Three Lives and Only One Death

The late Marcello Mastroianni plays four different characters --all of whom are apparently facets of the same man--in this strange, unsettling film comprised of four separate tales. The stories seem unrelated at first, but by the time the third one rolls around, they've started to converge, with events and characters from the earlier tales popping up unexpectedly in the later ones. Sounds intriguing, I know, but the result is curiously unaffecting. The individual stories, which are variations on classic legends and tall tales--man goes out for cigarettes and never returns; wealthy, successful guy suddenly forgoes all worldly possessions and becomes a beggar--are less than enthralling, making the first half of the film a bit tedious. Once the circular structure kicks in, and the film turns into an intellectual exercise, it's vastly more entertaining...but while it's as clever as all get-out, that's all it has to offer; it features neither the fetishistic visual splendor of Peter Greenaway's elaborate, obsessive puzzles nor the emotional anguish of Atom Egoyan's oblique narrative labyrinths. Optional. (M. D'Angelo)