Friday, August 20, 2010

Back to square one, and I'm done.


I'm starting not to care anymore, because I feel that the more I talk/post about it, the longer the wait is going to feel. Another day? Well, it's time for another Tree of Life release update. Thompson on Hollywood posted an article regarding the elusive Terrence Malick's latest - and very mysterious - project. Two parts of the article here caught my eye:
Word is, Malick has not finished cutting the movie down from three to two and a half hours. (Back at the University of Texas at Austin, he lets film students take a crack at editing various scenes.) The film was submitted to the MPAA and received a PG-13 rating.

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?’”
On the first; well, now I wish I'd gone to UT for film school. The notorious recluse is letting students play around with his footage? That's just all sorts of awesome, and seems totally out of character. The second brings me to a much different point. If this film sees the light of day by the end of 2010, I think it might officially be time to take this one down a few pegs (if not completely off) on major Oscar predictions. While I expect the film to go over well with critics and cinephiles, I'm not sure if I see the Academy embracing something so ambitious. Remember, Malick's biggest (and only) date with Oscar was for The Thin Red Line, which despite its meditative nature, was still a war movie, a genre that tends to go over well with AMPAS. Regardless, the film is still one of my most anticipated, but for now, unless an official release date (ie: with a specific month and day) or festival debut date comes out, consider this the start of a moratorium on Tree of Life talk.

No comments: