Spiegelbilder (1972)

Spiegelbilder: Directed by Robert Altman. With Susannah York, Rene Auberjonois, Marcel Bozzuffi, Hugh Millais. A schizophrenic housewife kills off each of her terrorizing apparitions, unsure if these demons are merely figments of her imagination or part of reality.

“An arty horror movie is the last thing one expects from Robert Altman – although, apparently, he had already tried it out with his earlier, little-seen THAT COLD DAY IN THE PARK (1969). The writer/director (itself an unusual combination for Altman, but it shows how strongly he felt about the project) himself does not think of it as such and, in any case, reviews at the time were decidedly mixed.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eEven if he was u0026quot;inspiredu0026quot; by Ingmar Bergmanu0026#39;s PERSONA (1966), the film actually feels closer plot-wise to Roman Polanskiu0026#39;s REPULSION (1965). Originally intended to be shot in Milan with Sophia Loren, the film definitely benefits from its picturesque Irish locations and Susannah Yorku0026#39;s fragile performance (which eventually earned her the Best Actress Award at Cannes) as a schizophrenic; she, too, was unusually committed and actually allowed a story for kids she had written – called u0026quot;In Search Of Unicornsu0026quot; – to be incorporated into the narrative!u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film features only five major characters and, interestingly, these are named after each of the actors themselves: so Susannah York plays Cathryn just as Cathryn Harrison (Rexu0026#39;s daughter, a very natural performer who later featured in another strange film – Louis Malleu0026#39;s BLACK MOON [1975]) plays Susannah; Marcel Bozzuffiu0026#39;s character is named Reneu0026#39;, Reneu0026#39; Auberjonois is Hugh and Hugh Millais is Marcel! Of course, all this fits perfectly well with the filmu0026#39;s theme and the charactersu0026#39; penchant to exchange u0026#39;facesu0026#39; with each other in the mind of the disturbed protagonist; actually, this concept is pretty frightening because the lead character at one point decides to get rid of her u0026#39;ghostsu0026#39; – but, not having a complete grasp on reality, one is never sure whether the victims are mere figments of her imagination or else real people! u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlso essential to establishing the filmu0026#39;s unique mood is Vilmos Zsigmondu0026#39;s stylish cinematography and John Williamsu0026#39; stark yet evocative score (interspersed with eerie sounds provided by Stomu Yamashu0026#39;ta, a Japanese sound designer); even though his work here is galaxies away from Williamsu0026#39; renowned anthemic scores for the likes of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, he still managed to earn an Oscar nomination for it!”