3 Women

3 Women is a 1977 American psychological drama written, produced and directed by Robert Altman and starring Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Janice Rule. Set in a dusty California desert town, it follows the increasingly strange relationship between an adult woman, her teenage roommate and co-worker, and a middle-aged pregnant woman. Altman built the story from a dream, first as a treatment, intending to shoot without a screenplay, and 20th Century-Fox financed it on the strength of his earlier work. Interpretations of the film centre on its psychoanalytic elements and its treatment of identity. It premiered at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival to positive reviews, with Duvall's performance singled out for praise, but it was not a strong box office success. After its theatrical release it was unavailable on home video for almost thirty years, until The Criterion Collection issued it in 2004.