Let's say that we have a crystal with some regular array of particles that are in equilibrium in a certain configuration and with a certain structure, so that the forces of attraction and
repulsion due to positive and negative charges balance in this configuration.
A sumptuous score, phenomenal cinematography, unsettling sound design, and an increasingly unhinged York work together to make Altman's film a cult oddity which never received its rightful
due (it does play like the equally relevant rural sister to the unraveling of Catherine Deneuve's urban beauty in Polanski's famous
Repulsion).