Triple Feature (+)

[Hriston]

No trilogies.

The model for this should be the Martin Scorsese/Paul Schrader triptych: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ.

While I was driving a few days ago, I started thinking about the connection (in my mind) between Star Wars and car culture, which I think comes to the fore in the trench run scene, and one of George Lucas's other films, American Graffiti, came to mind, and I thought it might be interesting to watch the two films back to back in an old-school double feature. Now, because I like things in threes, I thought three films would be even better, and THX 1138 (which I've never actually watched) seemed like the natural choice being the only other feature length film directed by Lucas in his early career. I think I'd watch them in chronological order, so:

• THX 1138
• American Graffiti
• Star Wars

So that's the concept for the thread. Three films, ideally by a single auteur and perhaps held together thematically.

Also, I know 6+ hours of viewing is a lot, but I'm not interested in debating the validity of planning a triple feature to watch, so I've made it a (+) thread.

 

[Richards]

Okay, I'll play: Akira Kurasawa samurai movies:

• Seven Samurai
• Yojimbo
• Kagemusha

Each plays with the ideal of the glamorous life of a samurai warrior against the harsh reality such a life entails. My three picks are also in chronological order, not that I think it matters a whole lot.

Johnathan

 

[Hriston]

Okay, I'll play: Akira Kurasawa samurai movies:

• Seven Samurai
• Yojimbo
• Kagemusha

Each plays with the ideal of the glamorous life of a samurai warrior against the harsh reality such a life entails. My three picks are also in chronological order. not that I think it matters a whole lot.

Johnathan

A bit off topic, but this reminded me I've always wanted to watch Star Wars and Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, in that order, as a double feature.

 

[payn]

There is the Vengeance trilogy its called by Park Chan Wook. All three films are about vengeance but are independent stories of each other.

All three films clock in around 2 hours so 6 total hours without breaks.

 

[Mercurius]

Not a single film-maker, but:

Interstellar, Ex Machina, Arrival - different variations on high concept SF dealing with "alien-ness," as well as human fallibility. (I'd make it a quartet and add Annihilation, but that breaks the rules).

Also not a single film-maker, but variations on gnostic transcendence: Truman Show, Matrix, Dark City.

John Boorman: Deliverance, Zardoz, Excalibur. Deliverance explores elements of urban vs. rural, urban arrogance and desolation of nature; Zardoz shows us a kind of dead-end to the civilization project; Excalibur illustrates in mythic themes the entire history of human consciousness, and its cyclic nature.

 

[payn]

You could do two different triple features for John Carpenter.

Horror theme;
Halloween
Prince of Darkness
In the Mouth of Madness
Total run time a cool 4.5 hours

Action theme:
Escape from NY
Big Trouble in Little China
They Live
Total run time another cool 4.5 hours.

 

[monsmord]

I'll go with a thematic/auteur mix:

David Lynch's Dune (the longest version available)
The Holy Mountain
Jodorowsky's Dune

Depending on which Dune cut you score, comes in about 6 hours. The first two could be switched up, depending on taste.

 

[Ryujin]

A bit off topic, but this reminded me I've always wanted to watch Star Wars and Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, in that order, as a double feature.

I'm really annoyed that the Criterion Collection Kirosawa boxed set is no longer available.

For me, the three films would be:

"Things to Come" - 1936 original film, based on a work by HG Wells
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" - 1951 original starring Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal
"Forbidden Planet" - 1956

If "The Day the Earth Stood Still" isn't available then the very similar UK film "Stranger From Venus", ironically also starring Patricia Neal as the female lead, could be substituted. These are seminal films that guided how SciFi would be presented until today.

 

[Mad_Jack]

Timur Bekmambetov's Nightwatch and Daywatch, probably followed by Sarik Andreasayan's Guardians...

Aside from the fact that the books the first two are based on were really entertaining, the movies have a very interesting visual flavor to them - they're very much Russian supernatural cop movies, and Guardians also has that same sort of not-your-typical-American style to it.

 

[Mad_Jack]

double post