Sightlines · reception
How 3 Women was received
1977 · Robert Altman · 3 Women on Sightlines
The arc
Baffled audiences and did little business in 1977 despite champions like Roger Ebert, then spent decades nearly impossible to see — the 2004 Criterion release turned it from rumor into a bona fide rediscovery, and it's now widely ranked among Altman's very best.
What’s debated
The perennial fan debate is what actually happens in the last act — dream logic or literal — and whether 'explaining' it misses the point entirely.
Its footprint
It's a touchstone for dreamy identity-swap cinema, endlessly name-checked next to Persona and Mulholland Drive, and Shelley Duvall's yellow-clad, chattering Millie has become one of the most beloved performances of the 1970s.
Where it stands
A canon climber turned Letterboxd darling — the 'deep cut' Altman that cinephiles now treat as essential rather than eccentric.
Did you know? Altman said the film came to him in a dream, which he pitched to 20th Century Fox without a finished script — and Shelley Duvall, who wrote much of her own character's dialogue and diary entries, won Best Actress at Cannes for it.