Terrence Malick poll

Badlands, but The Thin Red Line is really excellent too.

The Thin Red Line, which is probably one of my handful of "favorite" movies. Been a while since I've seen badlands, but TTRL was sort of a perfect storm of time/place/sensibility for me. I saw it 4 times in the theater. the way it sounds, especially, the quietness. i wish it was longer and even more diffuse than it is.

I really, really admire The New World, and the last 15 minutes or so never fails to move me very much.

We should be seeing The Tree of Life this year, no?

here's a quote from an old interview with Malick that i always liked: "When people express what is most important to them, it often comes out in clichés. That doesn't make them laughable; it's something tender about them. As though in struggling to reach what's most personal about them they could only come up with what's most public."

voted badlands - they each pwn 4 all time tho

yeah TNW is my 4th favorite, but the last 15 minutes are as good as anything in the others

I would love to know how much his studies of Heidegger, and especially his relationship with Stanley Cavell, and thus Cavell's important readings of Emerson, inform his style...but alas we'll probably never get any word on that from the man himself.

The New World is a movie that was never going to quite recover from it's male lead.

he does like his pretty boys.

strangely didnt really bother me \(O_O)/

difficult

I found his tattoos pretty distracting also, but that's a nitpick, I guess.

martin sheen
richard gere
a bag of dicks
colin farrell

you wouldnt think thesed be the stars of one of the great directorial oeuvres of all time

Richard Gere's kind of the worst thing about Days though too.

I think the roles in all of the movies require a level of dickatude though

that's to say, I'm not sure it would be a better movie if someone I liked was in that role?

i really like gere in that movie alot - he seems genuinely desperate and bewildered

He probably was genuinely desperate and bewildered, but I find his performance distracting. The female lead, whose name I can't recall, isn't great either though. iatee is correct that the movie succeeds despite this.

no he nails the failed attempt at manhood - hes great

This Breakfast.

Who Made It?

These Eggs.

This Toast.

This Bacon.

Where Did They Come From?

These Eggs?

This Shining Morning.

This Vessel.

The Might Sun.

er, Might.

The Thin Red Line is one of my favorites.

Mighty.

has anyone seen the short entitled "lanton mills"

no, but I've always wanted to
someone needs to youtube this stuff

Days of Heaven - let's hear it, Malick-haters!

The Official Linda Manz Appreciation Thread

Days of Heaven is my favourite some way ahead of Badlands although both are masterful. The Thin Red line is half good and half bad and The New World is about 90% bad or even awful.

My housemate has been obsessing over this motherfucker of late so I have watched all of this Malick films over the last few weeks.

Badlands ftw

The only way to be sure your vote was counted is to try to vote again and be refused, as Terrence Malick might say.

TRL FTW

god so hard to choose
days or badlands

We should be seeing The Tree of Life this year, no?

lol @ this btw... that would be a miracle

is there a thin red blu-ray

I say: Days, then shortly after 'Lands, then a long while after shortly after, Line, and waaaaay after, anything that passes as "good"

Haven't seen anything else of his work though, and while TRL is quite good, the first two are just too exceptional, Days of Heaven to the point of all time favourite.

lol @ this btw... that would be a miracle

would it really? i thought i heard it was finished shooting...

all these need to be released on blu-ray soon.

i want to believe ryan

HOLLY (v.o.)
In the stench and slime of the feedlot, he'd remember how I
looked the night before, how I ran my hand through his hair and
traced the outline of his lips with my fingertip. He wanted to
die with me, and I dreamed of being lost forever in his arms.

i love badlands, days is ok, red line has a good midsection, new world is mostly unwatchable. one of those guys who got ruined by people calling him a poet or whatever. why people who sneer at meg ryan movies fall for malick's horseshit i will never know.

you do not belong here

ah well, then i shall wander. to the woods. into nature. midst the leaves. the moss 'pon the fallen trees. hark! what sweet trill rings through yon pines, what birdy throat calls to us of the ineffable oneness of it all, the sad slow descent into decay, yea the very gold of the sun setting always a reminder of our own journey into that night?

i'm sorry, but dude is an art-house thomas kinkade.

and how is that a bad thing?

owned

it may not be a bad thing. it just isn't my thing.

you can feel free to hate him, but that's not an accurate comparison at all. Malick is pretty obsessed with some dark themes...he isn't presenting an idealized version of anything really. he does, however, often recontextualize suffering in a larger natural (ie, non-human) environment but that doesn't make him a misty-eyed sentimentalist to my mind, but a pretty thrilling and unique filmmaker.

birdy throat!

no i don't think he's a sentimentalist, i think he's a soft-headed Romantic (Romantics are always obsessed with dark themes). badlands is the only one that doesn't feel soft-headed to me, partly because of the content, partly because of sheen and spacek, partly probably because it was his first major movie and he hadn't had time to stew in his own juices yet. but he's gotten nothing but more elegiac as he's gone on, and not even elegiac for anything in particular -- elegies for their own sake.

Yeah, you're right, I think he sees through the sentimental -- while acknowledging it along the way -- far beyond into something chilling and distant. Like his cameras dwell, for instance, on the latticework of a leaf eaten by bugs, which is reminiscent of a stained-glass window in a cathedral, but slightly decrepit, like it's in ruins, or ruined, which takes us beyond the nature-however-beautiful-is-at-war-with-itself thing into a kind of harrowing sense of the vast scope of universal time and distance in which these wars are tiny and petty and only meaningful to us in the current eyeblink or even gaze. Not meaningless, though. Just... limited? I love Malick, but I can see why others, less inclined toward elegiac melancholy, wouldn't.

Anyway, I voted TRL.

I get fascinated by how he treats humans, animals, and landscape as equals in his movies.

Like in the (unknowable) big picture, they really are equals?

well yeah Romantic definitely works. (one of the reasons I connect him to Emerson above...who often inspires the same kind of criticisms...)

perhaps part of the soft-headedness that turns you off is what i consider a virtue...his movies are emotionally generous (as in excessive) to what some might consider the point of bad taste. like the quote above, he trades in big seemingly obvious themes because these are the terms by which ordinary people try to find meaning in their lives.

I think his convention of voice-over keeps his films from being sentimental. The narration, at least in Days of Heaven and The Thin Blue Line, always strike me as being from the heart of the characters' subconscious -- the kinds of things they might say only when drugged, the kinds of things the characters themselves could never articulate.

I think that's partly true, but they often come from a place of innocence, like on some level he believes in some kind of collective Eden-like memory. The thoughts are child-like, often.

Yeah, The Thin Red Line seems to treat everyone as a collective protagonist. That, plus it's like watching an ant colony for three hours.

Badlands is my favourite album of all time but that "you are all my sons" bit in TTRL kills me.

favourite... album?

i am tired, I will not be sleeping tonight so that's just one night of sleep this week then.

maybe I should nap at least

There are pictures at least!

http://img.blogdecine.com/2008/09/pitt%20tree.jpg

i thought it was a good typo plaxico

Yeah, The Thin Red Line seems to treat everyone as a collective protagonist. That, plus it's like watching an ant colony for three hours.

Also the movie is *cast* as if everyone were the collective protagonist. Malick had to be aware that by casting George Clooney / Nick Nolte / everyone else in Hollywood for non-lead roles he'd be creating the weird "omg that's George Clooney" effect on the viewer.

This is very difficult. I think I'll watch all four while I'm off sick after my operation.

I much prefer the last 2 films to the first 2, so sue me

the new world imo

I much prefer the last 2 films to the first 2, so sue me

i think that's kind of sweet, actually. it gives you a mushy side.

Badlands is still the only one I can fully endorse.

i voted for the new world

lol oxford bias

btw Spacek is just as important to Badlands as Sheen

After learning the real story behind Badlands I actually found his romanticisation of what was a pretty sordid story quite distasteful. Maybe he had a different story he was trying to tell but in that case it ain't the kind of story that I'm interested in. What is the motive in trying to paint a violent killer as a folk/anti hero, if that depiction is largely fictional?

it's told from the point of view of spacek's character.

Anybody seen the extended cut of the New World?

hey icecrøm, where can i find that short?

What about the policemen lauding him at the end? Sure her voiceover presents a romantic view of things, but there's little evidence to suggest that everything we see (the highly sanitised violence, in comparison to the true story) is fantasy on her part. xp.

i guess malick just thinks serial killers are cool.

*shrug*

that's just distasteful.

laugh it up, fuzzball

the only copy of "Lanton Mills" is in the library of the AFI in LA. no one will see the short in malick's lifetime other than by appointment, one person at a time, apparantly accompanied by an archivist. it can't be checked out or copied.

heist!!

dimitri martin sketch!!

what!!

hello!

say it with graphs imo

i have no real justification for it but days of heaven is my favourite

I like him more than I dislike him. I also like Meg Ryan movies. Days for me.

the last honest man.

btw Spacek is just as important to Badlands as Sheen

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, February 5, 2009 2:55 PM (2 hours ago)

This movie is all about her papery complexion and sky

Malick isn't a filmmaker, he's a painter.

pretty sure he's a filmmaker tbh

pretty sure he's a filmmaker

lol

we should just get it over with and hook up

jinx

malick isnt a filmmaker, he's a matchmaker

A+

days in heaven.
but if we were in the 80's i'd say badlands.
it's just that Badlands looks now like so many other films influenced by it (the last example is the great "silent light"), while days in heaven remain a rare piece of cinema ,still

god in heaven

Funny to read people enthusing about the last fifteen minutes of The New World as I found the later parts of that movie just kind of dopey. However, the first ten or fifteen minutes... that's really powerful stuff.

someone should petition Criterion for a blu-ray box set for all these movies...

I could easily go for any of the first three, but if I had to make a choice I'd disqualify The Thin Red Line simply because of how jarring it is to see Travolta there. Unlike Clooney etc, his face is too distinctive for this kind of ensemble film. I'll go for Days of Heaven over Badlands just for the beautiful shots of corn rippling in the wind

(I've seen all four at the cinema, which I'd imagine is possibly more essential for these films than any others. I'm strangely proud of this, possibly because it took me years - though stupidly missing the first five minutes of Days of Heaven does take the gloss off a bit)

Days of Heaven wd've been much better as a silent.

plus the aeroplane in Days of Heaven - possibly my favourite thing I've seen in any film, ever

no it wouldn't. the voice over in D of H is a thing of perfection and an absolute delight.

xp

Days of Heaven wd've been much better as a silent.

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, February 5, 2009 11:02 PM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark

would have been better silent save the narration.

i hear that

why dont u dudes just make it an animated musical ffs

[well-regarded director]'s [incongruous genre film]

as an fyi for everyone i think that the thin red line is the least enjoyable of these but i <3 them all each and every one

would have been better silent save the narration.

― Gukbe, Friday, February 6, 2009 12:41 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

might be nice to have music too.

i suppose this is the best place to say that I have never read any major publication, review or book, that hasn't wrongly attributed the the narrations that bookend TTRL to Caviezal's character. (it's really a very minor character with only two short scenes.) even Michel Chion does this!

I should clarify, Days of Heaven isn't my all time favourite, but is an all time favourite. I took it out from the library today, too :)

is my all time favorite

I should have made the poll text:

"best movie of the 70s vs. one of the best movies of the 70s vs. best movie of the 90s vs. a good movie from 2005"

Days of Heaven is my 2nd favorite movie ever.

days of thunder is your 1st.

Favourite Malick shot = the silhouetted train on the viaduct in DoH.

It's sweet and odd there are so many Malick lovers already here. What he says about cliches shows rare class and generosity. I value them all pretty evenly, but I'm voting for The Thin Red Line partly as it was the first I saw and so most overwhelming, but also because the surface has such a distinct clear feel that holds an extra resonance somewhere. Malick's editing is so good I think he could do what he does with almost any material.

http://www.digitaldreammachine.com/blogimages/albertamovies/DaysOfHeaven_CriterionDVD.jpg

Badlands and Days of Heaven are two of my absolute favorites. Voted DoH just because it was the first Malick film I saw and it haunted my brain for weeks.

When is Badlands going to get a decent release? It deserves better than that crappy bare bones DVD in a cardboard snapcase .

also, more TTRL trivia. according to Chion this i what the Japanese solider is saying to Witt at the end of the movie before shooting him:

"It's you who killed my friend in war. But I don't want to kill you. You are already surrounded. Surrender."

really can't stand the DoH narration

Days of Heaven is my 2nd favorite movie ever.

― dan selzer, Friday, February 6, 2009 12:01 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

days of thunder is your 1st.

― s1ocki, Friday, February 6, 2009 12:48 AM Bookmark

this is basically me

really can't stand the DoH narration

― Dr Morbius, Friday, February 6, 2009 4:20 PM (2 days ago)

when i can't stand something i stop watching it.

Love everything else

i could be a mud doctor
checkin out the earth, underneath

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Argh, I haven't managed to watch them all, and moreover cannot; my copy of Badlands is lent out.

just vote days of heaven

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

this went wrong

how? the results are good. vey close even though i would put DoH top.

close, yeah, but Badlands is my least favourite of his (though it is great). Would have liked to have seen New World get more rep. Also DoH should have won.

DoH 3rd is a travesty

I regret making this poll

that'll learn you

never poll your idols

That's pretty close between the top three, to be fair, and anti-Colin Farrell fervour probably did for TNW.

plus the fact that it's terrible.

Badlands 20
Days of Heaven 18
The Thin Red Line 14
The New World 8

manm the news trickling out about The Tree of Life could not be weirder. Dinosaurs? IMAX? 3 different movies? whaaa?

yeah it sounds like an incredibly ambitious movie.

I remember reading quotes from "Q," the script that eventually became Tree of Life and wondering if anyone would ever have the guts/money/freedom to actually film it. I particularly remember one thing about translucent fish floating up through the nostrils of a Minotaur who is slumbering deep in the ocean.

Def. hope that scene is in the IMAX version.

gosh I wish this were coming out sooner

yeah pushed back (again) to 2010 now. just the thought of Malick doing some Fantasia-styled history of the universe in IMAX is extraordinary, but then for it to be a companion piece with some coming of age drama starring Pitt and Penn? the mind boggles...

so apparently we can expect it around christmas?

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118006965.html?categoryid=18&cs=1

i'll believe it when i see it

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118014650.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

Terrence Malick is scheduled to begin shooting an untitled romantic drama this fall with Christian Bale, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams and Olga Kurylenko.
FilmNation Entertainment, which will be handling international sales and distribution, made the announcement Wednesday.

The film will be produced by Nicolas Gonda, Sarah Green and Bill Pohlad of River Road but further details are scanty. The producing trio, in a statement, said, "We are delighted to be part of this extraordinary team; everyone involved brings a unique perspective to this powerful and moving love story."

Malick has a reputation for being exacting in completing his films, which include "Badlands," "Days of Heaven" "The Thin Red Line," "The New World." His most recent project, the drama "Tree of Life," stars Sean Penn and Brad Pitt and is due out later this year through Apparition, the fledgling distribution company Pohlad launched last year with Bob Berney.

River Road is financing "Tree," and Pohlad is producing with Green and Grant Hill.

he really loves his hotties. not that i disapprove.

I first glossed over that as "romantic comedy" and chuckled.

i am glad that Malick is having a late career resurgence (in other words, actually making movies on a regular basis). More Malick = a better world imo.

yes. it's good to have them around. a friend was telling me yesterday (when I told her about this new one) that she puts The New World on sometimes while doing chores or even reading, like music. I said I do the same with TTRL!

i have watched days of heaven four times since i got the blu ray

so psyched for 'tree of life'

i have watched days of heaven four times since i got the blu ray

― terrible poster (Lamp), Friday, 4 June 2010 23:08 (Yesterday)

OH FUCK YES. First must-buy since 2001.

for blu-ray

I guess one of the few filmmakers where I can say I've seen everything he's done. (Um...Charles Laughton!) He's either: a) a European sensibility at work in a crass American industry whose nuanced films require multiple viewings before one can begin to properly appreciate them, or b) badly overrated. I wholeheartedly endorse one of those two views.

afaik you can only watch Lanton Mills in some archive somewhere if you are doing research there

Perhaps he's a "european sensibility" but at the same time I think he's one of the most distinctly "American" sensibilities making movies. At least to the extent these distinctions mean anything.

There's the well known Heidegger connection, but he also studied with Stanley Cavell--and his films put me in mind of Emerson, Melville, Wallace Stevens, William but not Henry James, etc....

dying for a trl blu ray

my must-have blu rays:
thin red line
le samourai
playtime

By European sensibility, I just meant the pacing of his films. Outside of the famous car chase in Days of Heaven, they tend to be slow.

Ah ok--sorry I find the whole American vs European sensibility question in general very interesting so I leapt to conclusions!

Two things about Tree of Life have me very excited:

1) apparently there was a lot of shooting during wildflower season here in central Texas.
2) there was some shooting with Sean Penn in downtown Houston. I don't think he's ever shot anything in a city at all--let alone one with a bunch of sky scrapers.

all i've seen of this guy's films is ramón estevez handcuffed in front of a plane. brilliant scene.

theres a car chase in days of heaven???????

He's either: a) a European sensibility at work in a crass American industry whose nuanced films require multiple viewings before one can begin to properly appreciate them, or b) badly overrated. I wholeheartedly endorse one of those two views.

ummmmmmmmm

surely meant badlands?

i am very excited about the upcoming Criterion blu-ray of The Thin Red Line. not least for the VERY slight chance at an alternate cut of the film.

No car chase...just joking.

not least for the VERY slight chance at an alternate cut of the film.

Why would you want an alternative cut?

OH FUCK YES. First must-buy since 2001.

― Matt Armstrong, Friday, June 4, 2010 9:13 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

for blu-ray

― Matt Armstrong, Friday, June 4, 2010 9:13 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark

blu-ray hasn't been around that long

so lamp r u saying i gotta upgrade from my reg DoH dvd

(reg crit)

If anyone knows w/any certainty whether Malick was born in Ottawa, IL, or Waco, TX, let me know.

As for the alternate cut, it's not that I'd ever want the version we have now replaced, but I've always been intrigued by the allegedly 6 hour cut Malick first turned in. Apparently there were entire character arcs removed.

yeah, i think in particular, adrien brody's character -- he went to the premiere thinking he was one of the main characters, and he barely utters a line in the movie.

According to one of The Thin Red Line's three editors, Billy Weber, Malick saw a full version of the film exactly once: a five-hour work print assembled during the 18-month-long post-production process, and screened for him under some duress. ("We forced him to watch," Weber says in an interview.) Otherwise, Malick edited by watching one reel at a time, with the sound off, while listening to a Green Day CD.

http://www.slate.com/id/2269262

Okay that's brilliant.

lol. jesus christ.

funnee

had he graduated to fallout boy by the time he was editing the New World?

oh my god, the thin red line was SO BAD.

i'm not a malick hater (loved "the new world") but what exactly did people see in this, other than stunning photography of grass?

my gf said they should've called it "crawling through grass"

maslin nails it in her review:

Intermittently brilliant as it is, ''The Thin Red Line'' shows why being a great film director and directing a great film are not the same ... it leaves behind any ordinary opportunities for individuals to emerge from the fray .. seems to capture every blade of grass gloriously while also reminding the audience over two and three-quarter hours how very many blades of grass are here ... For all the marquee power of its stellar cast and the story's potential for high drama, remarkably little happens.

did u only just now see it?

I thought it was very good? A different take on the war story, where you - the viewer - are only an observer of this clash of nature (as accentuated by the cuts between machine-guns blazing and images of animals hunting each other/dying). Gives you that sort of feeling of what ~God~ sees in humanity waging war, where you're never really connected to any one character but the emotions of the entire troop as a whole.

I did have to go "wtf" when Clooney appears for the last 20 seconds of the film tho.

you are all my sons

got thin red line the book for xmas

I'll call Thin Red Line a masterpiece so long as I never have to watch it ever again.

i'm not a malick hater (loved "the new world") but what exactly did people see in this, other than stunning photography of grass?

my gf said they should've called it "crawling through grass"

― moonship journey to baja, Sunday, December 26, 2010 4:05 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark

dude, you hated the new world!

sorry, just noticed this

I was reading The Hollywood Reporter last night that Cannes festival folks have been reminding Malick's producers that their hotel rooms (booked by the festival) from last year were non-redeemable.

At a Bright Eyes Show

http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/post_images/6956/malickbale.jpg?1316263421

For the one after the Affleck one I guess.

well, it's more the Austin City Limits festival than a "Bright Eyes Show." too bad Green Day wasn't playing! They are both wearing an awful lot of clothes for how freaking hot it was yesterday (though much cooler than it has been).

also: prime target for photo caption contest!

well indiana jones appears to be his default style

that's a pretty sweet hat, i have to say. indispensable for Austin summers.

rumor seems to be that this is a Jerry Lee Lewis movie. ??? im holding out for "the moviegoer" still.

it's a great pic. kinda reminds me of those charcoal drawings in which a jesus is ominously inserted behind someone's shoulder. bale thinking, WWTMD.

also: prime target for photo caption contest!

caption contest is:
malick: [adoring diatribe from franzen's freedom]

Ha, that looks so much like his default garb that it almost seems photoshopped in. Safari Malick should be a meme like sad Keanu.

talking through a bright eyes set the quintessential measure of malick's taste

rumor seems to be that this is a Jerry Lee Lewis movie. ???

Hadn't heard this... Didn't he originally write what became the Dennis Quaid one in the late '80s?

This piano.

Who plays it?

Whose fingers are these?

Are there two pianos, the visible one and the invisible one?

All under the great ball of fire.

can't be a JLL movie. Ryder's too old.

just found this big long article on a lot of his unfinished projects:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/the_lost_projects_and_unproduced_screenplays_of_terrence_malick/

for what it's worth (very little), from that article:

In fact, the suddenly prolific director seems to be juggling a few things at once. He has also told his production team to keep their summer and fall calendars open for another untitled project that apparently would be finished “in a matter of months.” There are no details (of course) but an anonymous commenter said “it’s actually about a musician and, like the other untitled project, is set in modern times and it’s shooting in Austin.” So perhaps a mutation of his Jerry Lee Lewis script?

http://i.imgur.com/suxzP.jpg

looks like an old man vers of jeremy davies here

apparently they are back, at Iron & Wine now, haha. i guess they are shooting all this footage for some reason then.

i hope the music in this isnt diagetic

*die

for real

In fact, the suddenly prolific director seems to be juggling a few things at once

TMI

so there's video: http://criterioncorner.tumblr.com/post/10393436029/video-of-terrence-malick-filming-his-new-movie

sounds like it was during the Cut Copy set on Saturday.

Following his Ben Affleck project there will be two films shot back to back in 2012. Both star Bale. One stars Gosling. One is called Lawless and the other Knight of Cups.

wtf slow down dude

i would be excited about something called Knight of Cups if it was directed by someone like John Waters.

i just picture an oversided, upside down solo cup with an eye slit on someone's head

when did he write all of these scripts?? is this what he was doing in the 1980s?

'terrence malick goes on a filmmaking spree' is def a sentence you never expected to hear

he'll finish editing all these around 2025

GO! GO! GO! GO! GO! GO!

just saw him with Gosling at the Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, watching Tinariwen behind the stage. same hat.

what a weird confluence -- ryan gosling, terence malick, and tinariwen.

do you think he has a whole closet full of those hats, like steve jobs did of black turtlenecks?

gosling is prob perfect fit for malick. malick loves emotive faces that say nothing but say everything

i can already see it: gosling's somber face, narrated by sean penn, as grasses sway in the distance

I wanted to shout, "where'd you get that hat!" I've been looking for one like that, and he seems to really like that one!

he probably only has one of those hats. you dont really need to wash hats between wearing. but you do need to wash turtlenecks.

"fuck washing a hat," malick exclaimed

has this been posted anywhere? interesting interview w/ malick's editor
http://www.terrencemalick.org/2011/11/all-things-shining-interviews-billy.html

watched this recently, pretty goofy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF2N0KBupGE

http://www.pitchfork.com/news/45860-neon-indians-alan-palomo-shoots-scenes-for-terrence-malick-film-with-rooney-mara/

R.I.P. Whiney G telling people he likes this guy's movies

the URL really buries the lede there, bigger concern: Lawless may also feature Arcade Fire, Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes

Terrence Malick's Garden State

"The Fleet Foxes will change your life."

<cue nature documentary that unfolds to "White Winter Hmnyal".

9 Songs 2: Still Giggin'

http://www.clashmusic.com/files/imagecache/big_node_view/files/arcadefire_20.jpg
http://d1oi7t5trwfj5d.cloudfront.net/47/e667505f5011e19987123138165f92/file/the-tree-of-life-35.jpg

needs more green day

knowing Malick's tendencies in the editing room, it's entirely possible none of these guys even show up in the film. or maybe they'll be in the background for 4 seconds or something. *wishful thinking*

or they'll get eaten by a dinosaur in post

Days of Heavin'

According to IMDB, Lawless is about "sexual obsession and betrayal set against the music scene in Austin, Texas."

i just...

i can't

HOW DID IT GET TO THIS WHERE TERRENCE MALICK IS MAKING A MOVIE ABOUT SXSW. i can't.

goes unrecognized in TMZ interview of Benicio Del Toro

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jun/14/terrence-malick-filmed-tmz

tbf, I'm not sure even many cinephiles would recognize him on the street.

http://ll-media.tmz.com/2012/06/13/061212-terrence-malik-v2-launch-1.jpg

lookin like a child molestor

gigantic 3-d arrow

confirms where easy riders, raging bulls claims he looks like peter boyle

love del toro grinning and walking back over to malick to make sure the tmz guy gets him in shot

Off current topic, but wonder if we'll
ever get to see the scripts for his films. Penn said the Tree of Life script was the best he's ever read and I think Gere said the same about Days of Heaven. Maybe a fraction of what's on page shows up in the respective films. Also have to wonder what Tree of Life would've been like had it been made in the 70s (as "Z" I believe). Only bit of info I've read about that involves a slumbering underwater Minotaur god with incandescent fish swimming in and out of its nostrils. The mysteries!

the tree of life script is out there, as is days of heaven. haven't seen badlands but i think it's out there. i also have a copy of his draft of the script for dirty harry, which ends with an homage to au hasard balthazar.

(i am not kidding.)

i also have deadhead miles script.

I think the proto-Tree of Life script ("Q") is out there.

in which sense?

haha

"out" "there"

see if you can tear yourself away from natalie portman's cleavage long enough to spot him:

http://withleather.uproxx.com/2012/10/natalie-portman-texas-longhorns-austin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MGyHS8jwY0

so if i saw TTRL last night and loved it, i'm safe to go with badlands tonight?

yes

Whenever I periodically see this thread I get really anxious thinking "badlands better have won", so thank you ILE for continually reassuring me.

yeah. seeing Badlands followed by DoH turned me into a raving Malick fan, having only been lukewarm after seeing the later ones. altho i need to revisit TTRL cuz I only saw it when I was a young'un.

ya that was good, tho i preferred TTRL cos war is better than treehouses for movies but it was good

treehouse begorrah

you got to stop following me round with this cod-racism

real racism

ftr

days of heaven > thin red line >>>>>>>>>>>>> badlands >>> the new world >> tree of life

yeah i'll prob watch DOH next but am kinda curious about tree of life

Days Of heaven=ToL>Badands>>>>>the rest is waste.

I think I'd go

Days > Badlands > TTRL > New World > TOL

But I love 'em all. Scared for the new one, though, which really looks terrible.

think the new one looks rad--perhaps extra-malicky though in that it seems to a be a pretty pure distillation of his late style. we'll see. anyway, i think the contemporary films are head and shoulders over the 70s films, as fine as they are.

Days>ToL>TTRL>Badlands>>>>>>>all other movies

I never had much interest in even seeing The New World, I don't particularly know why that's so.

I prefer Days to all the others, but I do think they're best viewed in order.

badlands>the new world>the thin red line>tree of life>days of heaven

Tree of Life > Days of Heaven = Badlands > The New World > Thin Red Line

The New World has some glaring problems, but I've probably watched it more than any of his films. I'm kind of infatuated with it.

Thin Red Line > Days of Heaven > Badlands > Tree of Life > The New World

i thought the new world was dope

Yeah I think I like The Thin Red Line most of all. It's as good a "meditation" as any of his other films plus it has that beautiful battle sequence.

I've only seen the 'director's cut' of The New World, and it is overlong and boring. Might change my opinion if I saw the shorter version.

i've actually seen all three versions (including the medium-length one that ran for a week in nyc and promptly disappeared when i went to see it again the next day). I think maybe that medium length one was best, but i enjoy the longer version more now. sorta feel like that movie needs as much time as possible to slowly build (a la wagner) to its effect.

days of heaven looked amazing, etc etc, but i'm not as a rule very into very long period morality tales (i couldn't even finish once upon a time in america, which imo is a fair comparison)

huh it's like an hour and half

Might you think of 'Heaven's Gate' by Michael Cimino, which is apparantly 216 min long? I don't really think Days of Heaven is much of a morality tale either. Beautiful sunsets, though.

Rewatched Thin Red Line this morning. Still amazing. Right before the big attack, after the first two soldiers has been gunned down, and as the rest of the men are waiting in the grass, there is this beautiful shot of light passing over the grassy hills, where the japanese are obviously hiding. That clip says so much more about nature and evil than a thousand voice-overs on 'war in the heart of nature' or 'nature and order' or whatever. I also didn't remember the focus on vultures feading on the dead soldiers, including left-behind American corpses. Can't recall ever seing stuff like that in a war-film.

idk why i said long, it wasn't all that long. maybe cos there prob wasn't an hour and a half in it, tho? not thinking of anything else, the dvd player is still warm.

sam shepard is a dude in it tho, his wardrobe alone was another mark out of ten on top

@ Frederik that is a very important moment for me in that film

yeah in a lot of ways that's the shot of the movie. it's so insanely fraught with tension and then there's this gorgeous meditative moment of calm.

it's more symbolically loaded but the tracking shot that moves in towards a buddha statue with the structure burning all around it is another favorite.

Days of Heaven is extremely economical, elliptical even. I can't think of a another quiet film that's so short and yet so packed with incident.

can't see mention of this upthread so worth noting:

Badlands coming on Criterion blu-ray March 2013

script for "The English Speaker":

http://cinephilearchive.tumblr.com/post/27929140647

These waitresses? How long have they been here? Have they been here all of their lives? Are they deaf? Can’’t they hear me? I asked for decaf and yet they gave me regular. Now my heart is racing. There is a poison in me. Why don’’t they listen to me? Is there something in them that refuses to believe? Caffeine takes me away from myself. One sip and I can feel the earth spinning on its axis. Each passing second consumes the next until I am left like a child. Why must I wait? Is this hell? This anger destroys us. This anger is not mine. It’s yours, father. You never wanted to wait for anything. Waiting for pickles.

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/terrence-malick-at-the-delicatessen

mcsweeneys.net

yes, i know what mcsweeneys is.

Halfway through the new world, hopeful of it starting soon

you'll love the finale at Mt Rushmore.

<3

joking aside, the finale of that one is probably my fav moment in all his films. though another viewing of the end of To the Wonder may change that--though it builds to a sigh rather than a ecstasy.

longtime editor Billy Weber speaks:

Weber says despite reports, Malick’s next two films are likely not going to be as experimental and dialogue-free as “To The Wonder.” “’To The Wonder’ is a meditation. I don’t think ‘Knight of Cups’ or the next one will be like that, but I’m not positive…I know what the story is. There will be more dialogue in it,” he said.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/terrence-malicks-editor-billy-weber-says-knights-of-cups-wont-be-as-dialogue-less-experimental-as-to-the-wonder-20130509

I really feel with to the wonder, & w the more kinetic, children scenes of the one before, he is almost onto something that he hasn't quite reached yet in terms of montage & editing. the almost distracted, overwhelmed impression created by the askew shots, looming visions, snippets of touch or sensation is so evocative to me that I think I'd be more assured by news that he was going father out

So apparently he met Heidegger in person?

http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=1660

Terrence Frederick Malick was born to Emil and Irene (née Thompson) on November 30, 1943, in one of the two cities listed above (overall, research leans toward the former) and grew up in Oklahoma and Texas. An all-conference football player at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin, Malick went on to study philosophy under Stanley Cavell at Harvard University, where he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1965 before crossing the Atlantic as a Rhodes scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford. Prior to completing his PhD, he left the school over a dispute with his thesis advisor. The details of this argument are largely unknown, though The Harvard Crimson claims it had to do with “the contrasting worldviews of Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein.” Upon arriving back in the United States, Malick taught philosophy at MIT and published a translation of Martin Heidegger’s Essence of Reasons. (While at Harvard, he also translated Heidegger’s Holzwege and met the philosopher during a year abroad in Germany.) For a number of years following his return, he worked as a journalist for Newsweek and Life, where he wrote about Latin America, and The New Yorker, where he had an office from 1968 to 1969. Malick then enrolled at the AFI Conservatory as part of its inaugural class, graduating two years later with David Lynch. The decision to apply to the program was apparently an easy one: “I’d always liked the movies in a kind of naïve way,” Malick once said, for the simple reason that “they seemed no less improbable a career than anything else.”

I can add some stuff to that, based on a little original research. Emil's dad was Nanajon (or Nanojan, I've seen different spellings). Malick, an Assyrian emigrated from Lebanon if I'm not mistaken. He settled in Chicago which is where Emil grew up. Emil was the choirmaster and organist for a congregation in the Lakeview neighborhood (on Belmont Ave). He was trained as a chemist and that's how he got a job w/ Philips Petro. The family first lived in Waco then, at some point when Terrence Malick was a pre-teen or teenager, Emil got a promotion and moved to Bartlesville. All of this squares pretty precisely with the stuff in Tree of Life. Also at some Emil patented a method for condensed beer--i.e. beer in powder form, just add water and drink up. He actually filed a lot of patents, and Tree of Life conveys (albeit elliptically of course) the sense that he was a frustrated inventor. But he was very successful in the oil industry, whether or not that gave him much satisfaction.

BTW as of two or three years ago both of TM's parents were still alive in Bartlesville, his mom (the older of the two) would be past 100 now. I believe her family was from central/southern Illinois. I wish I had my notes on me.

It's always weird when they write stuff like "TM studied philosophy under Stanley Cavell"--he was an undergrad, you don't really "study under" anybody. He may have taken a few classes with and probably drew the attention of Cavell.

I actually don't think anyone has been able to track down a single piece TM published for the New Yorker, Newsweek, etc. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I need to find the notes I took on all this. I'm leaving a lot out that I can't remember by heart.

sick

actually Emil just died this february

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/examiner-enterprise/obituary.aspx?n=emil-a-malick&pid=163029709

and his wife died in dec 2011 (she was 99)

http://examiner-enterprise.com/sections/news/local-news/bartlesville-resident-irene-malick-mother-filmmaker-dead-99-services-today

i believe one or both of his parents were in the audience at a special early screening of Tree of Life in Bartlesville. I can only wonder what they made of it.

sick?

xpost

Emil was a big deal in the petro industry. When he arrived w/ family in Waco, there was an article in the newspaper.

his parents had a very long life together, with some tragedy of course

oh wow that's interesting about moving to Bartlesville from Waco. that really does make Tree of Life and To the Wonder seem strongly connected--Bartlesville is very much a "after the fall" kinda place in the movie, it's sorta unrelentingly gloomy at time compared to the suburban pastoral of the Tree of Life.

really? all we see of bartlesville really is the fancy modernist house where the parents are living when they get news of their son's death

to the wonder is inspired by events much later in malick's life, no? i haven't seen it (it hasn't even come here yet, and may never) so maybe there's stuff suggesting his childhood as well?

oh i just mean Bartlesville as portrayed in To the Wonder. if that's Bartlesville in ToL then it looks way different than in TtW.

and yeah the extent of the connection is that both seem semi-autobiographical and that he has personal connections to where both movies are set. a suitably vague malickian impression, i guess.

I think they are both pretty precisely autobiographical in general outline, dinosaurs perhaps excepted.

http://www.themillions.com/2011/06/family-tree.html?doing_wp_cron=1368385329.9585731029510498046875

I recently had the opportunity to see The Tree of Life while sitting two rows in front of Terrence Malick’s 99-year-old mother. The special screening took place in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, a small town north of Tulsa. Malick spent part of his youth in Bartlesville and recently returned to film his still-untitled next project (though some have called it The Burial) starring Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams. The film was screened in a fairly unassuming shopping mall located just off of state highway 75. Okay, so it wasn’t the most majestic setting possible, but it was good enough. Not scheduled to be officially released in Oklahoma and the surrounding region until later this month, I heard about this “secret” happening a couple of days before from an acquaintance that lives in the area. It was touch and go until the day of the screening as to whether or not I would be able to attend, but I was greeted with an early morning text that simply said, “You’re in.”....

I sat in the second row back from the screen. The theater was small and I wanted as much of my field of view as possible to be taken up by the film. Among the other attendees were relatives and friends of the Malick family, none more important than the director’s mother, Irene, sitting behind me in a wheelchair. According to Malick’s wife, Alexandra “Ecky” Malick, who spoke briefly before the film, this was Irene Malick’s first time seeing the film. Malick himself was characteristically absent, as was his father, Emil.

I actually don't think anyone has been able to track down a single piece TM published for the New Yorker, Newsweek, etc. Correct me if I'm wrong.

just caught richard brody talking about this point, & pointing to an (un-bylined) nyer comment co-authored by malick after the assassination of dr. king:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1968/04/13/1968_04_13_035_TNY_CARDS_000290020

great notes, amateurist, enjoying reading yr research

From what I remember, Malick had a relationship with a woman he met in France (who had a young daughter?), and I can't recall if they moved to the States or not but it didn't work out and he met up again with someone from his high school years (Ecky, it must have been). I had this in the back of my mind when watching it the second time, and I saw the film as a sort of alternate history where he chose a different option and ended rather poorly, though obviously the point isn't *how it ended* but rather what it meant.

he brought his french wife & her daughter to live with him in texas and then drove the daughter back to france with his domineering behavior

that's the biskind version, no? i know i've read it somewhere.

i read that article about his time in paris and heard most of that before, but in my mind he still worked as an art forger during those "lost" decades

http://i.minus.com/iquoUgd2WWSM3.jpg

Guess Robert Koehler wouldn't endorse a re-poll...

http://www.cineaste.com/articles/what-the-hell-happened-with-terrence-malick

(Warning: only a preview, not the full article.)

the consecutive artistic disasters of The Tree of Life and To the Wonder

i think both of these movies are outstanding (and even prefer To the Wonder) but even if you hate them you gotta admit (surely!) that there's a cinematic "there" there with them. malick's films can be frustrating and somehow both evasive and smothering at the same time, but they almost invariably have incredibly powerful moments in them.

and really, i don't even know what the phrase "artistic disaster" is really supposed to mean?

Interested to see how The New World figures into the argument, only partly because it's the one I'd cite as the dog of his recent works.

i like terence malick.

i spelled his name wrong. i meant terrence malick.

yeah, "disasters," not really.

let me guess the rest of the argument: malick has been "indulged" by credulous celebrities and producers desperate for artistic gravitas.

that sounds about right, ryan.

and really, i don't even know what the phrase "artistic disaster" is really supposed to mean?

'the tree of life' turned into an actual, literal tornado devastating several counties in central oklahoma

the picture for To the Wonder on netflix (now streaming!) is kinda hilarious

haha "artistic disasters" reminds me of "Rick Moody is the worst writer of his generation"

and really, i don't even know what the phrase "artistic disaster" is really supposed to mean?

― ryan, Friday, September 6, 2013 10:05 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

if you read koehler's reviews of those two films you will at least know what _he_ means by it. his criticisms are pretty interesting and, to my mind, somewhat persuasive.

here's one

http://filmjourney.org/2011/05/18/cannes-ears-to-the-ground-2/

i remember that review. I wasn't really impressed with it at the time because it seems to boil down to the fact that he doesn't jibe with what he believes to be Malick's sensibility, a "naive romanticism" as he puts it (and that's certainly a loaded description). but it's remarkable to me how he can so clearly glean what *Malick* thinks when his movies are full to the brim of *other* people talking--and in these later films it's crucial to my mind that *many* different people are talking. who is speaking for Malick?

i mean this is absolutely my least favorite kind of criticism:

He has turned a chamber piece about a Texas family in the post-war era into a bloated behemoth. He has fatally forgotten the wisdom that in the specific lies the universal, and instead imposes an entirely unearned universal construct on top of a small story that should have a running time of no more than 80 minutes, rather than its entirely unjustifiable 137-minute length–a marker of uncontrolled hubris.

it's like criticism as studio notes. or a goddamn yelp review. he brings nothing to the table, and exposes himself to the movie in really no way at all.

that's overly harsh, i take it back somewhat. but i think he tips his hand when he compares it to the "furry headed" New Age movement. it's just stuff guaranteed to get my hackles up.

oh, there are def. some new-agey aspects of the tree of life

nah it's just a lazy zing for those intent on condescending to malick as soft headed and dopey. ToL draws on a lot of things (the Kabbalah, the Old Testament) but none of them are properly "new age." and it wouldn't entail an automatic dismissal of the film even if they were! calling something "new age" is the compliment you give to your own constrained sense of reasoned intelligence. (imo)

I mean you def argue malick is very much an ecologically centered filmmaker but that's hardly something that's reducible to hippie-ish spiritualism.

i didn't say it was

oh im not arguing with you. just some version of myself and koehler!

your reservations on the ToL thread are in fact the best anti-ToL stuff I've read, in fact.

I didn't like how that review simplistically dismissed the Pitt character as a sort of villain. It makes a lot more sense if you consider how the similar Affleck character is supposedly meant to be quite autobiographical. The review had this kind of Freudian dismissal of Malick as some kind of sissy-boy desperate for mother's love, but I've never got that impression from his films. The new ones especially are insanely challenging, but I think that makes them richer. I wonder if Badlands and Days of Heaven, the former especially, are more widely considered his great works because they deal with slightly more familiar themes of melancholy antiheroes. There's a yardstick to use on them, and therefore a way to safely know they're good. But nobody's really made characters like John Rolfe in New World (my fav Malick character). I wonder if that's why critics are reticent to praise his new stuff. I personally love it. To the Wonder is my fav Malick. The poignant moments, especially the prayer monologue near the end, ring so true.

agree about that prayer in To the Wonder..and the short (silent?) montage after. there's a private seeming anguish revealed in that moment that's unlike anything else in his films.

nah it's just a lazy zing for those intent on condescending to malick as soft headed and dopey. ToL draws on a lot of things (the Kabbalah, the Old Testament) but none of them are properly "new age." and it wouldn't entail an automatic dismissal of the film even if they were! calling something "new age" is the compliment you give to your own constrained sense of reasoned intelligence. (imo)

― ryan, Saturday, September 7, 2013 8:16 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

http://i.imgur.com/SNuIRbV.jpg

cool it with the sexist imagery friend.

from a joel kinnaman interview

What can you tell me about Knight of Cups, the new Terrence Malick movie that you acted in? Do you think you’ll end up in the final movie?

I have no idea. [Laughs.] I had a one-day shoot, and I had a 17-page monologue. It was a crazy day. It was great to get to be part of the Malick world for a day. I have no idea what the movie’s about. I barely know who my character was. We’ll see if I’m in it or not. I remember, we’d be shooting, and I’d be on page 12 of my 17-page monologue, and I’d turn around and see that he was 100 yards away, shooting a pink dog. So it was a very original experience. I’ve never been part of anything like it. He’s very poetic — he collects a lot of material, a lot of images, slices of characters. Then he makes his film in the editing room. And I think he probably also finds his narrative in the editing room. It’s a very free-flowing process. It was interesting to be a part of it. But I couldn’t tell you anything other than that.

Well at least there's a script this time, right?

I remember, we’d be shooting, and I’d be on page 12 of my 17-page monologue, and I’d turn around and see that he was 100 yards away, shooting a pink dog.

it's satisfying when people live up to their legends.

gonna cry at that

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx1gdizkcw1qm345ao1_500.gif

http://www.thestudioexec.com/2013/03/terrence-malicks-bond-script-leaks-onto.html

INT. LONDON WHITEHALL OFFICE EVENING
Bond sits at his desk looking thoroughly miserable. Miss Moneypenny comes in. No words. She dances around the room and together they discover the beautiful fall of the failing sun reflected on the wood paneling of the windowsill. They cry.

MONEYPENNY (V.O.)
Why? Who sent us hear? Who invented this love that we call love but other people don't call love and don't love it as much as us lovers of love do? Was it you?

BOND (v.o.)
M? Mother? Who are you that sends me on these missions?

should be a treat to see these Malick (and Lynch) pictures in 35mm again at the NYC Jack Fisk retro

http://www.movingimage.us/programs/2016/03/11/detail/see-it-big-jack-fisk-2/

Heard some really intriguing things about the new one

http://www.businessinsider.com/thomas-lennon-terrence-malick-knight-of-cups-2016-2

Wld go watch Raggedy Man on a big screen, too - haven't seen it for approx 30 years but my raggedy memory is that it's a pretty good 'little' movie - or at least, not without interest/not a complete disaster

have never seen RM, and holy cow young Eric Roberts...

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5139mUMTV8L._SX342_.jpg

opinion on the new world seems really split, should i go see it?

idk if tickets are even still available

yes, if i was not sleep-crashing i would join you. it's a beauty.

I love The New World.

it's good

The New World is fantastic. Loses momentum somewhere in the middle but the beginning and end are A+++.

what version is showing? somehow, for me, the longer blu-ray cut is the best and somehow avoids a draggy middle.

incidentally, i bet i am one of a very small number of people who have seen all 3 different versions of The New World.

the first version only showed briefly in nyc, i believe, before being pulled and re-cut (and i happened to be visiting the city). I saw that version and tried to go back for a second time just a few days later but it was already gone.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Kl5SV6cCUQU/UkhDCWMUFII/AAAAAAAADtk/3DnfYqCBnog/s1600/Big+1.png

def the best scene. wagner makes it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyaX1ZW-EhE

rescreening TO THE WONDER now, my favorite film ever

javier bardem in this...my god

also I’m drunk

after some rescreenings:

the best movies ever made

to the wonder
the thin red line
days of heaven

unforgettable

badlands
the new world
tree of life

solid

a hidden life

forgettable

knight of cups

haven’t seen song to song or the imax one

Voyage of Time (the IMAX one) seemed very obsolete after Planet Earth type shows and even the Tree of Life creation segments. Nice, though.

Was more than a little distracted during my viewing though, Malick was there in attendance and I was sitting next to his wife.

i really liked Voyage of Time. And i liked Song to Song too!

really didn’t like To The Wonder, though

I think To The Wonder was the last movie screened from a film print that I saw before the last theater in my town switched to digital. I thought it was OK, but also thought that if it was the last piece of projected celluloid that I saw, it was a good one to go out on.

my top tier would be:

the thin red line (re-watched this recently on a relative’s very very large tv and man does it hold up—still astonishing)
a hidden life
the new world

which definitely gives the game away in terms of what my biases and preferences are wrt to malick

*still* haven’t seen song to song and not really sure what my deal is. I’m pretty precious with my malick exposure...I need to feel receptive, somehow. I count my first viewing of a hidden life as the closest thing I’ll have to a religious experience.

I think I’ll rewatch a hidden life again, I found parts of it quite moving but longer than it needed to be. malick’s films generally grab me on the first viewing, though

ryan I thought you were a TTW truther?

How can I buy A Hidden Life on bluray? All the options seem to be crazy expensive.

dunno, I saw it in a theatre. actually the only malick I’ve seen on the big screen...a little ashamed at that

I loved A Hidden Life, much more than I expected to

The Thin Red Line remains a movie I love so much I could easily call it my favorite, if I had to pick something. Rewatched Badlands a few weeks ago and it was ok but not as good as I remembered it. Weirdly, I've only seen Days of Heaven once. Started Tree of Life again a few weeks back and the fact that it had me riveted immediately makes me think I'd like it just as much another time. I assume the same is true for New World. Still haven't seen anything since Tree of Life, but I plan to watch Hidden Life this summer.

ha, ryan i have the same weird block with song to song, i've had the dvd on my shelf for years & can never get myself to put it on.

I feel lucky I've been able to see everything from thin red line onward in the theater. can't think of too many other filmmakers where the theatrical experience seems like such an important part of taking in the work. maybe that's whats stopping me with song to song, watching a malick for the first time at home on my couch feels so cheap & tawdry.

ryan I thought you were a TTW truther?

I totally love it! Interesting companion piece to AHL in terms of depictions of a marriage, in fact. Also, as I noted on the other thread: the buffalo = the foreboding mountains of radegund.

saw To the Wonder for the first time, thought it was great. Like A Hidden Life it was a film about commitment and faith. Love that loves us, thank you

“Emotions, they come and go like clouds. Love is not only a feeling. You shall love.”

I liked that there was almost no dialogue in the film, just voiceovers

Like A Hidden Life it was a film about commitment and faith.

This actually makes me want to see it! I always assumed To the Wonder (though I know it has its other fans) was at heart his version of a Hollywood rom-dram, but now I'm more (if belatedly) intrigued.

I thought that like Knight of Cups it was one of his more esoteric films though, and more abstract than A Hidden Life. The viewer has to bridge a lot of the events to read a coherent story.

“You fear your love has died; perhaps it is waiting to be transformed into something higher."

I consider to the wonder, knight of cups, and song to song to be a sort of trilogy, they’re very similar in form but comment on Catholicism from different perspectives. I think TTW is the strongest and a lot of that is bardem, who just absolutely steals the movie

Deadhead Miles and The Gravy Train are both better than anything he’s directed post-Tree of Life

there’s actually a separate film called THY KINGDOM COME that is just extended outtakes of bardem interviewing real oklahoma townsfolk in character as the priest that I have been meaning to check out

I consider to the wonder, knight of cups, and song to song to be a sort of trilogy

― k3vin k., Tuesday, September 22, 2020

finally saw Song to Song, and this makes sense

I loved seeing Patti Smith, and hearing Birdland on the soundtrack

HBD to the greatest living Green Day fan, Terrence Malickpic.twitter.com/pOa7B4Na1J

— John Frankensteiner (@JFrankensteiner) December 1, 2020

Tried to watch Tree of Life a year or so ago and only made it through the first 1/2 hour. Been on a WWII kick lately so borrowed Thin Red Line from library. Forced myself to make it through the 1st hour. There's nearly 2 hours left?? Christ. Beautifully shot, as Tree of Life was, but I don't give a shit about any character and I think I hurt my eyes from rolling them so much over the overarching pretentiousness. I guess Malick ain't the man for me.

I mean, you may be right? On some days Thin Red Line is my favorite movie. I can watch it pretty much any time, from any place in the movie on. But I can totally see it rubbing people the wrong way, too. Same with Tree of Life. Both I felt approached pretty standard issue stories from a really interesting perspective, or in a way that made me think of things from a fresh vantage. But they're also both really self-consciously arty and in turn can come off pretty pretentious, even if in the end I don't think either movie really is.

What makes Tree of Life a drop-off in quality is that there is no longer a "standard-issue story" to balance the sometimes-absurd arty gestures. The Thin Red Line and The New World both have very firm structures where the digressions can register as surprises in terms of the genre and the conventional narrative. Tree of Life and the following films are all digression (until A Hidden Life, which is at least focussed - I haven't seen Song to Song).

I find this a problem with a lot of visionary directors - at some point, they think "why do I need a story or dramatic framework? I'll just toss all my directorial tics and obsessions in a three hour basket and let the audience sort it out". Inland Empire (which admittedly has some amazing scenes), Holy Motors, the last episode of Berlin Alexanderplatz, Fellini Casanova, maybe Claire Denis' L'Intrus, even, it its way, Godard's Histoires du Cinema. I also suspect that Tarkovsky might have made one of these if he had lived (if Mirror doesn't count).

I'm not opposed to anti-narrative filmmaking, but I object to stories being omitted to make way for a parade of a director's cliches.

I dunno, "Tree of Life" is ultimately a familiar coming of age story told in flashbacks (albeit flashbacks all the way back to the creation of the universe!).

I'm not opposed to anti-narrative filmmaking, but I object to stories being omitted to make way for a parade of a director's cliches.

i get where you're coming from, but imo there are plenty of stories already, readily available. i often want to hear a story, and when that's the case there are endless options. on the other hand, it is very difficult to take the narrative out and hold the viewer's attention, anyway. that is an elite, pro artist move, and so when auteurs go for it i root for them, even though it is much more difficult.

films like that (inland empire, tree of life) aren't meant for every-day viewing. i love inland empire, and only feel like watching it every 3-4 years or so. but when i feel like watching it, it's the only thing in the world that can make me feel that way.

anyway, there are plenty of movies already. if we want compulsively watchable stories, we will never get to the bottom. so two thumbs up for filmmakers who are pushing in other directions

yeah, I think the last episode of Berlin Alexanderplatz is the best part!

Yeah, I've only seen Holy Motors once and loved every minute of it, iirc, but while I've recommended it to plenty of people I'm not sure I've felt the need to watch i again yet. Probably (fittingly) because so much of it has stuck with me. Same with "Tree of Life," though I watched a bit of "ToL" with my daughter recently and it was like seeing it for the first time. Maybe I was watching the director's cut? Same thing happened with "New World," iirc.

Karl, I respect this ambition also, but I feel, in the cases I have mentioned, it is verging on directorial hubris. All of the films I mentioned except Casanova have good to great scenes or elements. Holy Motors was surely a better film than Pola X, but not because it was a better story.

One of the films that I think has successfully used this toss-everything-in approach is The Last Movie by Dennis Hopper, which is hated by most people who have seen it!

The greatest strength of ToL is that the jumbled nonlinear emotive elements approach does in fact work without a story

Obviously as an approach its going to rely very heavily on the viewers engagement with that (not necessarily in the active sense either)

Would it be improved by,say, a chris nolan bullring wrapup aha!? jesus, no.

xpost The Last Movie was great iirc! Although I haven't seen it in twenty years so my recollection may be suspect.

Yes, KM OTM re: Tree of Life (and Inland Empire, as both are among my top five of the century and I try to space out my rewatching in order to keep them special).

And deems OTM. ToL is for me a largely emotional experience (I wept like a baby in the theater, never experienced anything like it) and that easily trumps the dearth of plot.

(Leading questions:) Do you feel the same way about Malick's follow-ups? Do you feel he pursued the same methods to diminishing returns?

If that question to everyone, I think I posted in this thread that never have I gone from three movies I loved whole heartedly (Thin Red Line, New World, Tree of Life) from a filmmaker batting more or less 1000% to three movies I've still never seen nor ever had any interest in seeing (To the Wonder, Knight of Cups, Song to Song). Part of that may have been because those former three *do* have stories they're telling, however disjointed or arty or experimental or whatever, but I got the weird feeling those latter three kind of *don't,* and for that reason seemed more guilty of the indulgences their predecessors transcended.

I still need to see A Hidden Life!

most directors have pursued the same methods to diminishing returns. Malick's later films have been way better than most

To the Wonder, Knight of Cups, Song to Song all had stories, just told in fragments and in a more abstract way.

A Hidden Life is worth watching. In some ways although not completely it's a return to more conventional storytelling

“to the wonder” is my favorite malick

I'm trying to recall why, after that run, I was so resistant to it. It may have been as simple and surface as seeing Ben Affleck in what appeared to be a romantic drama, which is not what I wanted to see after its predecessors. Then when Knight of Cups came out and afaict it was a semi/mostly improvised story about a Hollywood producer's dark night (accidental double/triple pun!?) of the soul, which was not what I wanted to see, either. Is Song to Song the SXSW one? That seemed like more of the same indulgence, only about the music industry.

I havent seen anything later than ToL, went on a binge where I caught everything from badlands through half of the new world thereafter and never went back for the second half nor anything else

Re:story -- Tree of Life seems to have a clear plot to me, or its at least engaged with a familiar plot structure that we all know. I havent seen Wonder or Cups since their original release so I'm a little fuzzy but I feel like TtW at least gestures towards a plot - the characters are involved in a story, the details of which are sometimes shared with us & sometimes withheld, but theyre at least visibly engaged in a series of dramatic incidents. My memory of Cups is such that I think you could fairly say that he'd fully left 'story' behind at that point. Whatever plot there is seems to mostly just exist within these poetic mytho-archetypal identities of the characters - a man, a woman, a father, a brother, a friend, etc. At some point I guess it comes down to where you draw the line with your own personal definition of what can be a plot, but onscreen its definitely mostly just a bunch of different people walking around slowly, alone or in pairs. (I still liked it.)

I really enjoyed tree of life in the theatre but it was also the only showing I've been to where people walked out

I'm sure I posted it in the respective thread after I saw it, but there was someone who literally sneered out loud something like "Well, I'll never get *that* time back again." But the movie is just a little over two hours long! Not much of an ask, imo, especially considering it's always pretty and hardly confrontational. I was far more bored watching "The Irishman."

same

Maybe he was just really pithily summarising the central point of the movie tbf

But we can have the irishman and tree of life come come

most surprising thing i learned managing an art theater was that the percentage of people who go to the movies with zero prior knowledge, choosing based on the poster or what starts next, is amazingly high

Its a great way to see a movie though!

i agree tbh but you also kind of forfeit your right to complain about the movie being exactly as-advertised

for example, shoutout to the droves of old people who angrily walked out of slumdog millionaire because they thought regis was going to be in it. most walkouts of anything during the time i was there, incl stuff like shortbus

Boomers with money to burn, mostly, right?

If a movie didn't cost 10-20 bucks, I'd go to a hell of a lot more of them.

for example, shoutout to the droves of old people who angrily walked out of slumdog millionaire because they thought regis was going to be in it.

this rocks

srsly every showing i would have someone arguing with me for a refund, couple times no joke ppl shuffled out urgently to tell me we were showing the wrong movie. always wondered if it was a general or localized phenomenon

The funniest walkouts I ever saw were at a screening of Marguerite Duras' India Song, where people started leaving before the first shot was done.

Ouch.

I generally don't walk out of movies, but there have been one or two times I left early for some reason and just didn't come back. Like, for example, the first Deadpool, I think, I got a call in the last few minutes, went out to the lobby to take it, then after the call decided, fuck it, and just went home. Though come to think of it, I've definitely walked out of movies if the crowd sucks, or if the projection is off, too. Never because I was outraged or whatever, though.

I want to say there were at least a couple of walkouts when I saw Uncut Gems.

I'm not opposed to anti-narrative filmmaking, but I object to stories being omitted to make way for a parade of a director's cliches.

― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, December 20, 2020 10:39 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

This was a very otm post! I just watched "Days Of Heaven" for the first time and it's very good. "The Thin Red Line" remains my favourite war movie tho, I'm gonna watch it again tonight

Thanks, I just didn't want to be mistaken for Syd Field.

watched the criterion featurette about the editing of The New World yesterday. a great moment where one of the editors tells a story about watching an assembly of some footage with Malick, who is ruefully shaking his head back and forth the whole time, until finally sighing "this is the last time I make a movie with a plot!"

ha! that's awesome :)

watching this now thanks

this is hilarious

had never seen Badlands until I saw it tonight on the big screen

fuckin'...wow

Hard to deny it’s his masterpiece

It’s kind of a perfect film. I’ve seen it countless times and it never loses its luster.

Recently rewatched Badlands (1973) and Days of Heaven (1978). I loved Badlands, the chemistry between Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen was really something, and Days of Heaven was also phenomenal, the scenes in wheat fields in the Texas panhandle and the performances of Richard Gere, Sam Shepard and Brooke Adams were pretty great. It would be hard to choose between them

Just rewatched "The Thin Red Line" for the first time in a long time, long enough that I had forgotten lots of it. What a beautiful movie. I am not a spiritual person, but it makes me appreciate that perspective. Interesting to watch Jim Caviezel, given his current bent. I think he's really good in it, but I also think it's the same faith and conviction that's sent him off the deep end that supports his performance in this.

Jim Caviezel was really beautiful as a young man in that movie

You’re doing yourself a huge disservice if you don’t watch films he wrote like Deadhead Miles and The Gravy Train/The Dion Bros. I’ll take both over any of his post-The New World films

oh man, I was about to say I'd never even heard of those, but I just checked letterboxd and Deadhead Miles is in my watchlist...so clearly I've had this conversation before at some point. maybe I'll give one of those a try this weekend

This image is burned into my memory from the first time I saw it:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/pv-target-images/509696072345a56258d112d99a43164e3fc5b48870ff68a86c64b31827c06ef2._RI_TTW_.jpg

I watch The Thing Red Line pretty often and I'm always astonished by it. So many shots that you just have to slap your forehead in wonder when you see it. I love The New World almost as much but TTRL catches him at this really interesting point between slightly more traditional narrative/composition style and the more improvised/floating-camera stuff later on. The later stuff, especially A Hidden Life, is really special, but TTRL and New World are exactly what I want from movies.

I mean....if I ever get a chance to see this on the big screen again I'll be so happy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53izlopOth8

you are making me feel like watching all of these again, particularly A Hidden Life because I've only seen it once I think.

otm re TTRL i think i could watch it every month

I've never seen this before, an actual Malick appearance and interview from a few years back!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPULlLJ1g9I

my heart stopped for a moment when I saw this revive

Sorry! I know the feeling.

i'm reading the new malick biography "the golden hours" and apologies if this is common knowledge but apparently a pre-"badlands" malick did a pass on the script for "dirty harry." when they made the movie they reverted to an earlier script but may have used some of his dialogue.