In Contention

Tag: Terrence Malick

  • SHORT TAKE: “Meek’s Cutoff” (****)

    Venice Film Festival

    “But nothing happens,” complained several friends to whom I had (perhaps a little too zealously) recommended Kelly Reichardt’s previous feature “Wendy and Lucy,” her pocket masterpiece about the mental unravelling of a stalled drifter in the great American nowhere.

    It’s hard to say whether such viewers will be appeased or even further dismayed by Reichardt’s subtly muscular and altogether staggering follow-up, “Meek’s Cutoff,” which sees the director taking on a propulsively linear narrative – an ox-wagon road movie driven by the most fundamental of human needs – that nonetheless still finds its greatest dramatic significance in minute human exchanges. This is a film whose story turns on one character’s offer to repair another’s shoe, the implications of this small act weighted so as to hold you in hushed fascination through every stitch.

    If, then, Reichardt remains an astute chronicler of what happens when nothing happens, “Meek’s Cutoff” affords the director her largest canvas yet on which to ruminate. A 19th century-set Western covering the most severe and spectacular stretches of the Oregon Trail to transfixingly beautiful effect, the film expands its focus from the selective character studies of “Old Joy” and “Wendy and Lucy” to ponder the fates of three families and two bookended individuals, miles from a home that does not yet exist.

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  • ‘Tree of Life’ to “change the language of movies?”

    I can’t speak to the interest Anne Thompson’s source on “The Tree of Life” has in the film, though I imagine anyone who has seen it has a vested interest at this stage.  Regardless, what the source has to say is mouth-watering indeed:

    “It’s a mystical exploration of the meaning of life, a journey in which a microcosm of a family mirrors the world; the differences between man and woman, husband and wife, are mirrored against nature and grace. It will change the language of movies. It’s a real event. People will say, ‘what the fuck is this?’”

    You’ll remember yesterday Todd McCarthy publicly stated his expectation that the film will move to 2011, based on little more than the usual impatience.  In his role as New York Film Festival selection committee member, I guess he just got some bad vibes when promise after promise was made to screen it for potential inclusion in the fest, only to no avail.  But I wonder if all of this back and forth is ultimately unhealthy for the film itself.

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  • Malick’s Pacific theatre makes its way to Criterion

    I haven’t picked up a copy of Terrence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line” on DVD because I’m so OCD.  As in, I can’t stand the “Fox war classics” thing at the top of the case.  It’s the same reason I have a love/hate relationship with my “John Wayne classics” version of “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.” I know, weird, but I also thought Malick’s film, one of the very best ever made, needed a big to-do from Criterion or SOMEONE willing to dig in.

    It looks like I’m finally getting my wish, as Criterion will be releasing the DVD and — ZOMG! — Blu-ray this September.  This follows the recent Criterion release of “Days of Heaven” from the director.  And it’s just in time for all the forthcoming “Tree of Life” buzz.

    Count me stoked.  REALLY stoked.  I’m not sure what the specifics of the release are, actually, but I long for the day someone digs up all the footage and gives us that six-hour cut.  Is all of that lost to the winds?  I’m out of the loop.

    Anyway, the sell-sheet cover art hit today, which typically eschews any poster art in favor of something more singular.  Check it out after the jump, but keep an eye on the official page for the film at Criterion for updates and, eventually, the “official” cover art for the release.

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  • 2/4 Oscarweb Round-up

    (from left) Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper in All About Steve• China censors Oscar nominations announcement due to documentary short nominee. [Daily Telegraph]

    • Dave Karger and Missy Schwartz run the numbers on the Best Picture and Best Actress categories. [Oscar Watch]

    • Jeffrey Wells ponders the possibility of the home video release of “All About Steve,” starring Razzie-nominated actress Sandra Bullock, hurting her Oscar chances. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

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  • Truer words

    Q'Orianka Kilcher and Colin Farrell in The New WorldFrom Nick Davis’s appreciation of Terrence Malick’s “The New World,” tucked within his marvelous larger appreciation of 2006:

    Emmanuel Lubezki, a craftsman who needs no assistance from anybody, conducts his own jaw-dropping symphony of 100% natural-source lighting. I’d rank it up there with the three or four most impressive technical accomplishments I witnessed over the course of the decade. I’m just sad that Lubezki has personally assassinated the entire families of so many Oscar voters. Or, I’m sorry, do you have another theory as to why he still hasn’t won?

    (Sidebar: Remember that brief window of hope when it looked like “The Tree of Life” might come out in 2009? What a happy time that was.)

  • Alexandre Desplat: Hollywood’s most prolific composer

    A quick glance at Alexandre Desplat’s 2009 resume reveals a whopping seven titles.  That’s pretty prolific for someone who offers up quality work each and every time out, rather than coasting on simplicity like a few other hard-working film music composers out there.  This weekend alone there are two films bearing Desplat’s musical signature — “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox” — and he already has a few lingering entries on screen in “Julie & Julia” and “Coco Before Chanel.”

    Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet” lands on US screens in February, though it looks to figure in this year’s foreign film Oscar race, while perhaps the most anticipated film of Desplat’s upcoming projects is Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life.” Desplat recently addressed an audience at the 50th Thessaloniki International Film Festival about working with Malick on the film:

    Meanwhile, as part of Variety’s Eye on the Oscars coverage (at a spiffy, newly designed Award Central page), Jon Burlingame talks with Desplat about the volume of work he’s been cranking out as of late.

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  • Bill Pohlad on Apparition and working with Malick

    Bill PohladOne of the stories I’m tracking most curiously this awards season is the rise of brand-spanking-new distribution company Apparition, whose impressive slate of upcoming titles belies their fledgling status.

    “The Tree of Life,” “Bright Star” and, to a lesser extent, “The Young Victoria” are obviously the titles on people’s lips right now, but there are some interesting projects in the pipeline too: Doug Liman’s Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson biopic “Fair Game,” with Sean Penn and Naomi Watts, as well as music video director Floria Sigismondi’s “The Runaways” — another biopic, this one about the cult girl band of the title.

    Former Picturehouse chief Bob Berney has been the more-discussed name in connection with the outfit, but Variety has a handy little profile of Berney’s Apparition co-pilot Bill Pohlad, whose feature producing career only really started four years ago with “Brokeback Mountain.”

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  • Berney/Pohlad’s Apparition to release Malick’s ‘Tree of Life’

    (from left) Bob Berney and Bill PohladWe can all stop using “Unnamed Bob Berney/Bill Pohlad Company” to classify the domestic distribution of Jane Campion’s forthcoming “Bright Star.”  Apparition, as the new indie distributor is calling itself, had something of a coming out party today announcing the new moniker and, the real newsy item, that Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” will be one of the films domestically released under its banner.

    Bob Berney is one of the good guys, so I was pretty bummed when Picturehouse closed up shop last year, not least of all because it was one more death knell for indie cinema but because a smart guy didn’t have a ship to steer.  The news of a new company, with partner Bill Pohlad, was good enough for me, but only Campion’s film (acquired at Cannes) was in the mix.

    No release date has been set for Malick’s film yet, but the film is surprisingly expected to receive a 2009 bow.  There was confusion for a while in some quarters that Summit Entertainment would be releasing the film in the US, but that company was only ever involved with the international release, I believe.

    Full press release after the jump.

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  • David Gordon Green catches his stride in comedy

    (from left) Danny McBride and David Gordon Green on the set of Eastbound & DownIt has to be doubly sweet for my southern brethren to take in HBO’s “Eastbound & Down” every Sunday night, but even if this country detail or that passes below your radar, or heck, even if you don’t know a blatant Ric Flair gag when you see one, I can’t imagine anyone not laughing their ass off at this thing week after week.

    Then again, maybe I’m wrong.  The Danny McBride brand of humor might be seen as an extension of the Apatow/Rogen trajectory we’ve been on, toilet humor a bit too low on the brow for some.  Not me.  I’m eating it up.

    Strikingly, I think the last three episodes (plus last year’s “Pineapple Express”) prove that David Gordon Green should stick to comedy and prepare to make his mark there, because this seems to be his calling.  I’m all for the era of artistic stretching he’s been interested in since “George Washington” leaped off the neighborhoods of North Carolina and onto Roger Ebert’s top 10 list, though 95% of all of that never worked for me.  And I’m sure he’ll go there once again.  But as long as he wants to stick in this vein, I’m game.

    Not only is the timing something special (and just take a look at the editorial choices made in “Pineapple” by flipping between the extended and theatrical cuts on the Blu-ray or DVD for evidence there), but the mundane is represented like never before.  Last July I wrote of “Pineapple” the following:

    Yes, the man who staked a claim on the mundane mumblings of children and the love-struck in films like “George Washington” and “All the Real Girls” has applied those sensibilities to a niche genre that roots itself in same.

    And it works! It works so well it’s a shame Terrence Malick never tried his hand at “Up in Smoke.” The pieces slide into place and find a cohesive fit that couldn’t have been more unexpected.

    And that’s the case with “Eastbound & Down.”  100%.

    Of course, plenty of credit is due to co-creators McBride and Jody Hill (directing this summer’s “Observe and Report”), but the guidance behind the camera is exceptional.  I only hope I’m not the only guy taking this stuff for more than surface level, however, because it deserves more — whether it knows it or not.

    (And hel-lo Katy Mixon.)

  • TECH SUPPORT INTERVIEW: Alexandre Desplat

    Tech Support at In ContentionOver the last several years, Alexandre Desplat has gone from being a relatively unknown (in the United States anyway) French composer to emerging as one of the most acclaimed and sought after commodities in the business today.  Receiving his second Oscar nomination this year for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” Desplat has continued to cement his place at the top of his field.

    Despite the acclaim, however, he remains very close to his home in European cinema.  “I have tried to keep as much of a relationship as I can with my French directors,” he says.  “I always try to go to do two or three French movies a year.  That’s a lot but I don’t want to lose that.”

    While there are certainly exceptions, there is definitely a difference in the manner that French and American filmmakers approach their work, Desplat says.  Being forced to think differently because of different filmmaking styles helps his creative resources.  “It feeds me,” he says.

    David Fincher’s “Button” posed unique challenges for Desplat.  “It doesn’t have a linear storytelling,” he says.  “It’s a complex puzzle and I’d ask myself, ‘How do you deal with this in music and deal with the main character when he is a passive character?’  It’s not easy to capture in music.”

    Describing the film as a “sound epic,” Desplat notes that the music had to be strong without being overly dramatic or imposing.  It was a crucial demand from Fincher that Desplat says he had to struggle with.

    The composer has worked with some of the world’s top directors in recent years – Ang Lee, Stephen Frears, Jacques Audiard — but despite Fincher’s unique perspective in the wake of those talent helmers, Desplat says certain professional similarities smoothed the journey.

    “He has an amazing quality as a collaborator,” Desplat says. “He’s very demanding but so am I so that’s fine.  He’s very detailed but so am I, so that’s also fine.  He wants his people to bring their own world, talents and colors into the film.  I think that’s the sign of a great director.  All the great directors I’ve worked with know that it is crucial that your creative energy is opened and not just restrained.”

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  • Helmers of the English language, the best and why: part two

    Peter JacksonThis is the second part of a feature running down the 10 best filmmakers working in the English language.  For part one, click here, and stay tuned in the coming weeks for a similar feature on European helmers.

    PETER JACKSON
    I know this one will bother some people but what Jackson accomplsihed with “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy was fucking historical. Who would have thought the man who made the small, personal thriller “Heavenly Creatures” could guide a film as big as “The Ten Commandments?” Furthermore, he gave the Tolkein story heart and soul, never sacrificing character for scope.

    “The Lord of Rings: The Return of the King” was such a staggering work of brilliance I never wanted it to end (some felt like it never did, with multiple denouements).  But after investing nearly 12 hours with these characters, I wanted to know every last detail of what would become of them. And “King Kong” (I love it!) was among the best films of its year, a massive work with superb visual effects, spectacular art direction and design and a terrific Naomi Watts performance.

    I look forward to “The Lovely Bones,” one of the very few books I have read in the span of two days, unable to put it down. If any director can take us to the heaven described in that book, it is Jackson.

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