As a consequence of the ghastly year at the movies thus far, I couldn’t help but flip the calendar ahead six months or so to see just what’s on tap from the true talents of our beloved industry that seem to have gone silent. Though the impending SAG strike could put a serious damper on things, the amateur hour filmmaking that we’ve been forced to endure over the last four months should be blessedly held in check thanks in part to the return of aces such as Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, Sam Mendes, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorsese.

Impressive, no doubt, but I thought I would devote this edition of Tinsel Talk to discuss a movie that is currently filming in Texas. It’s called Tree of Life and will no doubt receive some ink for being the next project of the ubiquitous Brad Pitt. Nothing surprising there, right?

Wrong.

The film is written and directed by none other than Terrence Malick. If you’re familiar with Malick’s work, you’ll understand where I’m coming from when I tell you how oxymoronic his pairing with Brad Pitt is. For those of you who don’t know the man, I’ll begin by saying he’s considered by many in Hollywood to be a “Maverick” filmmaker.

You’ve probably heard that term before. Maverick. Just what the hell does it mean, anyway?

For starters, Terrence Malick goes to great lengths to avoid the public eye. In fact, prior to signing on to any of his sporadic productions, he insists on a contractual clause specifying that no current photographs be taken of him on the set. If that isn’t enough, Malick is famous for a sprawling twenty year hiatus between his third and fourth films; Days of Heaven (1978) and The Thin Red Line (1998) respectively. Malick opted to pass time by teaching philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Oh, did I mention he’s a Rhodes Scholar?

Yep. Maverick.

Thing is, a vast majority of his limited canon has been overlooked and misinterpreted by mainstream movie-goers, though I cannot understand why. Most commend his work for its stunning cinematography and fluid, poetic narratives. The Thin Red Line and his most recent film, The New World (2005), come immediately to mind as perfect examples. Not to be forgotten, however, is a little known classic called Badlands (1973) which made stars out of Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek.

What loses most people is Malick’s repeated employment of the teachings of German philosopher Martin Heidegger; whose system of beliefs constantly revolve around “questions of being” within nature; hence the reason for the “boring” abundance of nature photography in his films: waterfalls, wild animals, thunderstorms, etc.

By the way, when I said I couldn’t understand why people don’t “get” his movies, I was joking! They can be a bit esoteric at times, true, but you can see why Tree of Life promises to be interesting when considering that Brad Pitt is perhaps THE MOST photographed and documented person in the movie industry whereas Malick is arguably the least.

Stay tuned, I’ll have more on this.

By Chris Virnig