Melvin Van Peebles is someone that revolutionized Black cinema. But when people think of his early work, many people just talk about “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.” That’s understandable, as that film is one of the most famous of the early ‘70s. However, thanks to Janus Films, people are going to be reintroduced to the feature directorial debut from Van Peebles, “The Story of a Three-Day Pass.”
With a new 4K restoration of “The Story of a Three-Day Pass” coming to theaters (both virtual and physical) next month, we’re happy to give our readers an exclusive look at the new trailer for Mario Van Peebles oft-forgotten debut film. The feature follows the story of a Black soldier that is given a three-day pass to leave the base where he is stationed and venture off to Paris. While there, he meets a woman and starts a whirlwind romance.
Interestingly, “The Story of a Three-Day Pass” is based on the novel “La Permission,” a French novel that Van Peebles wrote himself. You see, after failing to find a way to direct films in the US due to the racism of the time, the author-filmmaker moved to France, learned the language, and started his career writing novels and directing ‘Three-Day Pass.’
The new 4K restoration comes from IndieCollect in consultation with Mario Van Peebles with support from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
“This unique bittersweet love story is one of my favorite films from my father,” said Mario Van Peebles. “It’s also one of his most personal, and triggered my own passion for filmmaking. I’m thrilled to be collaborating with IndieCollect and the Criterion Collection on this gorgeous new restoration and to work with Janus Films to bring it back to the screen. Giving audiences the opportunity to discover (or rediscover) it through the lens of today is exciting, and I’m looking forward to the conversations ahead.”
The restoration is going to open theatrically and virtually at Film Forum and Laemmle NoHo in LA on May 7.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Melvin Van Peebles’ edgy, angsty, romantic first feature could never have been made in America. Unable to break into a 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 his stylistically innovative 1968 debut. 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 unleash just a few years later with Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.
