Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

[Anduin]

It's the new movie from George Miller! While it doesn't look as actiony as Mad Max: Fury Road, it looks even more... out there. Dreamlike. Stars Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba. No Australian release date yet, but the American one is 31 August 2022. Either way, I'm planning to see it ASAP.

 

[Bruinsfan]

I have no idea what's going on in this movie, but I am sold!

[BetterButter]

[StatisticalOutlier]

I took a risk and read some of the comments on youtube, and somebody said he was going to go see it and if it's terrible, he's going to just close his eyes and sit there, because even if he doesn't like it he wants to encourage people to make movies like this.  I'm thinking the same thing--use my ticket as a vote of a sort.

Then somebody pointed out that he doesn't have to stay--they'll have his money even if he leaves.  Which makes it kind of a no-lose proposition.

[tv echo]

It's funny that these two stars both played MCU characters who were thousands of years old (Heimdall and The Ancient One)...

Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton on Three Thousand Years of Longing | Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly   Aug 24, 2022

Tilda Swinton, Idris Elba talk 'Three Thousand Years of Longing'
Good Morning America   Aug 23, 2022

Edited August 27, 2022 by tv echo

[Notwisconsin]

Just saw it. It's a philosophical discussion of love and desire. Magnficient storytelling that's really weird.

[StatisticalOutlier]

I didn't think this was going to be my cup of tea, but I really enjoyed it.  I went because it was directed by the person who directed one of my favorites, Babe.

Maybe I'm a sap, but I really liked the part before the movie where George Miller thanks the audience for coming to the theater to see the movie.  Tom Cruise did it with Maverick, and I think there was another movie I saw that had it.  It makes me feel appreciated.

[Browncoat]

I just saw this, and I really liked it a lot.  The Djinn’s stories were both beautiful and compelling (as was the Djinn himself), and Tilda was perfect for her role.  I love that she let him go in the end.

Wonderfully philosophical and magical.  I might even shell out to see it again in the theater.

[Anduin]

Just got back. The American release date was brought forward, but not in George Miller's home country. Who decides these things? Anyway, it was good. Not really my sort of thing, but it was well done. Funny thing, when she started telling her story as a fable, then all about the wonders of technology, I wondered if it was a Mad Max prequel. The world was broken through a bad wish.

Anyone know of any reviews by Turks? The bulk of the story takes place there, be nice to find out what they think of it.

[Real4real]

I saw it and thought it was really lovely--I hope people will go to the theater to see it.  The big screen gave it a very magical feel--from the smoky swirls of the djinn to the sparkling dust motes in Alithea's apartment--I think those little details could be lost on the small screen.  The music was beautiful, the story was moving, the acting was great.

Browncoat said "wonderfully philosophical and magical."  Well said!  

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 9/2/2022 at 1:40 PM, Real4real said:

I saw it and thought it was really lovely--I hope people will go to the theater to see it. 

And if they do, George Miller will thank them.  Or, he thanked me, anyway.

On 9/2/2022 at 1:40 PM, Real4real said:

The big screen gave it a very magical feel--from the smoky swirls of the djinn to the sparkling dust motes in Alithea's apartment

When I saw the dust motes, I was impressed that the atmosphere was manufactured to that level of detail.  But then I realized they're significant to the story, and not being able to see them would matter.

[Spartan Girl]

Finally caught this on streaming and it was just lovely. I love modern fairy tales. The visuals, the stories, the chemistry between Idris and Tilda…everything just worked. I wasn’t expecting such poignancy from George Miller.

I was bracing myself for a sad ending, so I was glad it had a happy(ish) one.

[Anduin]

I'm glad you loved it. It was very much a movie I wanted to enjoy more than I actually did. Ah well, I'm still glad I saw it.

[paramitch]

I saw this about a month ago, percolated over it, and rewatched again this past week.

First off, I think overall that it's just lovely. I've always loved George Miller, and he is absolutely one of those on my "People I would invite to my fabulous imaginary dinner party" list. I mean, anyone who makes the Mad Max films (especially the gorgeous Thunderdome and Fury Road) and Babe (one of the best movies ever made) AND this movie? I want to talk to that person. I think he's amazing.

I really enjoyed this, but for me there is something ultimately a little lacking. It is still just gorgeous. But -- more on the down sides farther on.

Meanwhile, on the plus side -- I loved the overall film, loved the feel of it, and loved the way the first part of the story added this very odd tension -- this feeling that the world itself wants Alithea to seemingly give in to the siren's call of magic (beautiful name, a variation of the Greek word for "Truth/Truthful," which is very interesting for someone passionate about stories and fairy tales!). I loved the quiet unexplained magics around her, but I am also so interested in them --what is happening here? She hasn't met the Djinn yet, but clearly amazing things are happening to catapult her toward the encounter with a magical immortal being. She has repeated visions of Djinn entities before she ever finds the bottle. Hmmm.

Then when they meet, I was just delighted with the gorgeous atmosphere and magic of both her Q&A with the Djinn, as well as his marvelous stories. It was inevitable that Alithea, despite her contentment and detachment, would as a lover of tales fall in love with a master tale-teller himself. The story itself is delicate and beautiful, and I loved how it proceeded and ended from a dramatic standpoint.

By far, my favorite part of this film is Idris Elba as the Djinn. It is one of the first things I've seen him do since "The Wire" that honestly seems to know how to spotlight his elegance, beauty, and intensity. I still do not understand how he isn't the biggest star on the planet, but meanwhile, this was worthy of his talents. He makes the Djinn genuinely intimidating, even scary, but also deeply loving, curious, loyal, and whimsical. The Djinn's palpable love for humanity and his amusement with technology (and easy mastery of it -- and dismissal of it) was especially wonderful to me. So many movies deify tech, and here is the Djinn going, "This is very amusing," as he masters it in seconds.

The one problem for me, and I cannot believe I'm saying this -- is Tilda Swinton. Who I think gives a perfectly good performance, and who I basically worship and suspect to be one of the Fae in real life. I absolutely adore her and her genius.

BUT. For me, if I had to take fault with Tilda in any small way, I would say that she is consistently chilly. She is not someone I would cast to be overcome with an unexpected desire on multiple fronts. I've adored Tilda since way back in Orlando, but even there, with a pretty smoldering Billy Zane at his height, sexual desire seems more like a momentary experiment for her than anything heated. I would say she can play that kind of heat but it's been in an odd way -- I thought she was amazing (and smoking-hot) in Constantine, and also thought she brought a quiet sensuality to Only Lovers Left Alive. But here, nope.

I was just not convinced, as a result, by the Alithea/Djinn relationship. I didn't think she brought anything at all to Alithea's feelings for the Djinn or to their relationship, so they felt very weirdly like two very good buddies, and I was disappointed in that. The Djinn's stories are filled with passion and heat and love and desire -- when Alithea swallows, watching the Djinn, we should feel that. It should show us those chilly scholarly walls tumbling down around her, the lie that she is not lonely, the lie that she desires no one. But for me, it just felt like she was acting in a play "Okay, here's where I kiss the Djinn now," not Alithea leaning into a relationship with this incredibly brilliant, magical, terrifying, wonderful, beautiful being -- and let's not forget the hotness of All the Djinn Sex.

Now, if it's because the relationship is arguably non-consensual (because he has to do what she wants), I think it would have been depicted differently. And while I liked that she realized that she should never have wished for it, I have to say, I never felt like he was compelled. He seems to look at her, consider it, and then embark with full knowledge. But who knows.

So -- I liked the movie. I just felt Alithea -- as played by Tilda -- never really seems fully present to me. I never buy that she's acting out of a passion she can't control. To me, she's cold for the entire movie. So that pulls a star off my four-star review of this movie into a nice comfy 3 stars. But it was beautiful -- and still so very worth seeing, and so different from the repetitive, formulaic dreck that constitutes 85% of most films released right now.

On 8/28/2022 at 11:30 AM, Notwisconsin said:

Just saw it. It's a philosophical discussion of love and desire. Magnficient storytelling that's really weird.

I definitely agree that it is beautiful storytelling, and the core conversation between them is just wonderful.

On 8/30/2022 at 7:09 PM, Browncoat said:

I just saw this, and I really liked it a lot.  The Djinn’s stories were both beautiful and compelling (as was the Djinn himself), and Tilda was perfect for her role.  I love that she let him go in the end.

I really had issues with Tilda's performance at a certain level, as noted above, but I will say the character she created looked absolutely wonderful and pitch-perfect (and she never seems to age -- she's so beautiful).

Her letting him go -- and then apologizing for her wish -- was wonderful. It made me so happy. I thought the ending was just lovely.

On 9/2/2022 at 11:40 AM, Real4real said:

I saw it and thought it was really lovely--I hope people will go to the theater to see it.  The big screen gave it a very magical feel--from the smoky swirls of the djinn to the sparkling dust motes in Alithea's apartment--I think those little details could be lost on the small screen.  The music was beautiful, the story was moving, the acting was great.

I saw it on the small screen, but still so appreciated those little details. Miller is so good at those (and I loved that his wife, Margaret Sixel, once again edited the film).

On 2/19/2023 at 6:28 PM, Spartan Girl said:

Finally caught this on streaming and it was just lovely. I love modern fairy tales. The visuals, the stories, the chemistry between Idris and Tilda…everything just worked. I wasn’t expecting such poignancy from George Miller.

I was bracing myself for a sad ending, so I was glad it had a happy(ish) one.

Ditto! I write fantasy stories that are almost always based on certain myths and fairytales and tropes (I just like reinterpreting them), and this was beautifully done. I also went out and bought the book, and am interested to read Byatt's story after this.

On 2/24/2023 at 1:58 AM, Anduin said:

I'm glad you loved it. It was very much a movie I wanted to enjoy more than I actually did. Ah well, I'm still glad I saw it.

I'm kind of in your boat. I loved it. But I would have loved it so much more if Tilda had embodied the kind of hidden passion and yearning I wanted to see in Alithea. Since all she gave me was a kind of chilly chatty contentment, I feel like the movie lost a whole layer of intensity and subtext that could have been so moving and magical.

Like, imagine someone like Helen Mirren. YES, no matter what her age, I would have believed her if she'd fallen for him, yes, I would have believed he would desire her, and that she would be allowing herself a kind of liberation of self that she had denied herself previously and reveling in it. I just didn't believe that from Tilda's performance here at all. Which bums me out, because she is acting opposite this incredibly intense, beautiful man who is absolutely selling his side of the passion of it all, and instead -- just -- nothing. 

But I still loved the movie. Just not as much as I could've. Or wanted to.

 

Edited June 24, 2023 by paramitch
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