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Terrence Malick: Rehearsing the Unexpected
Terrence Malick's debut film, Badlands, announced the arrival of a unique talent. In the forty years since that debut, Malick has only made a small number of films that are now considered milestones in American cinema — straddling both independent and mainstream film production.
This book is not a biography of Terrence Malick. The purpose behind the book is to introduce readers, and potential film-makers, to the extraordinary universe of his film-making and to contribute to a further understanding of his work — through the voices of Malick's closest collaborators.
In interviews with producers, cinematographers, production and costume designers, editors, and actors such as Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Sam Shepard, and Jessica Chastain, their words flow from one to another to form a fascinating, kaleidoscopic vision of American film and, specifically, Malick's artistic world as it is presented in Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World and The Tree of Life.
This book is not a biography of Terrence Malick. The purpose behind the book is to introduce readers, and potential film-makers, to the extraordinary universe of his film-making and to contribute to a further understanding of his work — through the voices of Malick's closest collaborators.
In interviews with producers, cinematographers, production and costume designers, editors, and actors such as Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Sam Shepard, and Jessica Chastain, their words flow from one to another to form a fascinating, kaleidoscopic vision of American film and, specifically, Malick's artistic world as it is presented in Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World and The Tree of Life.
- GenresFilm
432 pages, Hardcover
First published September 2, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 19, 2017
Malick is my favorite filmmaker, and I'm an aspiring filmmaker, so the rating reflects my keen interest.
This book is a collection of interviews with his key collaborators on his films Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World, and The Tree of Life. There are brief mentions of To the Wonder and beyond.
As a movie watcher, I don't like to see the gears of the machine working. As a wannabe filmmaker, Malick has embraced a method of work that is exactly how I'd like to work. This book is full of information on his work methodology in production and post production. Mostly shooting style, with decent amounts of pre and post. I learned for instance that I was wrong to think he had begun to develop this loose, improvisational shooting environment during The Thin Red Line. But that it was there from the very beginning with Badlands.
Movies are somewhat communal and his movies are so increasingly impressionistic that it was nice to read some of my thoughts echoed from the mouths of his collaborators. Equally interesting to see where their views diverge from my own.
Because I love his work and especially his work style, I chewed this up. I'd caution that the casual fan might get bored.
This book is a collection of interviews with his key collaborators on his films Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World, and The Tree of Life. There are brief mentions of To the Wonder and beyond.
As a movie watcher, I don't like to see the gears of the machine working. As a wannabe filmmaker, Malick has embraced a method of work that is exactly how I'd like to work. This book is full of information on his work methodology in production and post production. Mostly shooting style, with decent amounts of pre and post. I learned for instance that I was wrong to think he had begun to develop this loose, improvisational shooting environment during The Thin Red Line. But that it was there from the very beginning with Badlands.
Movies are somewhat communal and his movies are so increasingly impressionistic that it was nice to read some of my thoughts echoed from the mouths of his collaborators. Equally interesting to see where their views diverge from my own.
Because I love his work and especially his work style, I chewed this up. I'd caution that the casual fan might get bored.
July 17, 2018
This maybe the closest you'll come to getting an enriching interpretation of Malick's cinema from the horse's mouth. The book is exclusively narrated by the filmmakers who worked on the films (the book only goes up to "The Tree of Life", but was compiled during the production of the three subsequent). This is a very vivid account which paints an articulate and comprehensive guide. The first half is more focused on the Hollywood historical perspective, going into Malick's shooting style, and eventually the cinema of searching; discarding plot-points to let the natural dictate production. I can only fault it for being a hair too superfluous, particularly on "The Tree of Life"'s creation of the universe sequence, but otherwise this book ought to be assigned in film school's directing class.
October 8, 2020
It is important to understand what you are getting here: this is an oral history of the production of Terrence Malick’s films, not any kind of analysis of the finished product. Malick himself is famously reclusive, and so he did not contribute to this book, while those who did contribute can only guess at “what Malick’s films mean”. The book is based on interviews with a number of Malick’s collaborators from his first film Badlands (1973) to The Tree of Life; while it was known to the editors that it had shot To the Wonder, that film came too late to be considered herein.
The interviews with the cinematographers for Malick’s films, with his longtime crew like production designer Jack Fisk and casting agent Diane Crittenden, and with editor Billy Weber give a great deal of insight into how actors were cast, how weather conditions and the terrain determined shots, and how the mountain of footage shot was gradually sculpted into a finished film. Impressively, the editors were even able to get input from most of Malick’s actors, even though some of them are big Hollywood stars.
For me, one of the most interesting things about this book is how it deconstructs the “myth of the auteur”. While each film can definitely be seen as Malick’s own personal expression simply because he oversaw the final edit, he played no part in many day-to-day aspects of moviemaking: sometimes a hired coach trained the actors for weeks before they briefly appeared in front of the camera, and each film had a second camera unit that made various shots on their own and only sent them on to Malick for approval.
The downside of the oral-history format of the book is that sometimes, when pressed to comment on Malick himself and his aims, the interviewees can only resort to platitudes. And sometimes multiple interviewees make the same comments, which leads to repetition. Still, I found this worthwhile for better understanding Malick’s films and how they came to be.
The interviews with the cinematographers for Malick’s films, with his longtime crew like production designer Jack Fisk and casting agent Diane Crittenden, and with editor Billy Weber give a great deal of insight into how actors were cast, how weather conditions and the terrain determined shots, and how the mountain of footage shot was gradually sculpted into a finished film. Impressively, the editors were even able to get input from most of Malick’s actors, even though some of them are big Hollywood stars.
For me, one of the most interesting things about this book is how it deconstructs the “myth of the auteur”. While each film can definitely be seen as Malick’s own personal expression simply because he oversaw the final edit, he played no part in many day-to-day aspects of moviemaking: sometimes a hired coach trained the actors for weeks before they briefly appeared in front of the camera, and each film had a second camera unit that made various shots on their own and only sent them on to Malick for approval.
The downside of the oral-history format of the book is that sometimes, when pressed to comment on Malick himself and his aims, the interviewees can only resort to platitudes. And sometimes multiple interviewees make the same comments, which leads to repetition. Still, I found this worthwhile for better understanding Malick’s films and how they came to be.
January 15, 2022
Very good
October 7, 2023
In terms of execution it’s decent, not amazing, but the sheer amount of insight into Malick’s thinking and work process is incredible and inspiring
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews