Three

Charlotte Rampling was really beautiful... A subtle film on a subject treated so many times in the movie history. But this one is elegant and interesting not the least because of the very good actors. The characters have depth. Dialogues are good. Marvellous spots for the film shooting on the French Riviera. Definitely worth seeing.

My vote : 8 / 10.

Two young American students (Bert played by Robie Porter, and Taylor played by Sam Waterston) meet an intriguing young woman while on their vacation in Europe.

What follows is a contemplation on the passage of youth and a tribute to those periods of time in one's life when there is a temptation to disengage from life's responsibilities and dwell in an aimless pursuit of pleasure.

The photography and the scenery are beautiful and full of a fin d'ete quality. The camera lingers on the three young people, who wander in search of the next town, the next experience, something to vanquish boredom, while reveling in idleness. Marty (Charlotte Rampling) is the focus of the men's attentions, but the film centers on Taylor, who Waterston portrays as full of eagerness, self-doubt, and lack of guile, reminiscent of a young Anthony Perkins. He tries to free himself from the conventions of (American) society, but they are too deeply ingrained.

Though the messages of the film might be personal to the viewer, I think it does capture a moment in life that many can identify with. And as someone who was around to experience 1969 (when the film was released), I think it captures the mood of the times and reminds one of the choices available, remembering that the military draft was a reality that hung over the heads of all male college students.

This is one of those movies from the late 1960s and early 1970s in which young characters ramble around the country (or in this case, Western Europe) vaguely trying to "find themselves" and experiencing even vaguer interpersonal conflicts. A very young Sam Waterston and the more conventionally handsome Robie Porter (an Australiian pop performer who soon left acting to go back to music, particularly as a very successful producer) play American best friends touring "the Continent") for a summer before differing responsibilities (including the draft) will call them back home. They meet Charlotte Rampling, a worldly, directionless and faintly bored young woman who "sort of" lives in Paris, and is likewise just kicking around. The three agree to travel together for a time--strictly platonically, with the two men vowing not to become rivals over her.

Of course, that plan doesn't really work out. But neither does much real conflict arise in "Three," which is intelligently crafted and acted but simply has little narrative drive or psychological depth to bolster its attractive locations and photography. Yes, Rampling (who apparently was unhappy at finding herself working on such a small movie right after Visconti's "The Damned") looks gorgeous, and the two male actors are appealing. (As for the claims of Waterston being full- frontal nude, however, either I blinked and missed it, or that shot was excised from the print I saw.) But there's just not much going on here. The film's rather tepid stab at "offbeat" isn't helped by still-active (at 90!) Laurence Rosenthal's score, which in a typical move for the era drapes a movie that could use more flavor in nicely composed yet very conventional orchestral soundtrack fodder.

Like other, similar rare movies of the era (say, "Thumb Tripping"), this one is worth seeing if you've always been curious about it (it's been very hard to see since it's original release), but it's not exactly a major rediscovery. You can see why it stirred little critical or commercial interest at the time. It was the only film directed by novelist and scenarist James Salter.

Young Americans Bert (Robie Porter) and Taylor (Sam Waterston) buy an old Puegeot to drive across southern Europe. They encounter various female travelers. Marty (Charlotte Rampling) joins them and puts them to the test.

I don't know much about director James Salter. He seems more of a writer and this is his only directing credit. The sense of bored youth is all over this movie. The girls almost don't have the strength to lift their arms. The people live so slowly that they almost travel back in time. It's a more amateurish production. It does have the great Waterston and the great Rampling in their youth. These are beautiful people in their 20's. Rampling is especially adapt at playing beautiful, young, bored, and yet mentally alert. There are moments which struck me as funny. It's not a movie of action thrills but the old world charms do have its own particular thrills. Let's watch them lie around some more.

I happened to see this film when off sick from school (possibly) some thirty years ago... Although I now recall very few details of the plot, the beauty of the then (almost) ingénue Charlotte Rampling drifting around Mediterranean locations, the strange, at least to a young boy, dynamics of the love triangle depicted and probably the overall impression I retain of an aura of autumnal melancholy have haunted me ever since. I'd love to see it again now as an adult (perhaps at the risk of experiencing my warm nostalgic feelings dissolve into disappointment?). Only the recent, but richly deserved renaissance of Ms Rampling's career as a character actor provides any glimmer of hope that this, admittedly minor, twilight of the 60s film will see a DVD release...