In Contention

Tag: Terrence Malick

  • Penn on Malick, part deux

    I originally posted this in the previous comment thread, but since the web seems to have latched onto this story, I think it’s worth highlighting more prominently. The media is determined to interpret Sean Penn’s fairly reasoned personal reservations about “The Tree of Life” as some kind of ego-driven attack — but before everyone starts taking sides in the Penn-Malick Celebrity Deathmatch, it’s worth reading the second half of his statement to Le Figaro, which doesn’t seem to have been translated by the English-speaking press. My rough translation below paints a rather more gracious picture:

    But it’s a film I recommend, as long as you go in without any preconceived ideas. It’s up to each person to find their own personal, emotional or spiritual connection to it. Those that do generally emerge very moved.

    So, what we have have here is a statement of respectful artistic dissent from someone clearly still proud to have been involved with the picture. Not as much fun as a highbrow bitchfight, granted, but there it is. At ease, everyone.

    [Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures]

  • Sean Penn bitch-slaps ‘Tree of Life’

    It seems actor Sean Penn is still upset about the fact that so much of his performance in “The Tree of Life” was left on the cutting room floor. I guess he and Adrian Brody can drown their woes in a few down at the pub. Said the actor to French magazine Le Figaro:

    I didn’t at all find on the screen the emotion of the script, which is the most magnificent one that I’ve ever read. A clearer and more conventional narrative would have helped the film without, in my opinion, lessening its beauty and its impact. Frankly, I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing there and what I was supposed to add in that context! What’s more, Terry himself never managed to explain it to me clearly.

    The thing is, I don’t entirely disagree with him. The bookend nature of his role is the weaker element of the film, particularly the reprise at the end. But I do think the early stuff works because it’s a brilliant, human lead-in to the film’s central question: “Why hast thou forsaken me?” Penn asking the almighty “Where were you” when his character’s brother died leads to the film’s extended cosmos sequence, and that is key, something I dug into when I wrote about the film at length in May.

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  • FIPRESCI names ‘The Tree of Life’ film of the year

    Well, did anyone expect otherwise? FIPRESCI, the international association of film critics that routinely hands out its own award at film festivals, has named Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” the winner of its annual Grand Prix award — for the film voted the year’s finest in a poll of their 200-plus membership.

    (Before anyone protests that it’s a little early to be dishing out Film of the Year honors, the eligibility bracket is an autumn-to-autumn deal, scheduled to fit with a presentation at the San Sebastian Film Festival. A 2010 critics’ favorite like “The Social Network,” for example, would have been up for consideration this year.)

    A slight irony is that Malick’s film didn’t actually win FIPRESCI’s own award at May’s Cannes Film Festival — it was pipped to the post by Aki Kaurismäki’s still-unreleased “Le Havre.” The discrepancy, of course, can be explained by the difference between jury and mass voting patterns: the Cannes prize is determined by a select handful of members, while a collective membership vote is more likely to favor big-league critics’ darlings.

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  • Twigs off ‘The Tree of Life’

    After two internet-free weeks in the Italian countryside, I’m gradually sifting through recent film news and coming to the conclusion that I chose as good a fortnight as any to drop out of the world. (File “Cars 2” and “Transformers Trois” under Things That Can Wait; ditto the Oscar-motivated fang-sharpening of rival Glenn Close and Meryl Streep camps.)

    The fact that I returned home days after “The Tree of Life” finally hit UK theaters, prompting a fresh gust of ooh-ing, aah-ing and arguing, only enhanced my sense that Terrence Malick’s arthouse blockbuster is the only true movie event of the summer thus far, so forgive me for making it the subject of yet another post, but I thought it was worth drawing attention to two unrelated snippets on the film.

    Particularly welcome is this LA Times piece that delves into the film’s spectacular soundtrack — where Alexandre Desplat’s typically intelligent original contributions nonetheless take a back seat to the dense collage of interpolations of existing classical music that is customary for a Malick film.

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  • East-coasters on the theology of ‘The Tree of Life’

    Last week you’ll recall we covered the west coast leg of “Insights, Inspirations and Impact,” a philosophical and religious panel discussion of Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life.” Fox Searchlight has made a few clips from the New York leg available and I thought I’d post those up for further digestion. So…SPOILERS.

    First you’ll hear from David Silverman, president of American Atheists (and a perspective I was bummed we didn’t get in Los Angeles). He takes umbrage with what he perceives as a “Christian ending” (deeming the setting “heaven,” as many have, which I don’t think is so cut and dry). He also makes the mistake of thinking a Job analogy is inherently religious. I would call it inherently human. (A Buddhist later offered the counter-point that he didn’t view the film as wholly Christian given its depiction of evolution.)

    Second you’ll hear from George Lavoo of The School of Visual Arts, who makes the shrewd point that, in the landscape of filmmaking engineered toward a very specific reaction, “The Tree of Life” is the rare film that eschews manipulation.

    Check out both clips after the jump.

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  • ‘Tree of Life’ contest winner!

    Thanks to everyone for participating in last week’s contest to win an official poster for Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life.” It was the usual healthy crop of possibilities, but I was most taken by Jackson’s sweet, streamlined entry, which wonderfully captures the director’s work, I think:

    Characters dissolve
    In the majestic landscape
    Of human nature

    So Jackson, if you’re reading, send me a line at ktapley@incontention.com and we’ll get you your prize.

  • Discussing the theology of ‘The Tree of Life’

    Fox Searchlight is really outdoing itself on “The Tree of Life.” When the studio picked up the title last year, I knew it was in caring hands. But I never really expected such pristine handling every step of the way.

    Tonight Searchlight held bi-coastal panel discussions with religious and non-religious leaders to discuss differing perspectives and interpretations of the theological themes within the film. “Insights, Inspirations & Impact” was the name of the program, and I was on hand for the Landmark Theatre discussion in West L.A. this evening.

    The panelists included Sister Rose Pacatte of the Pauline Center for Media Studies, Dr. Robert K. Johnston of the Fuller Theological Seminary and author of “Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue”; Rabbi David Wolpe of the Sinai Temple (a bit of a celebrity in his own right); Scott Young, executive director of the University Religious Conference at UCLA; Jihad Turk, director of religious affairs at the Islamic Center for Southern California; and Jim Hosney, Professor of Literature at the American Film Institute. The panel was moderated by spiritual author Erwin Raphael McManus.

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  • CONTEST: Win a ‘Tree of Life’ poster

    I’ve had this poster for Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” sitting in a tube in the office for weeks now. Since I don’t really have space for it on the wall, and seeing as it’s a bit fresh given the on-going roll-out of the film in theaters, I thought I’d offer it up in a new contest.

    “Tone poem” is a term often used to describe Malick’s work, so I thought we’d go with another haiku contest (as always, courtesy of Sasha Stone at Awards Daily who does them often). So offer up your best Malick-themed haiku (5, 7, 5 syllables, remember) and the cream of the crop wins. You can do something built around his work or around the film itself, up to you.

    Let’s give this, oh, until the end of the week. So midnight (PT) Friday is the cut-off. Ready, set, GO!

    [Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures]

  • Nolan and Fincher on the impression left by Malick

    Those are three heavyweight names to stuff into one headline, but thanks to some shrewd marketing on the part of Fox Searchlight Pictures, it’s a reality.

    Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” continues to roll out in its platform release, landing in a boatload of new cities this weekend. As the film prepares to go wider, the studio has tapped the thoughts of filmmakers Christopher Nolan and David Fincher to get their perspective on the famed auteur.

    “His work is immediately recognizable, but it’s very tough to put your finger on why that is,” Nolan says in a new featurette launched at Apple. “The technique is not immediately obvious.”

    Fincher, meanwhile, notes that “with Malick, you’re seeing something that was thought about and meditated over. You’re seeing someone who’s making choices that are specifically designed to evoke a feeling.”

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  • Malick goes deeper underground

    First up, some good news for our British readers: the distribution wrangles surrounding “The Tree of Life” have been resolved, and Fox Searchlight will bring the film to UK screens on July 8. Not much longer until you can join the conversation.

    Given Terrence Malick’s usual work rate, it feels almost perverse to begin talking about his next film while his current one is still in theaters, but that’s precisely what his new go-to cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki does in a fascinating Sight & Sound interview.

    So far we know little about the untitled work, already in post-production, beyond its all-star cast of Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, Jessica Chastain and Rachels Weisz and McAdams, but Lubezki reveals this much: if you thought “The Tree of Life” was esoteric, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

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  • The experimental urges of ‘The Tree of Life’

    Kris already acknowledged the disproportionate number of Malick-related posts on the site of late, but it’s not often one gets a conversation piece of this magnitude landing in the early summer schedule, so we’re just going to roll with it. (The film would no doubt have been a big deal in any season, but Fox Searchlight’s decision to dodge the autumn prestige deluge with an immediate post-Cannes release is proving rather wise in terms of publicity gained.)

    Anyway, I was drawn to this Fandor piece about the influence of experimental cinema on Malick’s Palme d’Or winner, most evident in the early 20-minute sequence that maps out the earth’s evolution. Along with several other critics, my review noted echoes of Godfrey Reggio’s landmark 1982 tone poem “Koyaanisqatsi” in the sequence, but it appears that some lesser-known experimental films played a more direct role in its creation.

    New York-based Scott Nyerges, whose avant-garde shorts haven’t been seen much outside the festival circuit, was approached by Malick’s production company for permission to license 12 seconds of his 2008 short “Autumnal” (embedded after the cut).

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  • Looking beyond the shadows of ‘The Tree of Life’

    Yes, yes, more talk on “The Tree of Life.” I’ll be honest. I’ll be surprised if there is a film that occupies the space of “best” in my consideration of 2011’s film offerings, not to spoil the end of year shenanigans or anything (though one never knows what can happen to perception over the next six or seven months). It’s such a rich, rewarding, flawed, imperfect, real experience. I cannot wait for a third viewing.

    In the meantime, I delighted in digging into Anthony Breznican’s lengthy deconstruction of the film over at Entertainment Weekly. Interestingly, he draws a lot of the same interpretations I did when I wrote about the film in depth last week, and he notes that in conversation, despite a heavy consideration of “subjectivity,” many viewers are coming away with similar interpretations about this or that. Chalk it up to one more note of universality in Terrence Malick’s latest.

    The piece is naturally full of SPOILERS, as Breznican tackles (with what he self-deprecatingly calls “hack analysis”) the entirety of the film, beginning to end, and turns up some interesting bits of insight. I was personally fascinated by his takeaway on water imagery in the film.

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  • Matt Zoller Seitz’s video essays on Terrence Malick cinema

    Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” adds 16 theaters and eight new cities as it expands a little farther this weekend. If you happen to be near enough to catch it, don’t forget to keep the discussion going in our reactions thread. You can find out when the film will make its way to you at Fox Searchlight’s official site.

    As a build-up to the film’s release, the Museum of the Moving Image’s Matt Zoller Seitz has been working through another series of video essays, this one focused on Malick’s filmography. He’s wrapped things up this week with a two-part dissection of 2005’s “The New World,” Seitz’s favorite of the director’s efforts.

    “The net result is a profoundly warm, embracing film that celebrates life itself in all its wonder and terror,” he says of Malick’s fourth feature, “a portrait of a few distinct lives on a planet, and in a universe, that has no beginning and no end.” He could as easily be talking about any of the director’s films, not least of all his latest.

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  • Diving back into ‘The Tree of Life’ (SPOILERS)

    If you’ve been fortunate enough to catch Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” in its limited release already, don’t forget to tell us your thoughts in the reactions thread.

    I’ve written about the film at length once (during a lunch break at jury duty downtown after sleeping on it). Guy reviewed it in full out of Cannes, where the film walked away with the Palme d’Or, and we dedicated an edition of The Lists to Malick’s work earlier this week. But I wanted to include a separate space for spoiler discussion, as I’ve had a chance to re-visit the film and taken some time to mull over its particulars more over the last week. I guess I just really wanted to write about it again.

    So, if you want to stay pure, I suggest staying out of this thread. I’ll be digging into specifics of narrative and theme that you’d probably rather avoid. Or maybe you’d like to digest every morsel you can in preparation. Fully up to you, but the warning is there. SPOILERS follow…

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  • Tell us what you thought of ‘The Tree of Life’

    Today, Terrence Malick’s latest opus “The Tree of Life” opens on four screens, two in Los Angeles, two in New York. So while it’s a small slice, the US public now has its chance to see the film, so it’s time to gauge reactions. Guy reviewed it out of Cannes, I followed up with my take (to be accompanied by another extended piece later today) and we’ve used the occasion to look back on performances in Malick’s filmography. But I’ll be very interested to hear what you all think of the film, so whenever you get around it (or whenever it gets around to you), please let us know.

  • THE LISTS: Top 10 performances in Terrence Malick films

    If you can believe it, it’s been since Halloween that we kicked the dust off this feature at In Contention. We made it all the way through the Oscar season without feeling compelled to go there. Odd. So, with Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” opening in New York and Los Angeles this weekend, before expanding to other cities throughout June, it seemed a good time to dig back in and cook up a collective that might drive a little more interest in the discussion.

    The easiest thing I could think of was a list of the best performances from Malick films, and as I sat down to revisit all five of the director’s works last week, it became clear it was as good a choice as any. There is, after all, plenty to choose from.

    Malick films contain a wide-ranging array of performances, all of them proving to be singular feathers in the caps of many actors. Indeed, when an actor stars in a Malick film, he or she is met with direction unique to any other experience, and it can yield great, unexpected work. Naturalism and a sense of authenticity are hallmarks of these portrayals, as Malick likes to scrape away the dishonesty of “performance” and get to something truer, with all the imperfection that comes with it.

    For my money, the following 10 represent the best of the lot. Let’s dive in…

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  • On the Oscar prospects of ‘The Tree of Life’

    With “The Tree of Life” winning the Palme d’Or in Cannes today, Oscar talk has already swelled on Twitter (after whispered considerations in the wake of the premiere last week). I’ll be writing about the film again next weekend, when some of you will be able to take a look, but for now, I thought I’d speak on this.

    As we mentioned in the podcast Friday, I think Searchlight picking this demanding film up was an admirable move. It’s relationship-building with an important filmmaker (who has another film on the way, mind you). And its best chance at bringing in money was a counter-programming maneuver in the summer.

    But I don’t think this was ever considered a major awards threat, to be honest. I can’t imagine anyone watching it and expecting Academy types to embrace it. And I don’t think today’s unexpected award (Guy was hearing the only major fan of the film on the jury was Olivier Assayas) changes things.

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  • CANNES: ‘Tree of Life’ wins Palme d’Or, Dunst takes Best Actress

    And so it came to pass that the pre-festival bookies’ odds were on the money. The most talked-about film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life,” was handed the Palme d’Or by Robert De Niro’s jury — a major vindication for a film that has been labelled both a masterpiece and a failure by duelling factions of critics on the Croisette.

    Malick, to the surprise of precisely nobody, did not pitch up to the ceremony, though I imagine he’s feeling somewhat relieved. However it performs outside the insular festival environment, his film’s cultural landmark status has been sealed: armed with this prestigious bit of hardware, Fox Searchlight can set about readying the film for the US awards season, though approval from more mainstream bodies could yet be an uphill battle.

    “The Tree of Life” isn’t the film I would have picked for the Palme by a long shot — as I wrote in my review, I think it’s an intermittently stunning work that ultimately overreaches, never marrying its three disparate sections — but it’s not an unintelligent pick: De Niro and his fellow jurors have opted for the title that looks likely to have the longest shelf-life in popular culture. In that respect, it’s a preferable choice to the film widely viewed as the favorite going into the awards tonight, Aki Kaurismäki’s charming but wafer-thin comedy “Le Havre” — which, in the evening’s most surprising turn, won not a single prize.

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