Being In Thrall to the Three.

It’s almost unheard of for me to watch a film twice. Mel used to say that I didn’t need to because I picked up everything there was to pick up at the first watching.

One exception was the beautiful German film Cherry Blossoms. I watched that one twice because I liked it so much the first time that I decided it was worth watching again. And the second time, I enjoyed it just as much because I was watching exactly the same film.

Tonight, however, having nothing to say to the blog, no emails to write, and being in a general state of having nothing better to do, I decided to watch it a third time. And you know what? I kept seeing all sorts of subtle nuances that I hadn’t noticed the first two times. It was almost like watching an extended version.

This is mildly interesting to me because 3 has always been my favourite number. I favour triangles above other shapes. I’ve talked on this blog about my affinity with the three queens of Celtic myth. My one and only novel is about three characters taking a journey. Not so very long ago I had three special women who seemed to favour my company (they’ve all gone now.) And when I go into OCD mode and start counting things, I endeavour to make sure that everything comes in multiples of three. And so on and so forth.

So maybe I should make a rule for myself: if ever I greatly like a film, I must watch it three times. Or would that just be another submission to the tyranny of OCD? There stands another question defying the simplicity of a straight answer. It seems to me that, for most people, questions tend to function in twos, rather like see-saws or pendulums: up and down, back and forth, right and wrong. Being a 3 person can be quite a strain at times.