Cannes Review: Tree of Life Lures Packed House, Oscar-Worthy Pitt Speaks for Missing Director Malick
By Anne Thompson
That’s what this movie requires. There’s no need to take notes or worry about catching key plot points or dialogue. It’s a very simple look at a 50s family dynamic as a handsome couple, tough authoritarian father Brad Pitt and passive, loving mother Jessica Chastain, raise three sons in a bucolic Texas suburb (actually, Smallville, Texas). Chastain sets the mood for Malick’s quiet tone poem by reading words from Medieval monk Thomas a Kempis about nature and grace, which punctuate the movie. Malick gave the lines to Chastain to read on set one day, as he was wont to do. As she read, birds sang on the track. Much later, while she was shooting far from Malick’s Austin editing room, he asked her to go into a booth and rerecord the section, but wound up using the original.
This is symptomatic of Malick’s improvisatory, painstaking quest for perfection on a film that he finally completed after years of prep, production and post-production, through a series of editors (winding up in the home stretch with The New World‘s Mark Yoshikowa). Malick even showed the film to his students at the University of Texas for feedback. Producers Sarah Green and Grant Hill insist that Malick wanted it this way, and kept looking for fresh takes on the material. When challenged about Malick’s need for more powerful producers to keep him in check, Malick veteran Green responded: “He’s the most disciplined filmmaker I’ve ever worked with.” Pitt defended Malick as an “artist” who should not have to be a “salesman” as well.
But in the end, Hill admitted that the version finally revealed in Cannes was a “refinement” of what was supposed to show here last year; not drastically different. Financeer Bill Pohlad admitted there were many discussions and arguments—about the CG dinosaurs, among other things, which are quite elaborate. They are part of the history of life sequence which calls up Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, long montages of massive protostars and dust clouds in space, volcanic flows, crashing waves, and dividing cells. FX pioneer Douglas Trumbull, who created Kubrick’s effects, worked on Tree of Life‘s VFX for over a year, using some CG plus fluorescent dyes, milk, smoke, paint, high-speed cameras and folded lenses. Alexandre Desplat composed the score.
These sequences—along with a recurring computer design matrix used as chapter breaks—move in and out of the free-flowing family narrative that starts with the death of one the boys at age 19, and then moves to business mogul Sean Penn, who pops into the narrative in brief bursts as the eldest brother, still trying to find his lost sibling in his head and heart.
Chastain and co-star/producer Pitt waxed reverential when talking about legendarily shy Malick, who eschewed the press conference and let his cast and producers speak for him. While Malick’s characters ask God for spiritual guidance and meaning, Pitt describes Malick as a spiritual man, but not a “compartmentalized Christian.” It reminds me of the way actors used to talk about Kubrick. Actors may revere such finicky filmmakers, who bear the burden of high expectations, but the experience of actually working with Malick was “exhausting,” admitted Pitt.
The actor said that Malick would write in the morning and bring to set three or four single-spaced pages for the actors, but would purposely dive-bomb them by throwing “the torpedo,” the youngest boy, into the scene to mix things up. “We would catch what was happening on the day,” says Pitt who said that the cinematographer, New World‘s Emanuel Lubezki, used mostly natural light with one hand-held fill. “The kids themselves weren’t given a script. The results were fresh. It was a pretty incredible experience.” And one that Pitt would not care to repeat.
Finally, Pitt deserves credit for wanting to stretch and helping Malick to get the film produced. “Sometimes great stories have great difficulty getting made, even with Terrence Malick. We’ve witnessed strong scripts go by the wayside and not get made. I wanted to make sure this one did, I jumped in… I’m not that highbrow…I like to find something new, that’s been my focus.”
The star is at his personal best here, giving a strong, physical, award-worthy performance as a controlling father who constantly molds and corrects his kids, filling them with fear and anger as well as love. Pitt was inspired enough from working with Malick to apply some of these lessons about seeking “happy accidents” in his later work. “I’ve found in the past that the best moments were not preconceived or planned,” he said.
Fox Searchlight will release the film stateside May 27. Does it have a potential Oscar life? Maybe, if critics don’t jump all over it—it won’t be unanimously praised, by any means. I’d say long overdue Pitt deserves consideration, along with Lubezki.
Cannes Film Festival: Terrence Malick and Brad Pitt's 'Tree of Life' draws boos, but also counter-applause
by Anthony Breznican
It’s daunting to describe Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, but scattered audience members at its first screening in Cannes needed only one syllable: boo.
The many supporters of the movie pushed back with counter-applause, but it was a shocking way for the movie to debut.
The Tree of Life is an elegiac litany of images and memory-like scenes more than a traditional narrative. Let’s see — in brief, it’s the origin of time and infinity through the lens of one troubled, 1950s-era Texas family, and stars Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain, though they share copious screen time with evolving galaxies, nebulae, and surreal, symbolic representations of the world beyond.
Call it a coming of age story about the universe.
Here’s how the chaos — on screen and off — unfolded today …
The scene outside the 8:30 a.m. screening at the festival’s Grand Theatre Lumiere was a mosh pit of fearsome determination.
Malick is somewhat the J.D. Salinger of filmmakers, rarely photographed, and never submitting to interviews. Though he is hardly prolific, his handful of films have been striking for their visual splendor and meditative tones: Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World.
Though the movie opens for everyone May 27, audience members crushed at the entrance Monday morning, shoving and hollering to gain entrance to a film that has been eagerly anticipated at Cannes for two years. With passions so high to see it, the movie’s debut mirrored the film’s central conflict: a boy trying to live up to the high standards of his harsh father. Only in this case it was Cannes notoriously harsh community of critics and journalists.
As long-form reviews were being written (check back here for EW critic Lisa Schwarzbaum’s assessment) there was push-back against the booing on Twitter. “Yes, some booed at Tree of Life‘s end, but a) far more clapped, b) wouldn’t a monobloc of opinion be dull? And, of course, c) jerks abound,” wrote MSN Movies’ James Rocchi.
“The booing at the end of today’s Tree of Life screening was an ugly, animalistic thing that may explain why Malick doesn’t do press,” added IndieWire’s Eric Kohn.
And yes, the notoriously elusive Malick continued his long tradition of not speaking on behalf of his movies, and did not attend the press conference after the screening. His producer, Sarah Green, said he prefers to stay out of the spotlight because, “Mr. Malick is very shy and I would say I believe his work speaks for him.”
Pitt had no problem speaking instead. “He tells this micro story of this family in a small town in Texas and juxtaposes it with the macro of the birth of the cosmos and cells splitting,” he said. “I find that so extraordinary. There are parallel truths in that.”
The actor said repeatedly he could go on at length about the process Malick employed to make such an unusual film. There are few dialogue-driven scenes, and the child actors at the center of the tale were not permitted to see the script, Pitt said, instead being told roughly what to do or say. Pitt said Malick wanted everyone to follow their instincts.
“He’s like a guy with a butterfly net waiting for the truth to go by,” Pitt said.
“It was all about capturing the accident,” Chastain added, citing a for-instance: “There’s a section where a butterfly lands on my hand. It’s not in the script, and we didn’t put anything on my hand to make it land there.”
“It’s a leap of faith, but that’s the point,” Pitt said.
Malick rented the entire neighborhood where they shot, dressed it to resemble the 1950s period, and would have the family linger together on the street, playing on swings, or working in the yard, while the capture awaited special moments.
“Then he does what he calls torpedoing a scene,” Pitt said. “The youngest child he called The Torpedo. On the first day, [Chastain and I] were having an argument, raising our voices, and we shot that take. Then suddenly he would send in Ty, as the Torpedo, and it changed the whole dynamic of the scene.”
There was some joking about the absent director, whom Chastain said tended to steer the camera toward nearby woodpecker or something else in nature if it interrupted the scene. Instead of ruining the take, that tended to be the thing Malick would rather use.
Pitt said he had no problem with the director choosing not to speak about the movie publicly. “You know how you have a favorite song and then you hear the band describing your favorite lyrics, and then you’re disappointed?” he asked the room of journalists, who responded with silence.
“No?” he said.
Follow EW’s Anthony Breznican on Twitter @Breznican
It’s daunting to describe Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, but scattered audience members at its first screening in Cannes needed only one syllable: boo.
The many supporters of the movie pushed back with counter-applause, but it was a shocking way for the movie to debut.
The Tree of Life is an elegiac litany of images and memory-like scenes more than a traditional narrative. Let’s see — in brief, it’s the origin of time and infinity through the lens of one troubled, 1950s-era Texas family, and stars Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain, though they share copious screen time with evolving galaxies, nebulae, and surreal, symbolic representations of the world beyond.
Call it a coming of age story about the universe.
Here’s how the chaos — on screen and off — unfolded today …
The scene outside the 8:30 a.m. screening at the festival’s Grand Theatre Lumiere was a mosh pit of fearsome determination.
Malick is somewhat the J.D. Salinger of filmmakers, rarely photographed, and never submitting to interviews. Though he is hardly prolific, his handful of films have been striking for their visual splendor and meditative tones: Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World.
Though the movie opens for everyone May 27, audience members crushed at the entrance Monday morning, shoving and hollering to gain entrance to a film that has been eagerly anticipated at Cannes for two years. With passions so high to see it, the movie’s debut mirrored the film’s central conflict: a boy trying to live up to the high standards of his harsh father. Only in this case it was Cannes notoriously harsh community of critics and journalists.
Image Credit: Merie Wallace
“The booing at the end of today’s Tree of Life screening was an ugly, animalistic thing that may explain why Malick doesn’t do press,” added IndieWire’s Eric Kohn.
And yes, the notoriously elusive Malick continued his long tradition of not speaking on behalf of his movies, and did not attend the press conference after the screening. His producer, Sarah Green, said he prefers to stay out of the spotlight because, “Mr. Malick is very shy and I would say I believe his work speaks for him.”
Pitt had no problem speaking instead. “He tells this micro story of this family in a small town in Texas and juxtaposes it with the macro of the birth of the cosmos and cells splitting,” he said. “I find that so extraordinary. There are parallel truths in that.”
The actor said repeatedly he could go on at length about the process Malick employed to make such an unusual film. There are few dialogue-driven scenes, and the child actors at the center of the tale were not permitted to see the script, Pitt said, instead being told roughly what to do or say. Pitt said Malick wanted everyone to follow their instincts.
“It was all about capturing the accident,” Chastain added, citing a for-instance: “There’s a section where a butterfly lands on my hand. It’s not in the script, and we didn’t put anything on my hand to make it land there.”
“It’s a leap of faith, but that’s the point,” Pitt said.
Malick rented the entire neighborhood where they shot, dressed it to resemble the 1950s period, and would have the family linger together on the street, playing on swings, or working in the yard, while the capture awaited special moments.
“Then he does what he calls torpedoing a scene,” Pitt said. “The youngest child he called The Torpedo. On the first day, [Chastain and I] were having an argument, raising our voices, and we shot that take. Then suddenly he would send in Ty, as the Torpedo, and it changed the whole dynamic of the scene.”
There was some joking about the absent director, whom Chastain said tended to steer the camera toward nearby woodpecker or something else in nature if it interrupted the scene. Instead of ruining the take, that tended to be the thing Malick would rather use.
Pitt said he had no problem with the director choosing not to speak about the movie publicly. “You know how you have a favorite song and then you hear the band describing your favorite lyrics, and then you’re disappointed?” he asked the room of journalists, who responded with silence.
“No?” he said.
Follow EW’s Anthony Breznican on Twitter @Breznican
