#1093: PEEBLES, Melvin Van: The Story Of A Three Day Pass (1967)
PEEBLES, Melvin Van (United States)
The Film
The Story Of A Three Day Pass (1967)
Spine #1093
Blu-ray
Blu-ray
Melvin Van Peebles’s edgy, angsty, romantic first feature could never have been made in America. Unable to break into segregated Hollywood, Van Peebles decamped to France, taught himself the language, and wrote a number of books in French, one of which, La permission, would become the stylistically innovative The Story of a Three Day Pass. Turner (Harry Baird), an African American soldier stationed in France, is granted a promotion and a three-day leave from base by his casually racist commanding officer and heads to Paris, where he finds whirlwind romance with a white woman (Nicole Berger)—but what happens to their love when his furlough is over? Channeling the brash exuberance of the French New Wave, Van Peebles creates an exploration of the psychology of an interracial relationship as well as a commentary on France’s contradictory attitudes about race that is playful, sarcastic, and stingingly subversive by turns, and that laid the foundation for the scorched-earth cinematic revolution he would let loose just a few years later.
86 minutes
Black and White
Black and White
Monaural
In English and French
1:66:1 aspect ratio
In English and French
1:66:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2021
Director/Writer
Based on La permission by Martin Van Peebles.
Van Peebles was 35 when he wrote and directed The Story of a Three Day Pass.
The Film
Film Rating (0-60):
The Booklet
Fifty-six page booklet featuring essays by film scholars Racquel J. Gates, Allyson Nadia Field, Michael B. Gillespie, and Lisa B. Thompson.
Commentary
None.
Introduction
By Van Peebles from 1997.
Conversation
Between producer and Black Filmmaker Foundation founder Warrington Hudlin and filmmaker and music historian Nelson George.
Interview
From 1968 with Van Peebles from the television program Black Journal.
Episode
Of the French television show Pour le plaisir from 1968, featuring on-set interviews with Van Peebles and actors Baird and Berger.
Three short films
By Van Peebles: Sunlight (1957), Three Pickup Men for Herrick (1957), and Les cinq cent balles (1961).
Trailer
Extras Rating (0-40):
60
The ExtrasThe Booklet
Fifty-six page booklet featuring essays by film scholars Racquel J. Gates, Allyson Nadia Field, Michael B. Gillespie, and Lisa B. Thompson.
Commentary
None.
Introduction
By Van Peebles from 1997.
Conversation
Between producer and Black Filmmaker Foundation founder Warrington Hudlin and filmmaker and music historian Nelson George.
Interview
From 1968 with Van Peebles from the television program Black Journal.
Episode
Of the French television show Pour le plaisir from 1968, featuring on-set interviews with Van Peebles and actors Baird and Berger.
Three short films
By Van Peebles: Sunlight (1957), Three Pickup Men for Herrick (1957), and Les cinq cent balles (1961).
Trailer
Extras Rating (0-40):
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