942 The Tree of Life

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#76 Post by **domino harvey** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:59 pm

If there's one thing I know about kids, it's that they love deliberately-paced art house films.

blindside8zao · #77 Post by **blindside8zao** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 6:42 pm

Tom Hagen wrote:Perhaps its a Heideggerian family film.

Did anyone around here see The Ister?

Cde. · #78 Post by **Cde.** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 7:58 pm

The Statesman wrote:While Malick has declined to reveal the plot of "Tree of Life," it is believed to focus on several people in the 1950s who go on a race to find a tree that promises immortality and other supernatural powers.

That's a new one.

Adam · #79 Post by **Adam** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 12:53 am

blindside8zao wrote:
Tom Hagen wrote:Perhaps its a Heideggerian family film.
Did anyone around here see The Ister?

Not yet, but I have a screener sitting in a box here. Maybe it's time to get it out.

Galen Young · #80 Post by **Galen Young** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 1:40 am

More grist for the mill, courtesy Ms. Jolie in the July issue of Vanity Fair.

Vanity Fair wrote:Jolie was sitting in the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin, Texas. For the previous few months, she had been living in Smithville, just outside the state capital. On the way to our meeting, she dropped two of her children off at the school they will be attending until Pitt wraps Tree of Life, the movie he is making with Terrence Malick. ("I would be the worst person to explain it," Jolie told me. "I think there's something existential about it. It’s a kind of nuclear 1950s family, and [Brad] is a strong father.")

Tom Hagen · #81 Post by **Tom Hagen** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 2:36 am

Angelina Jolie wrote:I think there's something existential about it.

Existential? In Malick's cinema? You don't say, Angie. This has to be the understatement of the year.

MyNameCriterionForum · #82 Post by **MyNameCriterionForum** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 7:03 pm

"You just walked through the door that Brad Pitt walked through!"

This sure enough is some bizarre shit (scroll to bottom)

Tootsie's, Huston - Interior
PSP AEC - Enterprise Plaza
Houston Zoo - Exterior
Hotel Derek - Room
Wortham Theater Center - Interior - Exterior

Goddamn I am outrageously excited about this film.

Edit kinjitsu: images removed at the request of Mr. Malick's office.

Murdoch · #83 Post by **Murdoch** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 7:27 pm

It looks like that imdb user was trying to channel Malick.

blindside8zao · #84 Post by **blindside8zao** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:04 pm

Adam wrote:
blindside8zao wrote:
Tom Hagen wrote:Perhaps its a Heideggerian family film.
Did anyone around here see The Ister?
Not yet, but I have a screener sitting in a box here. Maybe it's time to get it out.

Yeah, do that and then send me a copy.

John Cope · #85 Post by **John Cope** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 12:16 am

Wonder if this is going to turn out to be Malick's Cremaster Cycle. I would love to see that.

Second that request for an accessible Ister, btw. I tried to finagle a way to see this through my local university library but was unable to as I'm no longer a student and they wouldn't lend it out. Purchasing it through the production company is, uh, not financially feasible (even with the "discount" for non-institutional rates).

Fierias · #86 Post by **Fierias** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:25 am

Nigel Ashcroft

Currently Nigel is working on 2 major projects with legendary film director, Terrence Malick. As well as producing an extensive natural history segment for Malick’s latest feature film, The Tree of Life starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, they are making an Imax film entitled The Voyage of Time. Both are due to release at the end of 2009.

blindside8zao · #87 Post by **blindside8zao** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 2:37 am

Thanks a bunch. I wonder how many people on this board are interested in post being-and-time Heidegger.

King Prendergast · #88 Post by **King Prendergast** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:57 am

blindside8zao wrote:I wonder how many people on this board are interested in post being-and-time Heidegger.

I would be one of those interested in later MH. I did some graduate work on "The Question Concerning Technology" as it relates to certain themes in the Werner Herzog's oeuvre.

blindside8zao · #89 Post by **blindside8zao** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:43 pm

I haven't gotten to that particular essay yet but am catching some stuff on technology through 'What are Poets for?' I've read some pretty bizarre sounding stuff of his but this essay has to be the most bizarre yet.

Regarding Herzog, I remember finding a lot of Nietzschean stuff in his films when I was reading a lot of N, legitimate enough to warrant scholarly work. Did you use any films of his in particular?

(Mod's, feel free to create a new through for this sidetrack if you feel it's warranted. I'd group it all into an Ister thread or Heidegger and Film thread if I could.)

John Cope · #90 Post by **John Cope** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:56 pm

As long as we're going to get derailed anyway...

The best piece I've seen on The Ister and a big reason for my own continued interest (downloading now

). As to the question at hand, however, I have to admit I'm more a PI era Wittgensteinian.

King Prendergast · #91 Post by **King Prendergast** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:46 pm

blindside8zao wrote:Regarding Herzog, I remember finding a lot of Nietzschean stuff in his films when I was reading a lot of N, legitimate enough to warrant scholarly work. Did you use any films of his in particular?

Certainly- much of Herzog's work could be broadly classified as Nietzshean; not as obviously as something like 2001, but breaking through the constraints of slave morality is clearly a recurring theme in his work.

Regarding Herzog, Heidegger and technology: the strand of reactionary mysticism that I see working in many of Herzog's non-fiction films, particularly in the likes of Fata Morgana or Lessons of Darkness, has much in common with MH's view of how technology has influenced man's relationship to the Earth.

chaddoli · #92 Post by **chaddoli** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:09 am

Can we get back to Malick and Tree of Life please? Every time I see there's a post in this thread I get excited, only to find it's about something else. Make an Ister thread or whatever.

Cde. · #93 Post by **Cde.** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:00 am

Fierias wrote:
Nigel Ashcroft

Currently Nigel is working on 2 major projects with legendary film director, Terrence Malick. As well as producing an extensive natural history segment for Malick’s latest feature film, The Tree of Life starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, they are making an Imax film entitled The Voyage of Time. Both are due to release at the end of 2009.

I'm amazed no-one seems to care about this. If true, it pretty much seals this film as being 'Q' (natural history? 'The Voyage of Time'?) and the thought of Malick shooting an IMAX film is almost too much for me. Forget The Dark Knight, the real moment IMAX becomes a serious format is when Malick gives us a film made in that format.

adeeze · #94 Post by **adeeze** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 10:13 pm

My dream has always to become a flim director, so I could make films like this. This has always been my dream film to make, and I have one in mind that I hope to write one day. Hopely this film wouldn't be too similar. But I would love for it to be made either way.

hot_locket · #95 Post by **hot_locket** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:25 am

ivuernis wrote:"Imagine this surrealistic reptilian world. There is this creature, a Minotaur, sleeping in the water, and he dreams about the evolution of the universe, seeing the earth change from a sea of magma to the earliest vegetation, to the dinosaurs, and then to man. It would be this metaphorical story that moves you through time."

That article mentioned a couple short films by Malick... have any of these ever been screened for the public?

whaleallright · #96 Post by **whaleallright** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 6:47 pm

That article mentioned a couple short films by Malick... have any of these ever been screened for the public?

Malick does not allow his AFI graduation film, LANTON MILLS, to be screened publicly. Here's a summary of what's in it.

Cold Bishop · #97 Post by **Cold Bishop** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 7:07 pm

Malick managed to get both Dean Stanton and Warren Oates for his thesis film?

MyNameCriterionForum · #98 Post by **MyNameCriterionForum** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 6:46 am

God, that sounds good! I think badlands is one of the funniest films ever made, and this sounds somewhat similar. I know his Deadhead Miles is easily available as a DVDr -- has anyone seen it?

Pitt's piano double, haha

Edit kinjitsu: images removed at the request of Mr. Malick's office.

kaujot · #99 Post by **kaujot** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 10:54 am

Oh dear. I'm surprised security isn't tighter.

Though it's probably a crew member.

MyNameCriterionForum · #100 Post by **MyNameCriterionForum** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 2:10 am

From the imdb commments page for Tree of Life, so take this with a grain or three of salt:

Written & Directed by: Terrence Malick
Cast: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain
Producers: William Pohlad, Sarah Green, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Grant Hill

Our picture is a cosmic epic, a hymn to life.

We trace the evolution of an eleven-year-old boy in the Midwest, Jack, one of three brothers. At first all seems marvelous to the child. He sees as his mother does, with the eyes of his soul. She represents the way of love and mercy, where the father tries to teach his son the world's way, of putting oneself first. Each parent contends for his allegiance, and Jack must reconcile their claims. The picture darkens as he has his first glimpses of sickness, suffering and death. The world, once a thing of glory, becomes a labyrinth.

Framing this story is that of adult Jack, a lost soul in a modern world, seeking to discover amid the changing scenes of time that which does not change: the eternal scheme of which we are a part. When he sees all that has gone into our world's preparation, each thing appears a miracle — precious, incomparable. Jack, with his new understanding, is able to forgive his father and take his first steps on the path of life.

The story ends in hope, acknowledging the beauty and joy in all things, in the everyday and above all in the family -- our first school -- the only place that most of us learn the truth about the world and ourselves, or discover life's single most important lesson, of unselfish love.