THREE SEASONS

PATHÉ

RELEASED 14 January 2000

Winner of an unprecedented three awards at the Sundance Film Festival, Three Seasons follows four strangers in Saigon at the turn of the 20th century. Kien An picks white lotuses for a reclusive master who invites her into his dark temple after hearing her sing a forgotten song from his youth. Hai is a cyclo (pedi-cab) driver who falls for a prostitute he chaffeurs around. Woody is a homeless boy surviving any way he can. James Hager (Harvey Keitel) has returned looking for the daughter he left during the war. The characters paths cross, each of them representing different times in their country’s history now undergoing a second invasion by it’s former enemy under the auspices of Coca-Cola and plastic flowers. Filmed entirely in Vietnam with local actors (barring Harve) this is a wonderfully tender movie.

Interesting footnote: Harvey Keitel was to play the lead role in Apocalypse Now until being fired a week after shooting began. In Three Seasons his character spends much of his time in the Apocalypse Now bar.

FOUR OUT OF FIVE