SHORTS AND TO THE POINT: Jay Dockendorf’s THREE DEATHS Tolstoy adaptation is a classic short film as cinematic short story

Jay Dockendorf’s short film THREE DEATHS, which recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, is a studied updated adaptation and interpretation of Tolstoy’s short story. Dealing with the themes of facing your own end filled with thoughts of helplessness and regrets, as well as dealing with the discomfort of fulfilling a promise to the recently deceased, the film follows a wealthy woman surrounded by family as she lives out her last days in a New York City townhouse, and a young couple faced with satisfying their dead patriarch’s burial wishes.

Dockendorf’s film has a remarkable nuance to, especially when considering the interweaving of the two stories and the film’s overall themes within its 13-minute runtime. The film hearkens back to thoughtful filmic explorations of the 70s, both intellectually as well as cinematically. Appropriately, THREE DEATHS a true film equivalent of the short story.

1 THREE DEATHS is an adaptation of Tolstoy? Did you decided to do this adaptation because you thought there was enough Steven King, J.K. Rowling, and George R.R. Martin cinematic adaptations out there in the world ? Seriously, why did this story speak to you?

The original story by Leo Tolstoy blew me away when I first read it ten years ago. It felt like a clock — internally very intricate, but simple on its face. I was moved by the dying woman’s ordeal. I love the way it clicks into place with several other elements of the story. Personally, I also was interested in injecting a sense of outrage over environmental decline into Tolstoy’s original story. I like to think Tolstoy would have been sympathetic to this interpretation, but I also believe he wasn’t thinking of carbon emissions and deforestation when he wrote “Three Deaths.” I appreciated the chance to bend – hopefully without breaking –  his original intent.

2 It was also inspired by Bresson’s L’ARGENT and Bernard Rose and Lisa Enos’s IVAN’S XTC. Can you give some details as to what you drew from those films as you directed this one?

Both of those films are fantastic adaptations of other Tolstoy short stories. With L’ARGENT, Robert Bresson approaches his story with a very spaced-out, stylized eye. I tried to use his technique of working with non-actors and keeping their performances “small” and subtle. About half of our actors had never acted in a film before; a few were very experienced.

With IVAN’S XTC, Bernard Rose and Lisa Enos found the modern, pulsing core of Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilych”. Their film is not only incredibly sad, but also viscerally arousing and extreme – a car crash you can’t look away from — in the best way possible. That emotional gut punch was what I wanted to reach for with Three Deaths. 

And both films are visually stunning. L’ARGENT was shot on 35mm and is one of the sharpest, cleanest looking movies. Whereas Ivan’s XTC. was shot on DV tape and it has this incredible handmade, punk rock aesthetic. My cinematographer Kenny Suleimanagich and I tried to lift from both. Half our movie is handheld; half is locked off. Half clean; half dirty.

3 The film was shot in New York in the winter. What’s difficult about shooting that time of year and what are the challenges in shooting in New York? What were the benefits for this project?

Tolstoy splits the story across two scenes in winter and two scenes in spring. I wrote the film in December, and we had to begin shooting by March to catch the last remaining snow and avoid greenery. That was challenging, to race into production and coordinate with the changing of the season. Also, we shot in a real penthouse apartment on Park Avenue. The challenges there were enormous. The building’s doormen were very reluctant to let our crew use the service elevator and restricted our shoot day to the shortest possible timetable.

4 The film was also shot on 35mm. Was there a reason specifically for this project that you wanted to shoot on film, or would you rather suffer three deaths before you ever shot on a DVR?

Shooting on film felt like a straightforward way to connect with the past. I think film evokes the “old world” origins of Tolstoy’s story as well as a sense of film history that I wanted to tap into. 35mm also has a deeper, more emotional feeling, I find, and I wanted to soak up the sadness of the story and performances. If this had been a comedy, I probably would have shot with a digital camera. But I love DVR cameras! I’ve done other projects with those and will use them again.

5 Is your personal view on death closer to Tolstoy’s or Woody Allen’s (“I’m not afraid of death; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.)?

Well I had an epiphany in the woods a few years ago where I very clearly saw my own death and afterlife: the moment of my mind shutting down and the millions of years thereafter when my cells were recombined with the rest of the Earth. It was great! I felt so reassured, recognizing how connected we are to the planet. That makes my approach closer to Tolstoy’s, I think. I hope to live a long life, but I’m not as concerned about what comes next — after the lights go out — as I used to be. 

6 Popcorn or Candy?

Popcorn. Difficult to choose, but popcorn is the clear winner here.