Knight of Cups: 2015 Terrence Malick
Initial Pre-Review
This is my Facebook post of Mar. 9th:
I believe that A.A. Doud of the A.V. Club's analysis is very observant and right on in many ways.
An extensive analysis is exactly the antithesis, however, of what a film like Malick's is really about. The reason he has so broken with stereotype and worked his against-the-odds filmmaking style, and repetitively, is for 2 main reasons (and I'm sure there are more if we look further, but 2 main reasons in any case). 1) Like a great master painter, and I just viewed Pollack a few weeks ago, and that fits this perfectly, to repeat a formula that works and to refine it would be the goal and 2)the style perfectly breaks the expectations we have, yes, and if one allows oneself to be "taken" by the film's direction, which is indeed meditative and dreamlike, then you'll find that the "narrative" is held within that structure - in other words, like a great painting, there is a reason for it being great that is not necessarily borne out of expectation, but a naturalism that makes it great, and it has to be taken as a WHOLE and not pieces, which is why narrative structure indeed cannot be applied here. Like that sentence for instance. Technically it still works, even though there is no stopping place.
Pollack's later works were great precisely because he found a freedom from the restraints of the edge of the canvas, and the edge of the "known" and began to allow his free association to combine with his full acknowledgement of his craft. As it applies to Malick, in The New World for instance, there is a definite progression of plot, as we know the story to have it's own plot in any case, but with Malick the PLOT is not the objective, it is the TELLING that makes it come alive, a story we're already familiar with. Just one example from that film: the great English gardens in the end with their flawless landscaping, and there is Pocahontas dressed to the nines in her tight fitting shoes, corset, hair done up in a bun, etc. The visual alone is all that needs to be said, especially when Malick places the Native American escort over and against that landscape in his near-native getup, as anachronous and disturbing almost as an elephant defecating at a ladies tea.
I'm supposing that you'll have to put me in the "faithful" lot, because I'm seeing into that structure, possibly a bit easier than the average moviegoer, not out of a sense of "film snobbery" or superiority, but because I've spent over 30 years of consistent film study and analysis, starting with my revelatory film school experience in the late '80s. I drop very easily into the Malick spell, and without reservation am a fan. And I haven't even SEEN this film yet. I'm only responding to this review. I'm very likely to write a follow up to this after I've been able to catch it near my culturally and geographically estranged location. The nearest even this Friday, after a week of it being out, is still a 3 hour drive.
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