliant "Repulsion". Some parts brought me minor memories from Louis Malle's surrealistic tale "Black Moon" - it gets even more coincidental that Cathryn Harrison (she plays Millais' daughter and Catheryn's only ally) stars on both Malle and Altman films. The visual, the concept, the presentation...it all feels made before - but you can argue that "Black Moon" in that case was the copy film because it got released later, but the order when you watch is how it affects the experience or the enjoyment. Sure, it's edgy, filled with suspense and shock, Vilmos Szigmond's careful cinematography and John Williams' appropriate (though not memorable) score are first-rate. It thrills. However, I always think that a horror film can only succeed if the drama is good. Otherwise, you're just wanting for everyone to die or get killed because there's not enough room to make you invested in their story, in their problems. It must have a great dramatic element, with some life relevance or slightly believable. "Images" almost got there. It's easy to say that Altman was portraying a bigger-than-life idea of what schizophrenia might be with the duality of real vs. imagination, and the consequences it leads when those clash at each other with just one person having to deal with both sides, not knowing how to act or cope with their current reality. That's great drama. It only gets wronged and confused due to a mumbled presentation, that doesn't satisfy neither fully convince, and the whole children book narrated by York (her own real creations) were awfully distracting. The movie feels more concerned in terrifying than giving us a relatable story - and a movie has to be both. It helps a lot. The whole time I kept wondering how low in self-esteem Cathryn must have been to get involved with three misogynist, self-absorbed jerks. Instead of pouring the odd horrific elements from time to time, Altman should have insisted in developing little by little, just like he does in the menacing phone-call scene (that was genius!) than evolves but the drama keeps on real throughout. It was too bizarre seeing the ghost coming and going, then one face changing to another. If schizophrenia goes like that, and in such a hurry and state, then I guess the movie succeed in its portrayal. Another touch of genius from Altman is with the characters/actors names traded: Susannah plays Cathryn, Cathryn plays Susannah, Rene plays Hugh, Hugh plays Marcel and Marcel plays Rene. I'd like to be on this film set and see how communications worked between them - must have been hilarious specially if there's method actors involved. The performances? So and so, nothing so brilliant and York only got Best Actress in Cannes due to lack of good competition. Final verdict: a few years from now and I might rewatch it and find more rewarding qualities. As of now, it goes as one of Altman's most disappointing efforts but far from worst. 4/10

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.