I'm a firm believer in trusting instincts, in not fretting over the quality of your work and in believing in yourself that you made the right decisions to make whatever it is you are working on the best it can be from the get-go. So I'm always concerned by snail paced directors who need more than two years to make a film, unless of course warranted or made excusable by special effects and technology as in James Cameron's Avatar. Rather than forcing a film to work or spending a lifetime tweaking it striving for unattainable perfection, I suggest that better things come from directors who have a clear mindset for what they want from day one and in having the balls to go out there and in just getting it done. Look at Quentin Tarantino and his less than 1 year turn-a-round for Inglourious Basterds. He knew he could do it, he challenged himself to get a film into the following year's Cannes Film Festival and it turned out to be a Best Picture nominated classic. Look at Chris Nolan, both Inception and his forthcoming The Dark Knight Rises - he knows precisely what he wants before he turns on the camera and strategically gets to work on it. Which brings me to the official announcement in
Variety that
Terrence Malick's drama
The Tree of Life will enjoy it's world premiere at the two months hence festival, before opening in the U.S. on May 27th, after at least two years of Malick working on the movie he shot donkeys ago in post-production. Did distributors Fox Searchlight tell Malick enough was enough and he had to show his film to somebody or is Malick really 100% satisfied with what he has accomplished? No word yet on whether it will be shown in or out of competition but either way, Cannes was built to house such an ambitious movie... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRa4OBpChZo When the above trailer was released last month, I said; You know I barely have any idea for what The Tree of Life is about. Likewise, I have no idea what the general public are going to make this trailer. I know from the synopsis that
Brad Pitts portion of the film is set in the 1950s, where somewhere along the line the time narrative shifts and later picks up with his son (played by
Sean Penn) some decades later who hasnt quite got over his childhood and I know theres some kind of thematic about the larger meaning of the universe, nature and perhaps even dinosaurs which explains the cutting nature to Earth and its creatures and plants. But how does it all fit together? Well thats a beautiful mystery I cant wait to solve.