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Remember when Malick didn't make movies for a long time? That was fun.

From December: Christian Bale expects to be cut from new Terrence Malick film

Not that this means anything, but IMDb says that it's "expected September 4, 2014". Weirdly, his other two--Knight of Cups and Voyage of Time--just say "United States--2014," but there are specific dates for their releases in the Netherlands. Any reason to believe these, or are they just made up?

I will probably always think of this as Untitled Indie-Rock Thriller, just like I can't stop thinking of Tree of Life as the world's longest life insurance ad thanks to this board

I'm sad too, as for the last few years I've been associating "Untitled Indie-Rock Thriller" with Lucio Fulci's film "Murder-Rock: Dancing Death" (very NSFW, though it is nice to see the Nightmare City dance troupe had another gig!)

I can't wait to see what places Malick takes his wandering characters through whilst following them with a wide angle lens as the character's inner child whispers about mother and father.

I'm personally more excited about seeing how much sex and drugs Scorsese makes his characters do in Silence, as the camera tracks and the soundtrack blasts out circa-17th Century Japanese pop music.

Also looking forward to seeing the upcoming Hong Sang Soo again.

That's a bit of a non-sequitur attack because obviously Silence won't do that so it not featuring those typical Scorsese ticks has little to do with what nearly every Malick film has had regardless of context. Likewise I don't think Hong is a terribly good counter since he does it primarily from a story position rather then necessarily aesthetic ticks which he is amazingly varied in. Even if you want to compare his use of narrative to Malick's visual repetitions I feel comfortable saying they are different. Hong makes a point, like Ozu, of building on differences in story like moment of introduction or setting. Malick on the other hand seems to start at the difference, his stories are rarely comparable, and unites them with the type of scene described above. Now I personally don't think this tick of Malick, nor the ones you cite with Scorsese, is problematic or worth criticizing, but your examples don't really work to explain Malick's specific case.

Okay, fine, let me water it down even more:

I can't wait to see where and how a director directs his characters as he composes them with the same lens as his unique aesthetic is implemented.

I mean no defence of Malick's aesthetic in his last three films (I find it slightly annoying by now, least because of the empty aping outside his films) but I see no difference in critical perspective, hence the ridiculousness (though common criticisms) of those directors - which, as you mentioned, either build up a case based on a selected amount of films (Scorsese) or miss the point entirely (like in Hong's case). It's like as soon as an artist has their own idiosyncrasies, they're weak to re-implement. It's a language. Ozu is 101. I also see very little structural/stylistic/tonal/narrative similarities between anything pre and post ToL. His last three films each built on/subverted the previous one, so I can't imagine how he'll strip down Knight of Cups any more anyway. And, for all we know, it's completely different to everything else (it's no autobiography, at least).

Having seen Knight Of Cups, and hating it almost entirely as much as I loved all of his previous work (including To The Wonder) my anticipation for Weightless has completely dissipated. I hope it's good, but I have my doubts it will be anything new or profound.

Voyage Of Time on the other hand is something worth getting excited for.

I do wish Malick would dump Lubezki for any future films, though. I've never liked his work, especially now that there are so many "little Malicks" running around aping his style (some of them even using Lubezki themselves). Malick might deflect some of the "insurance commercial" criticisms if he were to use a drier, less florid photographer; not to mention that I just prefer a more restrained style. For all the beauty of Malick's first two (even three - Toll's work on Thin Red Line is amazing) films, they are still relatively disciplined and understated, visually.

Manny Karp wrote:Having seen Knight Of Cups, and hating it almost entirely as much as I loved all of his previous work (including To The Wonder) my anticipation for Weightless has completely dissipated. I hope it's good, but I have my doubts it will be anything new or profound.

I'm in the same boat. I honestly only love and own Days of Heaven and To the Wonder, but his work has always at least made me curious. And even if I didn't like his other films, I always appreciated and respected them. Knight of Cups just deflated any interest I ever had.

I'll wait for the reviews.

Fassbender reveals he plays

Spoiler

a Lucifer-type character in the film

The real problem for Malick is that he created the perfect expression of his innovative technique with "The Tree of Life" and there is really no room for him to improve on that technique after that amazing film. King of Cups felt like a warm up to "The Tree of Life" and it's subject matter wasn't befitting the lyrical treatment of his filmmaking -- in fact the technique and the story were almost at odds. And, I'm sorry, but no matter how troubled my personal life is, I'd still give my right arm to be Christian Bale for a week, which is what the film essentially was: The suffering entrenched in the rich, famous, and beautiful non-stop party life of Christian Bale: That's a tough one for an audience to swallow!

At last, the Malick rock opera we've all been waiting for!

j/k

Every title since Untitled Indie Rock Thriller just gets worse and worse

World premiere will open SXSW, one week before release

Considering how it seemed like Knight of Cups took forever to come out after its premiere this is a pleasant surprise

I really don't know anymore. The trailer for Knight of Cups was similar to this, with all the beautiful images, landscapes and famous stars faces, and turned out to be a two hour voice over bore. At least this looks, unless Malick re-edits the film, to have actual conversations.
Malick sure had become the Raul Ruiz of today

dda1996a wrote:Malick sure had become the Raul Ruiz of today

Uh, no.