''Three'' is a 1969 British

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written and directed by James Salter. The film stars

Charlotte Rampling Tessa Charlotte Rampling (born 5 February 1946) is an English actress. An icon of the Swinging London, Swinging Sixties, she began her career as a model. She was cast in the role of Meredith in the 1966 film ''Georgy Girl'', which starred Lynn ...

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Sam Waterston Samuel Atkinson Waterston (born November 15, 1940) is an American actor. Waterston is known for his work in theater, television, and film. He has received numerous accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actor ...

, Pascale Roberts, Edina Ronay and

Gillian Hills Gillian Hills (born 5 June 1944) is a British actress and singer. She first came to notice as a teenager in the 1960s in the British films ''Beat Girl'' (1960) and ''Blowup'' (1966). She also spent several years living in France, where she emb ...

. The film was released on 23 December 1969, by

United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...

Synopsis

Two American college friends travel in Europe near the Mediterranean. They meet many women, but an English tourist catches their attention, and they become friends with her.

Cast

as Marty *

as Bert *

as Taylor *Pascale Roberts as Claude * Edina Ronay as Liz *

as Ann *Alfredo Rizzo as waiter *Paul Cooper as photographer *Patrizia Giammei as Gloria *Mario Cotone as Silvano *Franca Tasso as Hélène *Roberto Scheiber as Piero

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...

'' wrote: "A first film which allows a not too ostentatiously attractive cast (unknowns at the time; Charlotte Rampling and Sam Waterston about to become more conspicuous with '' Zardoz'' and ''

The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' () is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with Jay Gatsby, a mysterious mi ...

'' respectively) to supply what little personality the project has. Tyro writer-director James Salter subsequently provided the screenplay for ''

Downhill Racer ''Downhill Racer'' is a 1969 American sports drama film starring Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, and Camilla Sparv; it was the directorial debut of Michael Ritchie. Written by James Salter, based on the 1963 novel ''The Downhill Racers'' ...

'', and ''Three'' appears to be a very dry run for the later film: ambiguous action, coolly inscrutable characters, dialogue that is little more than half-heard clichés. ... ''Three'' becomes entirely neutral in tone, flatly encompassing a stream of uncomplicated incident that provokes the three travellers ... neither to change nor to reveal themselves. Having decided to tell a story about people instead of simply telling a story, Salter fails to establish their credentials as characters and remains at an awkward remove from their situation; distance unhappily lending no perspective on the exchanges of mumbled banalities. ... Visually, ''Three'' maintains the atmosphere of a superior travelogue; thanks to either Salter or his cameraman, the subtle differences between the places visited emerge and blend into a casual summer-time drift of experience. The trouble is that there never seems to be any good reason why we should be drifting in the company of these three."

References

External links

* 1969 films British drama films 1969 drama films United Artists films Films scored by Laurence Rosenthal 1960s English-language films 1960s British films {{1960s-drama-film-stub