tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post114837412974433834..comments2024-03-24T13:26:57.317-07:00Comments on Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule: MOVIE OF THE MOMENT: THREE TIMESDennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-1148616037473584142006-05-25T21:00:00.000-07:002006-05-25T21:00:00.000-07:00At least you're getting Three Times -- my local ar...At least you're getting <I>Three Times</I> -- my local arthouse cinema, in an attempt to drum up more business, has stuck <I>The Da Vinci Code</I> on two screens. And tomorrow, they're putting <I>Over the Hedge</I> in as well. So it's two Hollywood also-rans and <I>Water</I>, which I couldn't care less about. The place has really gone the hell downhill since the new owners took over -- they're obsessed with programming safe middlebrow bullshit now. One week, I swear to Christ, they were playing <I>Thank You for Smoking</I>, <I>On a Clear Day</I>, <I>Marilyn Hotchkiss's Ballroom Dancing and Charm School</I>... and goddamn <I>When Do We Eat?</I>, a movie that appeared so rank that I turned down an opportunity to see it for free. I went to see <I>Smoking</I> that week. The guy at the counter mused that business had been slow. It took all my willpower not to scream, "Well, Jesus, you've got one film which has been running for two weeks already and three which nobody fucking cares about. What the hell did you expect?"<BR/><BR/>Of course, the next week they picked up <I>L'Enfant</I>, which apparently nobody wanted to see either -- it only lasted one lonely week.<BR/><BR/>And I'm only an hour-twenty train ride away from NYC, which effectively renders this rant moot. (Well, aside from the fact that I work until 8 PM most nights.) I'll shut up now.Steve C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/01958138092537744506noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-1148446440538674542006-05-23T21:54:00.000-07:002006-05-23T21:54:00.000-07:00Brian, let me second the thanks for that interview...Brian, let me second the thanks for that interview. The question is an interesting one, and for me I'm more sure than ever, after the experience with <I>Three Times</I>, that I look to films like this because I can't anticipate my own responses to them (at least very accurately) and I feel like the very fact that they're not predigested by the media, or the filmmakers themselves, into something safe and predictable makes them more attractive. In that way, they hold the allure that movies as a whole did for me when I was just getting to know them.<BR/><BR/>Girish: Congratulations on getting the opportunity to see <I>Three Times</I>, well, three times, I guess! And I couldn't agree more-- it begs to be seen more than once. Hopefully the one revival house left in L.A., or perhaps the American Cinematheque will run it again soon and that elusive second theatrical screening will pop up for Michael and I too.Dennis Cozzaliohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-1148438935101776232006-05-23T19:48:00.000-07:002006-05-23T19:48:00.000-07:00Great Clowes interview, Brian. Thanks for that lin...<I>Great</I> Clowes interview, Brian. Thanks for that link.<BR/><BR/>Just discovered today to my pleasant surprise that <I>Three Times</I> is playing for a week in Buffalo next month.<BR/>Last year at TIFF, Rob Davis got tickets for <I>both</I> screenings of the Hou, and saw it twice. Think I'll try to do that for a couple of films this year. The Hou, for example, is a film that just cries to be seen a second time.girishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05079328617099035797noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-1148416007405488062006-05-23T13:26:00.000-07:002006-05-23T13:26:00.000-07:00Thanks for this opportunity to, as girish says, re...Thanks for this opportunity to, as girish says, relive <I>Three Times</I>. To be honest, I suspect it was probably the film I saw at the festival that suffered the most from having been seen packed between two other films in a marathon festival setting. I found it very beautiful at the time (the first segment especially) but never was able to find the space to let it reverberate in me. Which is why I'm hoping against hope that IFC Films deigns to send it out to more markets than just New York and Los Angeles. <BR/><BR/>Your comments comparing niche film distribution in Los Angeles to film distribution, period, in small-town Oregon are very interesting. Combined with comments Dan Clowes makes in <A HREF="http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/pixel_vision/2006/05/on_the_con_with_cartoonist_dan.html" REL="nofollow">this interview</A> it's got me thinking about the nature of cinephilia: how much of my interest in the rarer, more obscure films connected to a desire to simply anticipate <I>something</I>? And how much is a pro-celluloid stance simply a grasp at holding onto that feeling in the face of digital ubiquity?Brian Darrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17693169310367670898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-1148406488842258292006-05-23T10:48:00.000-07:002006-05-23T10:48:00.000-07:00Dennis, I share your dismay of the very brief run ...Dennis, I share your dismay of the very brief run films like <I>Three Times</I> get here in Southern California, and I say that particularly as someone who won't have a chance to see it at Laemmle's; I'd get over there in a flash, but my work schedule won't allow it this week, and I'll probably have to wait to see this film on DVD. It's a bummer because films like this deserve longer runs and wider distribution. I'm amazed it actually made it here at all, given that, even in a place that houses the world's most dominant film industry, there are so many good films that don't get distributed here (or if they do they're here and gone in no time). Every time I hear of an interesting international film, I jot it down and keep checking the listings, and often the film never makes it out here ... and this is L.A.<BR/><BR/>But even though I haven't seen it, I greatly enjoyed your post and appreciate you writing it (I was looking forward to it ever since you mentioned you'd be seeing the film). I liked it all, but especially the second paragraph -- that was particuarly well done. I also appreciated your takes on the impediments to connection, as well as on the eroticism of the film.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-1148404574377487432006-05-23T10:16:00.000-07:002006-05-23T10:16:00.000-07:00Yes, I thought about that flash-forward too, becau...Yes, I thought about that flash-forward too, because it comes, chronologically, before they've met. It stands to reason that it's a glimpse of their immediate future together, revisiting the place where they first met. But even if it were a false, romanticized remembrance, a fantasy spun by one or the other, it's still lovely and a playful way of informing the mood of the piece with casual romance and comfort before anything has really yet happened. <BR/><BR/>Thanks for the link, and also for pointing out the connection between "A Time of Love" and <I>A Time to Live and a Time to Die</I> and <I>Dust in the Wind</I>. As I said, my experience with Hou has a lot of room for expansion, so these titles will go on the must-see list right away!<BR/><BR/>I really loved this movie, and I wish there were some way to see it again on the big screen. It occurs to me, though, that in trying to see films like this, even in a major metropolitan area like Los Angeles (which is somewhat lacking in film culture, ironically enough, in comparison to New York City), I find myself in much the same position I was in growing up and trying to soak up as many films as I could in a small town in Oregon, in the pre-home video days. Back then, in the '70s, there was one shot, maybe two, at seeing <I>any</I> movie in a theater, and then it would disappear, and the next encounter with it would probably be in some bowdlerized form on network TV. Going to college meant many more opportunities to see new films and catch up with old ones-- those were the days when even a small college town like Eugene supported two revival houses, and there were 10 or so campus screenings of every variety of film every weekend.<BR/><BR/>Now we can see pretty much anything we want when we want it in the age of DVD and TiVO and iPods and God know what else, and yet the window of seeing a movie like <I>Three Times</I> in a theater, if it shows up at all, that is, is just as slim as seeing any movie in my hometown was in 1975, when there was one film a week, Wednesday through Sunday. Logistically, there was no way everything I wanted to see was going to play, and when there was something interesting I had to jump on it, because I never knew when my next chance would be, if ever, to see it. I know <I>Three Times</I> will eventually come to DVD, but I don't know when. And in this age of instant video gratification, at the risk of sounding a bit too much like Veruca Salt, I want to see it again <I>now!</I>Dennis Cozzaliohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-1148400256650538812006-05-23T09:04:00.000-07:002006-05-23T09:04:00.000-07:00Dennis, I enjoyed your your detailed post, which h...Dennis, I enjoyed your your detailed post, which had <BR/>me re-living the experience of watching this last fall.<BR/><BR/>Unfortunately it's not on-line but there's a nice long interview with Hou, Shu Qi and Chang Chen in <A HREF="http://www.cinema-scope.com/cs24/index.htm" REL="nofollow">this issue of Cinema Scope</A>, which is great fun.<BR/><BR/>For me, this film (among many things) is a sort of "compilation record" made by a master musician, an anthology of Hou films past that he has consciously assembled together. The first segment (my favorite) reminds me strongly of <I>A Time To Live And A Time To Die</I> or <I>Dust In The Wind</I>; the second of <I>Flowers</I>; and the last of <I>Mambo</I>, though of course there are important differences...<BR/><BR/>Apparently, the two songs ("Smoke..." and "Rain And Tears") are personal and nostalgic Hou favorites.<BR/><BR/>A little detail that I loved: the very first scene (dialogue-less, billiards room, drinking beer, Shu Qui hanging around Chang as he shoots) is, I realized later, clearly a <I>flash-forward</I> to some indeterminate future time...<BR/><BR/>I've only seen it once and I'm hoping it plays here in Buffalo so I can revisit it.girishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05079328617099035797noreply@blogger.com