Reviews and articles on Three Days

From SPIN Magazine June, 1999

Live Through A Lens THREE DAYS-the movie

Starring: Jane's Addiction

Intended audience: people who just can't pierce themselves enough.

Highlight: Perry Farrell sings a few bars of "hava nagila" to introduce and Iron John-style drum jam with Dave Navarro and flea.What is says about rock: sometimes first-class travel, catered meals, and four-star hotels can erase the emotional claustrophobia of the road.

Suggested MPAA rating: PG-13 with a nod to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (see sample dialogue).

Sample dialogue: "there was literally five pounds of heroin, all the booze you wanted, all the girls you wanted-and they were all looking for guys in bands."-dave navarro

Trailer: Click here to view trailer from the NY Film Festival Site

THREE DAYS Shown at NY Film FestivalMarch12, 2000 (7:30 pm)

THREE DAYS Documentary.

dir. Carter Smith & Kevin Ford.

35mm/16mm/Super-8/Video. 94:00. - New York Premiere.

Featuring Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro, Stephen Perkins and Flea,

THREE DAYS explores the on-and-off-tour lives of Jane's Addiction. Set mostly on their 1997 US "I-It'z M'My Party" Relapse Tour, THREE DAYS weaves in and out of the Jane's Addiction legacy in a colorful, fast-paced orgy of gritty backstage drama and rare musical performances. Cinque Lee (Mystery Train, Crooklyn) plays a bumbling videographer assigned to document the band's reunion, and in the process encounters a dizzying host of cameos from entertainers such as Val Kilmer, Anthony Kiedis, John Frusciante, Goldie, Henry Rollins, Christina Applegate, Alyssa Milano, Jesse Camp, Marilyn Manson, Eddie Vedder, Dennis Rodman, Rose McGowan, Stephen Dorff, Corey Feldman and Hugh Hefner & his Playboy Bunnies.

In addition to a soundtrack of previously unreleased Jane's Addiction music, the film debuts work from each band members' current solo projects, plus original music created specifically for the film. Filmed with an array of formats ranging from 35mm, Super-16mm, 16mm, Super-8 and digital video,

THREE DAYS is a sweeping, big screen testament to the twisted vitality of Rock'n'Roll in the late nineties.

All Star Daily Music News by Richard Baimbridge

THREE DAYS Follows The Strange Odyssey Of Jane's Addiction's Relapse Tour

January 28th, 1999

In the opening moments of THREE DAYS, a documentary on Jane's Addiction's 1997 Relapse Tour that premiered this week at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah,

Perry Farrell responds to a question on whether the band's reunion was financially motivated by saying, "I don't know how much money I have, and I don't give a shit. All I know is that if I want a sandwich, I can get one within an hour."

The great thing is, you know he's telling the truth. And if you ever had any doubts, this film crushes them, leaving in their place a drug-induced vision of an incredible rock and roll journey.Carter Smith and Kevin Ford, the film's two renegade Gen-X directors, as well as Cinque Lee (Spike Lee's brother, who plays a quasi-fictional role as a shunned videographer on tour with Jane's who must "plant a seed") somehow manage to hang on throughout this orgy of music and mayhem, emerging at the other end with a typically Farrell-esque morality play on life, sex, religion, and what it means to be a man who wears rubber dresses.

The concert footage begins appropriately enough with Jane's Halloween show in New York City -- Dave Navarro playing the intro to "Nothing's Shocking" with a vibrator on his electric guitar -- and proceeds fearlessly through highlights of the 28-city U.S. tour.Not only does THREE DAYS offer some truly captivating concert material -- everything from "Summertime Rolls" and "Jane Says" to a drum circle rendition of "Hava Nagila" -- but the music is cushioned in an exceptionally intimate glimpse of the band members' lives (largely shot on hand-held video cameras), including Farrell discussing the Kaballah with a Jewish Rabbi and Navarro pondering the reasons for Jane's breakup, as well as his own inner-turmoil.Far from being a self-exhalting expose a la Madonna's TRUTH OR DARE however,

THREE DAYS engages the same Puckish flippancy that Jane's Addiction applied to the medium of rock and roll, at once corrupting and infusing it with a much-needed dose of honesty. Numerous celebrities wander through the tour's melee, including Marilyn Manson, Dennis Rodman, Ken Kesey, Hugh Hefner, and Val Kilmer, who Navarro "swears is Jim Morrison" and looks very much the part (he, of course, played Morrison in Oliver Stone's 1991 film The Doors).

THREE DAYS is actually the second attempt at a full-length Jane's Addiction documentary. In fact, it borrows footage from its enigmatic predecessor Gift, including scenes with original bassist Eric Avery, who was replaced by a far less volatile Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on the Relapse Tour. But as Farrell stated when introducing THREE DAYS on opening night, this film represents the next -- and possibly last -- stage in the evolution of a unique and powerful band that defied the limits in almost every way.

To people who knew them, Jane's Addiction was always more than a rock band. Likewise, THREE DAYS is more than a rockumentary -- it's a '90s version of Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones, which captured the moment idealism first met rock and roll in a head-on collision that was -- and in this case, remains -- as serious as serious can be.

IndieWire: Farrell Discusses Tour Documentary February 10, 2000

Perry Farrell, subject of the Slamdance film "THREE DAYS," spoke with indieWIRE this week about the tour documentary.

When asked to compare the new movie to the film "Gift," which "documented" a different period in his life, Farrell explained, "When I started to do 'Gift' it was -- at that time of my life -- it was a celebration of the flesh." Smiling, he continued, "We're entitled to celebrate our flesh, it's a certain period when a person is at their prime, their sexiest so to speak, their most sexually potent perhaps -- its mating time -- you celebrate the flesh and you look at yourself and you see the flesh and you pierce the flesh and you tattoo the flesh, and then something happens..." Reflecting on that period of his life, Farrell continued, "I think this films would be a nice bridge to get us there from where I was -- I was probably a dear person, but kind of sloppy -- I didn't exactly know how to live for myself, and through this film I think I've begun to see how to live for myself."

SPIN Magazine May 1999 - BACKSTAGE PASS by James Patrick Herman

Sundance Faces The Music this year's sundance film festival was all about sex, celluloid, and, more important, rock'n'roll. the nerdy auteurs at robert redford's january showcase for independent movies in park city, utah, found themselves upstaged by music-biz showoffs, who came to snowboard, party-hop, and schmooze their way into lucrative soundtrack deals.

performers included michael stipe, jon spencer, a reunited guns n' roses featuring cypress hill singer sen dog in place of axl rose, kevin bacon (who sang a hilarious cover of "footloose"), and sheryl crow, who also turned up on the big screen in the minus man. (crow's junkie character says, "i'd like to get pickled," before shooting heroin into her arm and oding in a roadside toilet). jewel, marilyn manson, eddie vedder, anthony kiedis, val kilmer, alyssa milano, rose mcgowan, dennis rodman, and hugh hefner all make cameos in THREE DAYS, the documentary about jane's addictions' 1997 reunion tour, which opened the ultra indie rival festival slamdance.

"it was quite an experience, man," recalls jane's drummer stephen perkins. "we made some good friends, had some good parties...spread some love." guitarist dave navarro even let the filmmakers eavesdrop on his personal phone calls. one minute he's shown pacifing a gullible gal pal ("i lied to you and i haven't been able to be intimate with you because of my druge use. i swear i'm not shooting up now"), the next he's recounting backstage perks to an envious guy friend ("there was literally five pounds of cocaine, three pounds of heroin, all the booze, strippers, and whores you wanted, and they're all looking for guys in bands!).

but most of the NC-17 scenes wound up on the cutting-room floor. "we didn't want to scare the kids," says the filmmaker, carter b. smith. for instance? "there was a long, heated discussion between jewel and dave navarro about nipple-piercing and sexual identity," says smith's codirector kevin ford. "dave also stuck a dildo inside himself onstage in san diego. the girls in the audience were screaming with delight-then horror. the girl who caught the dildo was the most excited. that's nothing compared to the thrills of sundance nightlife.

kodak moments included a) a toasted ben affleck tossing his cookies all over a fan's nikes at a party: b) two topless amateur go-go dancers at a condo rave hosted by DJ perry farrell: and c) a currently clean scott weiland snowboarding down a mountain. the mohawked grunge icon's arrival was apparently delated by a combination of coproduction duties for the new limp bizkit album, band practice with the reunited members of stone temple pilots, and briedf lockup in the slammer for violating his probation. "STP's my main priority now," he says "it's a marriage with those guys, and i've rekindled the fire."now that the singer's kicked heroin (again), he seems to have more energy than ever. weiland's starting his own record label, lavish records, and aims to sign britpoppy los angeles band big blue missile, with wom he jammed at the festival. " a lot of movie industry people whowed up a the gig, and they were dancing! it had a bit of a bar mitzvah vibe."

weiland is also plotting a star turn in a new film by director marc rocco. "it's easy rider meets the hitcher meets the breakfast club," weiland says. "i have no desire to be the next brad pitt, but i'm not bad-looking either."... "shut off your goddamn cell phones!" lisa loeb shouted at the hollywood playas taking i a concert she and duncan sheik were taping for the sundance channel. both brown university-educated folkies seemed torn between respect for their art and the desire to hawk it for big bucks. "sometimes you have a song that's for a film," loeb said. "or else it's just affordable." sheik didn't endear hiself to the industry sharks when he said, "this next song is in a movie coming out later this year, which is good because it means i don't have to have all the goddamn movie footage in my video." the audience gasped. "was that insulting?" sheik asked "that crowd was so awful," complained singer kami lyle, who'd failed to warm them up earlier. "i had to sing to the dead elks on the wall for inspiration."