Three (I) (1969) User Reviews

How beautiful is youth

[miff62 · 7/10 · 27 November 2007]

I've watched this movie on cable TV and I confess I loved it… and that's not just because of an incredibly beautiful 23 year old Charlotte Rampling!

I guess it's the unhurried way in which the movie conjures up nostalgia and the transient nature of youth. That's a theme that's made very explicit during the tour of the Uffizzi when the guide quotes lines from a poem by Lorenzo the Magnificent. The film is set during a summer holiday, but it seemed to be filmed "off season"… bystanders wear jackets and long-sleeves, the piazzas and especially the beaches seem strangely empty. There's this feeling of "end of summer", of an idyll petering away…

Ultimately, it's a "coming of age" tale, especially for the hapless Taylor. It's difficult not to love the fellow… Generous in spirit, noble in intent, gracious in manner… but his faults are also his own. He refuses to commit, refuses to decide what he wants. It's made clear that he is over protected by his parents (who are paying for the trip). This makes him non-assertive but ultimately complacent. Rather like a child, he wants it all… the love of a woman, the bond of friendship, and he thinks that he can keep it all by not stirring the waters… he thinks that things will not change, but they do anyway, as they always do, for life is change… maybe growth.

Ultimately, poor Taylor is left holding a "handful of flies" (an Italian expression). He leaves, with only a hint of bitterness, for he is not a bitter fellow, but he is (I believe) wiser.

I shudder to think what would result if this movie were remade today. I would envisage plenty of nudity, plenty of sex and redundant sub-plots involving criminal enterprise and action sequences. None of these attributes would be necessarily bad, but the result would certainly not approach the mood of the sensitive and insightful original.

For trivia lovers, the quote from Lorenzo the Magnificent's Song of Bacchus translates as:

How beautiful is youth That runs away nonetheless Let he that would be happy, be so: There is no certainty of tomorrow.

It's so much better in the original.

Finally, I have to ask… Taylor, oh Taylor, how could you refuse Marty at that bedroom door?

Three for the Road in an Endless Summer

[atlasmb · 7/10 · 30 April 2014]

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.

young and dazed

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 2 June 2019]

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.

THREE (James Salter, 1969) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 15 August 2007]

I became aware of this one fairly recently via a thread on the “Criterion Forum”, where several people were asking about it; I happened to recollect that the film was turning up regularly on Cable TV and, so, made it a point to check it out the next time it was on!

Well, it emerges as nothing really special: a ménage-a'-trois romance on the lines of JULES AND JIM (1962), filmed in a fragmentary but not unattractive style. The script makes the occasional perceptive comment about its central theme (especially through the contribution of Sam Waterston as the shy prospective lawyer) but, given that the three friends/lovers agree on the fickle nature of the relationship beforehand, the romantic element isn’t particularly stressed – so that there’s little character growth and, consequently, none of the potential jealousy and heartache inherent in such a situation!

Frankly, the film is more valuable as a travelogue: the narrative (based on a story by Irwin Shaw!) denotes the adventures of a couple of vacationing American students in Europe – with Florence (Italy’s art mecca), provincial France and Spain for backdrops – falling under the spell of a sophisticated but free-spirited girl of British and French descent (played by Charlotte Rampling). Along the way, however, the two boys meet and hitch up with a number of other girls – one of these is Gillian Hills, whom I recently watched perform the notorious-but-now-very-mild nude scenes in Michelangelo Antonioni’s BLOWUP (1966); the film also boasts a pleasant score by Laurence Rosenthal.

Apparently, James Salter (whose only directorial effort this proved to be) is a highly respected author but I’d never heard of him personally; looking at his filmography on the IMDb, I notice that I’d already watched a film he scripted – Sidney Lumet’s THE APPOINTMENT (1969) – and I’ve got another one in my “To Watch” pile (recorded off Italian TV) that was based on a novel he wrote – the aviation drama THE HUNTERS (1958), starring Robert Mitchum!

Great scenery, so-so story

[rosscinema · 5/10 · 25 February 2003]

Story of two college buddys who are touring through Europe and meet a beautiful woman and of course they both vie for her affections. She of course likes both of them! The sites are beautiful and actually are important to the story. The scenery and Charlotte Rampling are both beautiful and mysterious and Sam Waterston has a difficult time accepting both for what they are. I guess this is the moral dilemma that the characters must ponder! Lots of shots of the characters doing nothing! Extetended scenes of them eating, drinking and just walking and looking around. The pace of the film is very slow and it seems deliberate. The director seems to want us to feel what its like to be consumed by the scenery and elements. I guess its effective, but I'm not sure how interesting it is.

On the set of Three

[photomota · 3/10 · 17 March 2007]

I was a still photographer working in Europe the summer that Jim Salter shot the movie Three.

I did some swell pictures for him, one of which I was told became the poster for the movie. I didn't see the film until years later. I thought it was bad. A pity, because the elements that went into it were compelling. Robie Porter's girlfriend was almast as beautiful as Rampling herself. Salter asked if I would stick around and be an extra cameraman so they wouldn't have to shoot everything twice. I said sure, but I had to return to NY, promising I'd be back. Alas, I never did get back. One of life's unsung melodies.

I wish I could post the pictures I made somewhere.

Rowland Scherman

A gentle and well told tale of youthful ideals and yearning

[morrowmmm · 8/10 · 9 April 2002]

This film wears well since the story is an age old one. So nice to see the young Sam Waterston and Charlotte Rampling in very picturesque european locations.What happened to Robie Porter? Two male friends in Europe meet a beautiful English girl who then travels with them on their summer tour (many young Americans did this in the sixties in Europe) One, Sam Waterston, is an idealist about love, falling for Rampling, but keeping a promise to his friend that everything has to be kept platonic for the three to survive as a group. Rampling needs the attractive company but also wants a physical relationship which Porter, at the end, gives to her. Waterston realises the magic of the threesome is broken and gives up the the romantic thoughts of studying in Paris and breaks away to return home. Thoughtful and well told, more through subtle actions than words.

1950s artsy set in 1960s

[bergsy-2 · 4/10 · 17 January 2003]

No doubt about it, Rampling is gorgeous -- a classic beauty, here very young. She manages to appear simultaneously sophisticated and poignant. Her two male foils act well too. But seen in 2003, the flic is all

American-trying-to-be-artsy-and-not-be-Hollywood-while-shooting-beautiful-sh ots-of-the-French-Riviera-and-three-pretty-young-people-in-their-cute-old-ca r. I enjoyed the view (both the actors and the nature) but the movie is boring and pretentious while trying to be the opposite.

Sadly, an unlikely contender for DVD release?

[grissongs · 8/10 · 28 February 2007]

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...

A summer abroad, with a broad

[ofumalow · 5/10 · 20 June 2015]

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.

An interesting curio

[wavecat13 · 5/10 · 5 March 2016]

This is worth seeing for three reasons. It is the only film ever directed by James Salter, who is one of America's most highly regarded writers of fiction and memoir. And it features the talents of then very young Sam Waterston and Charlotte Rampling, who both went on to successful Hollywood careers. (Their co-star Robie Porter did not have a long run as an actor).

Basically this is an attempt by some Americans to do a European art house flick. You can see the aesthetic at work in the terse dialogue, mellow music, long, moody shots, and Riviera locales. The story concerns two young men, college buddies, who are on summer vacation roaming around Europe. They join forces with a young Englishwoman, and some romantic tension begins to grow. It is nice to look at, but the story begins to drag, with no strong emotions in sight.

Two college buddies in the late 60s tour Europe with an enchanting woman they meet along the way.

[asyltus · 8/10 · 23 December 2000]

I didn't catch up to this film until thirty years after the fact, but I was pulled in by its simple, elegant emotional resonance. This is a pretty young Sam Waterston. Though the plot is rife with potential rivalries over Charlotte Rampling, the film lays an astute and well-observed tale about friendship over a road film and, happily, these guys aren't ugly Americans, and even make an attempt to try to speak the languages along the way. Wonderful, spare location photography. I started watching it out of morbid interest, but ended up being lulled by that heart ache and yearning at the center of a vacation and adventure movie.

Three Young People Maturing in Europe

[JLRMovieReviews · 8/10 · 7 July 2015]

Based on an Irwin Shaw story, this film revolves around college pals Sam Waterston and Robie Porter on their summer trip through Europe. In their travels they meet Charlotte Rampling, who they invite to come with them, but on condition she pays her own way. Also, the guys have a pact that they will not let her come between their friendship. From landmarks to landscapes on their trek, we see them laugh, reminisce, and contemplate their own lives. We see chapels and beaches, as their summer comes to life. "Three" is a very natural, relaxing, and, I don't think I've described a film this way before, sexy. The exotic locales made me think of "A Little Romance" with Laurence Olivier." This is the sort of film that stays with you in a very haunting sort of way. Its stillness and romanticism is of an another era, a yesteryear. But it's also very real. You'd swear they weren't acting at all. A very interesting turn of events transpires, as their trip comes to an end, the kind of ending that makes you want to see it again. It makes you wonder if you've actually been paying attention. Its aloofness, a feeling it's short of reaching keeps you interested in the three lives. I had never seen Robie Porter in a film before this. He looks like a cross between George Segal and Dennis Quaid. For a very mature and memorable trip through Europe, take time with these "Three" as they learn about themselves, while taking in a little of the world.

Elegant and touching

[Insp. Clouzot · 8/10 · 26 November 2002]

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.

Couldn't take my eyes off Charlotte R.

[emailbillphillips · 8/10 · 31 July 2016]

For us older guys... who were young and simple in 1969, and enjoyed an idle summer at the beach watching beautiful girls, this movie will tug at your memories. Charlotte Rampling, is a "can't take your eyes off her" sight from beginning to end. Just like the silly kid I was back then, I watched her in "Three" and remembered..... remembered. It's not a film classic, by most standards, but who cares.

I spent the summer of 1966 on Martha's Vineyard with my motorcycle, riding girls off to the end of the island and lying on the beach with bottle of wine, cheese, and crackers. None were as beautiful as Charlotte Rampling in this film, but some were close. And, now, at age 72, this movie takes me back to those days. I didn't know how lucky I was. Nothing is truer than the old adage, "youth is wasted on the young." To be reminded of this watching "Three" hurts so good.

Unique film

[redjwood · 9/10 · 28 August 2003]

I only saw part of this film on one of the movie channels in a motel room on the morning of checkout. Almost made me miss the checkout time as I couldn't quit watching the movie. Even though I hadn't seen the beginning of the film, and wasn't entirely sure what was going on, I had the movie equivalent of "couldn't put the book down". I think the reason why was because it felt very real. I felt as though I was watching these characters real lives on a real trip to Europe. The style of the film with it's slow, quiet pace was certainly something you won't see in many movies. If this movie was made today, I'm sure that there would have to be a jewel heist, a couple of car chases, and somebody passing gas for our amusement. I saw that this film was the directorial debut of a writer (forget the name), so maybe he didn't know that he wasn't supposed to make a film this way. Thank God for that!

By the way, does anyone know where this film can be purchased, so I can see the whole thing?

Visually Stunning and Beautiful

[tr-83495 · 8/10 · 3 June 2019]

A slow moving look at college students taking a month off in Italy. The plot is simple, but following the actions of the principal actors is actually charming. You are right there with them as they explore and discover new attractions in the Italian landscape. Rather than boring, it's hard to look away from this film. You're not really watching it for the plot. You're watching all the beautiful visuals you are bombarded with. Definitely worth seeing.

gatsybyism in the late 60s

[memelstone · 9/10 · 21 April 2015]

gather an insight into a real aspect of the late 60s. They were we: the wandering self possessed, secretive beauty; the hopeful but insecure, sensitive, skinny intellectual nerd; the expectant player in waiting; the European aloof and slightly push/pull worrisome. ah, the clothes. this is not a psycho drama but a real period piece in the wonderland that was the authentic mediterranean before cooking classes. "maybe we should turn in the peugeot for an alfa..." a moment in space and time in an era of floating uncertainty. if you are not too cynical or out of sync; smile and feel nostalgic for a time that really was... if you were privileged enough to enjoy it for an instant. indeed, there was threat enough and uncertainty outside of this travelogue. "rue de sade" on a marginal scale; "graffiti" of mardi, mercredi jeudi..."; but for a moment, i took this ride, and i wasn't alone. you may enjoy it vicariously.

Well Worth Checking Out

[charmadu · 10/10 · 3 June 2019]

See this film for so many reasons. A most stunning 22 year old Charlotte Rampling and a very seductive 28 year old Sam Waterston exhibit great chemistry in a background of gorgeous shots of Europe. This is a "buddy" film but there are complications.... What's lovely about it is the scenario is so subtle and believable. One of the unsung heroes here is the exquisite music composed by Laurence Rosenthal which acts as another character in the film. The initial meeting of Taylor (Waterston) and Marty (Rampling) in a French cafe lasts little over a minute but is given timeless wings by the introduction of the beautiful theme on flute and piano. It elicits a feeling of innocence and eroticism and honestly, it's one of the sexiest things I've seen in a move.

Style over substance

[sorabji · 28 November 2003]

This movie is a beautiful looking package with nothing going on inside. It reminds me, strangely enough, of Warren Beatty's "Dick Tracy," which in my opinion looks great but gives you nothing to think about.

I recommend watching "Three" without listening. Turn the sound down. This way you'll get the best part of this film without being annoyed by the rest of it.