The Story of a Three-Day Pass

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The Story of a Three-Day Pass
Directed byMelvin Van Peebles
Screenplay byMelvin Van Peebles
Based onLa Permission
by Melvin Van Peebles
Produced byGuy Belfond
Starring
CinematographyMichel Kelber
Edited byLiliane Korb
Music byMelvin Van Peebles
Distributed bySigma III Corp.
Release dates
  • 1967 (1967) (SFIFF)
  • 8 July 1968 (1968-07-08)
Running time
87 minutes
CountryFrance
Languages
  • English
  • French

The Story of a Three-Day Pass (French title: La Permission) is a 1967 film written and directed by Melvin Van Peebles, based on his French-language novel La Permission. It stars Harry Baird as a black American soldier who is demoted for fraternizing with a white shop clerk (Nicole Berger) in France.

Along with writing and directing the film, Van Peebles collaborated on its score with Mickey Baker and sings one of the two songs written for the film, "When My Number Gonna Hit". The other song, "Hard Times", is a duet; one of the singers is Mickey Baker. The film premiered in 1967 at the San Francisco International Film Festival.[1] In 2020, the film was one of the selections of the Cannes Classics section at the Cannes Film Festival.[2]

Plot[edit]

The film tells the story of Turner, a black U.S. Army G.I. stationed in France whose captain gives him a three-day pass just after he promotes him. As Turner gets ready to leave, his reflection in the mirror accuses him of being an Uncle Tom, but this is not the only time his reflection criticizes him or makes him doubt himself.

Turner goes to Paris, where he wanders mostly aimlessly for the first day. He finds himself in a nightclub, where he meets a white French shop clerk named Miriam. The pair spends the rest of the weekend together, enjoying their romance but also struggling with the complexities of racism. Eventually their miscegenation is reported to Turner's captain and Turner is restricted to barracks. After some visiting African-American women convince his commander to lift the restriction, he finds his girlfriend unavailable when he telephones her, and he decides that such amorous adventures are futile.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

The film was shot over a period of six weeks for a cost of $200,000.[3]

Reception[edit]

In 2020, The New Yorker critic Richard Brody described The Story of a Three-Day Pass as being "among the great American films of the sixties."[4]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Rapold, Nicolas (6 May 2021). "The Film That Made 'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song' Possible". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  2. ^ Keslassy, Elsa (15 July 2020). "Cannes Film Festival Unveils Cannes Classics 2020 Lineup". Variety. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  3. ^ Mendik, Xavier; Schneider, Steven Jay, eds. (2003). Underground U.S.A.: Filmmaking Beyond the Hollywood Canon. Wallflower Press. p. 97. ISBN 978-1903364499.
  4. ^ Brody, Richard (12 June 2020). "What to Stream: "The Story of a Three-Day Pass," a Precursor to Spike Lee's "Da 5 Bloods"". The New Yorker. Retrieved 19 April 2021.

External links[edit]

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