OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
In theatres: May 27,2011. Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Rated PG-13. Genre: Drama.
STORY LINE
The story of a Midwestern family in the 1950's. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.
http://www.movieinsider.com/m4494/tree-of-life/
TRAILER
ABOVE THE LINE
Stars: Brad Pitt
Sean Penn
Jessica Chastain
Producer: Bill Pohlad
Director: Terrence Malick
Writer: Terrence Malick
BUZZ
It's not many film productions that consult with NASA as they're shooting. But then, not many film productions have Terrence Malick for a director. As cinematographer Emanuel "Chivo" Lubezki tells it, the shoot for Malick's coming-of-age epic "The Tree of Life," starring Sean Penn and Brad Pitt, pretty much made up its own rules as it went along. Then it broke those too. "Once you think you got the formula, you realized there is no formula," Chivo told 24 Frames in an interview. "It's like no set I ever worked on."
There are plenty of reasons why that's true. Besides the NASA factor -- Malick consulted with the space agency for footage of the cosmos and other grand imagery he used in the film -- there was the fact that he didn't shoot actors in a conventional way. Or, sometimes, at all. Though most movies use what's known as "coverage" -- cameras stationed in different places, with the idea of conveying a scene as you might experience it in real life -- "Tree of Life" eschewed those conventions.
"So the actors are performing the dialogue, but Terry isn't interested in dialogue. So they're talking, and we're shooting a reflection or we're shooting the wind or we're shooting the frame of the window, and then we finally pan to them when they finish the dialogue," Chivo recalled.
The movie, which comes out in May, aims to tell of a spiritual journey using a sense of place, a long span of time and a set of striking elemental images -- and, oh yes, also is partly based on Malick's own life. The idea, say those who worked on it, was not so much to tell a story but to create a feeling.
"Photography is not used to illustrate dialogue or a performance," Chivo said." "We're using it to capture emotion so that the movie is very experiential. It's meant to trigger tons of memories, like a scent or a perfume."
And how did the performers react to all this unconventionality -- like, say, the fact that Malick wasn't always interested in what they had to say? "I think they thought we were insane," Chivo said. "Sean is a director, and I'm sure he wondered 'Is this method something I want to learn or is it something I never want to repeat?' For Brad I think it took him a couple of days or a week to get into the spirit."
Dede Gardner, Pitt's producing partner and a producer on the film, said a sense of elastic possibility is essential in making a movie like this as well as watching it. "One of the things you learn when you work with Terry is there isn't one interpretation," she said. "Life's experience is individualized, so why shouldn't a film be?"
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/01/terrence-malick-tree-of-life-brad-pitt-chivo-images.html
INFORAMA COMMENT
Years pass, the son now approaching mid life finds his world a strange landscape lacking that something he can't define. Jack's preconceived ideas have not survived the test of time. The older son is portrayed by perennial sourpuss but wonderful actor Sean Penn.
The theme seems to echo what Will Durant penned in his ten volume tome The History of Civilization. " Our heroic rejection of the customs and morals of our tribe, upon our adolescent discovery of their relatively, betrays the immaturity of our minds. Given another decade we begin to understand that there may be more wisdom in the moral code of the group- the formulated experience of generations of the race- that can be explained in a college course."
This promises to be an emotional roller coaster of a movie well worth seeing. Besides entertainment, it may also show us a little about ourselves.
In theatres: May 27,2011. Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Rated PG-13. Genre: Drama.
STORY LINE
The story of a Midwestern family in the 1950's. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.
http://www.movieinsider.com/m4494/tree-of-life/
TRAILER
ABOVE THE LINE
Stars: Brad Pitt
Sean Penn
Jessica Chastain
Producer: Bill Pohlad
Director: Terrence Malick
Writer: Terrence Malick
BUZZ
It's not many film productions that consult with NASA as they're shooting. But then, not many film productions have Terrence Malick for a director. As cinematographer Emanuel "Chivo" Lubezki tells it, the shoot for Malick's coming-of-age epic "The Tree of Life," starring Sean Penn and Brad Pitt, pretty much made up its own rules as it went along. Then it broke those too. "Once you think you got the formula, you realized there is no formula," Chivo told 24 Frames in an interview. "It's like no set I ever worked on."
There are plenty of reasons why that's true. Besides the NASA factor -- Malick consulted with the space agency for footage of the cosmos and other grand imagery he used in the film -- there was the fact that he didn't shoot actors in a conventional way. Or, sometimes, at all. Though most movies use what's known as "coverage" -- cameras stationed in different places, with the idea of conveying a scene as you might experience it in real life -- "Tree of Life" eschewed those conventions.
"So the actors are performing the dialogue, but Terry isn't interested in dialogue. So they're talking, and we're shooting a reflection or we're shooting the wind or we're shooting the frame of the window, and then we finally pan to them when they finish the dialogue," Chivo recalled.
The movie, which comes out in May, aims to tell of a spiritual journey using a sense of place, a long span of time and a set of striking elemental images -- and, oh yes, also is partly based on Malick's own life. The idea, say those who worked on it, was not so much to tell a story but to create a feeling.
"Photography is not used to illustrate dialogue or a performance," Chivo said." "We're using it to capture emotion so that the movie is very experiential. It's meant to trigger tons of memories, like a scent or a perfume."
And how did the performers react to all this unconventionality -- like, say, the fact that Malick wasn't always interested in what they had to say? "I think they thought we were insane," Chivo said. "Sean is a director, and I'm sure he wondered 'Is this method something I want to learn or is it something I never want to repeat?' For Brad I think it took him a couple of days or a week to get into the spirit."
Dede Gardner, Pitt's producing partner and a producer on the film, said a sense of elastic possibility is essential in making a movie like this as well as watching it. "One of the things you learn when you work with Terry is there isn't one interpretation," she said. "Life's experience is individualized, so why shouldn't a film be?"
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/01/terrence-malick-tree-of-life-brad-pitt-chivo-images.html
INFORAMA COMMENT
Those who have children repeatedly make decisions and take actions that affect their children's lives. Since we are imperfect creatures, we understandably make incorrect decisions or make demands on our children which they do not understand at the time. Since parents have, hopefully, more maturity than their youngsters, most anguish at how their words and actions will form or figuratively disfigure their children.
How children absorb, accept, reject or ignore parental guidance seems to be the thrust of reclusive director and screenwriter Terrance Malick's film. In the film Tree of Life, Brad Pitt portrays a typical dad of the 1950's, seemingly self sufficient, all too well aware of the dangers life presents since he has lived through the war years. In the trailer Pitt appears as a tough-as-nails individual, who disparately tries to pass on those characteristics to his offspring.
The specifics are not really important, but one of his sons, Jack, undergoes a not atypical and lengthy phase of parental rejection. As a result, he rebels against authority. The young Jack sees the world as most of us do at his age in monochrome black and white, with absolutely no clue about life.
The specifics are not really important, but one of his sons, Jack, undergoes a not atypical and lengthy phase of parental rejection. As a result, he rebels against authority. The young Jack sees the world as most of us do at his age in monochrome black and white, with absolutely no clue about life.
Years pass, the son now approaching mid life finds his world a strange landscape lacking that something he can't define. Jack's preconceived ideas have not survived the test of time. The older son is portrayed by perennial sourpuss but wonderful actor Sean Penn.
Penn's character undergoes an apparent epiphany which many of us experience as we age. That with time, we often begin to think and act as our parents once did. Not overnight, but subtly and imperceptibly over a span of decades.
The theme seems to echo what Will Durant penned in his ten volume tome The History of Civilization. " Our heroic rejection of the customs and morals of our tribe, upon our adolescent discovery of their relatively, betrays the immaturity of our minds. Given another decade we begin to understand that there may be more wisdom in the moral code of the group- the formulated experience of generations of the race- that can be explained in a college course."
This promises to be an emotional roller coaster of a movie well worth seeing. Besides entertainment, it may also show us a little about ourselves.
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