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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Malick's Tree Of Life -Booed in Cannes

Jeremy Torrie

Jeremy Torrie

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http://www.thewrap.com/movies/colum...life-gets-boos-applause-director-absent-27428

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplayl...s_terrence_malicks_universe_spanning_search/#

I'm sure it looks fantastic...but boos are never a good thing. 138 minute run time.

I just read another article with the producer who said he and Terry were locking picture for Cannes LAST year, but decided not to screen it at the last minute...so a whole year goes by.

On the one hand it's great there are serious financiers willing to still take chances, but I wonder what's going to happen with this film?
 
Jake Bastian said:
Everything gets booed at Cannes, it's just the nature of the audience. I wouldn't think too much of it.
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Seconded.

Many films booed on opening night end up winning the damned thing. That's the trick about Cannes. No matter who you are, you enter assuming every critic will boo your film and think it is a piece of crap. So when you end up winning the golden palm, it REALLY is a shock.

EDIT: after having read those reviews and blog links you posted I want to see "the Tree of Life" even more!
 
It is a relief to know that there are still directors out there that make other films
than direct crowd pleasers.

Terrence Malick is one of my all-time idols and I can't wait for the film to hit theaters.
 
I've been a Malick fan for some time, and while I'm counting the minutes to see the Tree of Life for myself, it isn't difficult to imagine how some people will invariably take issue with his work...as we all know, there's no pleasing everyone, but what's worse is that in trying to please everyone by making something geared for the lowest common denominator, the result tends to be incredibly bland and unimaginative.

I would bet that everyone in that theater in Cannes went into that film with expectations, probably lofty ones, or at the very least a keen interest in seeing what Malick would bring to the table as a filmmaker. Whether or not the film is liked or appreciated by everybody is ultimately unimportant, I think. What is more significant is that this film will affect people, some deeply, some adversely, some spiritually. I think that says so much about a film, especially considering that there are so many films made these days that do so little to move us as an audience, to make us question anything, to linger in our minds for days/weeks after viewing (some hardly stay with us beyond walking out of the theater).

Of course, as someone who admires Malick's work and contributions to cinema (and art), it makes me wince a bit to hear of people booing this film, though my hope is that they are just missing something, perhaps in their mindset when going into the film, and that a few years from now they could come back to the film with different expectations and find the film exhilarating (try that with Fast Five or Transformers). The flipside to that coin is that for many this is a business, not an artform, and I'm sure that the guys crunching the numbers could care less about the artistic integrity or ambition of a film so long as it puts people in seats. I guess I like to believe that there's room enough for both kinds of filmmaking, though I fear that the number crunchers are winning...
 
Julio Quintana said:
Not that it particularly matters, but boos are definitely not the prevailing reaction:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/tree-life-cannes-2011-review-188564
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Yes..it's a pretty good review..he really parallels it to 2001

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/tree-life-cannes-2011-review-188564

That not a single image here seems fake or artificial can only be the ultimate praise for the work of senior visual effects supervisor Dan Glass and his team, while the presence of Douglas Trumbull as visual effects consultant further cements the film’s connection to 2001.
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I just hope the producers don't lose their shirts...having this kind of voice is essential for auteur filmmaking to be relevant.

But if Malick's investors lose money (although Summit was a backer and they are reaping millions with Twilight) it becomes a more difficult task for those of us lesser mortals.

Cannes is absolutely a weird beast. They screened Pirates 4 for 4,000 people.
 
I've only seen about 60 minutes of the film over at Fox and from what I saw it looked really good. But the story does seem to go all over the place and through time. Most of the people on the lot that have run it think its one of the weirdest films they have seen because it does jump around a lot. So from what I saw, if you go in wanting to see a really well shot film then you won't be disappointed. But if your looking for a well told story you might not find it. Personally I liked watching what I saw of it. Hopefully I'll get to see the entire film soon.
 
Well at the end of the day it can't be too esoteric or too smart for the room...audiences need to follow a simple/familiar narrative but a filmmaker can certainly pose bigger questions as I believe Malick has done, and as a storyteller one has the obligation to do so.

Images and ideas...he seems to do well with those. Emotional journey? I'm sure there are those who will argue his films do achieve that. But as much as I have wanted to love his films I have yet to emotionally connect with any of his characters.
 
Cannes critics are a bunch of bums who love to boo films to feel special. The whole jeering traditions is so sophomoric. They often produce nothing of their own and only enjoy lambasting the hard work of others. I believe in Malick. He is brilliant and insanely creative, pretty much the polar opposite of many of the critics present at Cannes.
 
It's pretty simple, Malick is a god of visual imagery and hasn't a clue about narrative or story, it's been like that since the beginning. I now know what to expect and not expect when watching his films.
 
I am not surprised, The New World was bashed by a lot of the audience / critics too. I suppose they are too hung up on "script" and "plot" to realize that cinema is actually an audio visual medium where never once do you see a script. All you see is images and sounds.
 
Shawn Nelson said:
It's pretty simple, Malick is a god of visual imagery and hasn't a clue about narrative or story, it's been like that since the beginning. I now know what to expect and not expect when watching his films.
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Really? Not a clue about narrative or story even in Badlands and Days of Heaven? I'll grant you that, whatever you think of them, The Thin Red Line and The New World have less conventional meandering narratives (though they're not remotely non-narrative), but his first two films are pretty tight from a story perspective.
 
Who cares about what the audience thinks? After all, they're the ones cheering every freaking Michael Bay monster visual feast out the door every second year or so - I don't really think most of them cared enough to really think about the movie before they cast judgement!

Still excited and waiting...
 
@ Shawn- LOL. No, he doesn't necessarily subscribe to Robert McKee... but malick definitely has a CLUE about narrative and story telling - and reaches audiences in a way that only Kubrick and a scant few others can only dream to...

by far my all time favorite storyteller is Terence Malick -
 
I would feel honored to have a film of mine booed at Cannes someday.... Just sayin'
 
Kit's command at the airplane hanger is one of cinema's greatest moments. If a critic says that Malick's latest endeavour "seems like the work of a madman," then I'm going to make it a mission to be first in line at the Boulder Station when "Tree of Life" opens here in Vegas.
 
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