Terrence Malick

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Terrence Malick
Born Terrence Frederick Malick
November 30, 1943 (1943-11-30) (age 68)
Ottawa, Illinois or Waco, Texas
Occupation Film director, screenwriter, producer
Spouse Jill Jakes (1970–1976)
Michele Morette (1985–98)
Alexandra Wallace (1998–present)

Terrence Frederick Malick (born November 30, 1943) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. In a career spanning over four decades, Malick has directed five feature films.

Malick has received consistent regard for his work. Malick was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Director for The Thin Red Line and The Tree of Life and Best Adapted Screenplay for The Thin Red Line, as well as winning the Golden Bear at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival for The Thin Red Line and the Palme d'Or at the 64th Cannes Film Festival for The Tree of Life.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Terrence Malick was born in Ottawa, Illinois[1][2][3] or Waco, Texas,[4][5] the son of Irene (née Thompson) and Emil A. Malick, a geologist.[6][7] His paternal grandparents were Assyrian Christian Lebanese immigrants.[8][9] Waco is one of the settings of his film The Tree of Life.[10] Malick attended St. Stephen's Episcopal School in Austin, Texas while his family lived in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.[1] Malick had two younger brothers: Chris and Larry. Larry Malick was a guitarist who went to study in Spain with Segovia in the late 1960s. In 1968, Larry intentionally broke his own hands due to pressure over his musical studies. Emil went to Spain to help Larry, but Larry died shortly after, apparently commiting suicide.[11]

Malick studied philosophy under Stanley Cavell at Harvard University, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1965. He went on to Magdalen College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar but left without earning a doctorate. In 1969, Northwestern University Press published Malick's translation of Heidegger's Vom Wesen des Grundes as The Essence of Reasons. Moving back to the United States, Malick taught philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while freelancing as a journalist. He wrote articles for Newsweek, The New Yorker, and Life.[5]

[edit] Film career

Malick got his start in film after earning an MFA from the AFI Conservatory in 1969, directing Lanton Mills. At the AFI he established contacts with people such as Jack Nicholson, longtime collaborator Jack Fisk, and agent Mike Medavoy, who procured for Malick freelance work revising scripts. He is credited with the screenplay for Pocket Money (1972), and he wrote early drafts of Great Balls of Fire! (1989) and Dirty Harry (1971).[12]

After one of his screenplays, Deadhead Miles, was made into what Paramount Pictures felt to be an unreleasable film, Malick decided to direct his own scripts.[13] His first work was Badlands (1973), an independent film starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek as a young couple on a crime spree in the 1950s. After a troubled production, Badlands drew raves at its premiere at the New York Film Festival, leading to Warner Bros. Pictures buying distribution rights for three times its budget.[13]

Paramount Pictures produced Malick's second film, Days of Heaven (1978), about a love triangle that develops in the farm country of the Texas Panhandle in the early 20th century. The film spent two years in post-production, during which Malick and his crew experimented with unconventional editing and voice-over techniques.[14] Days of Heaven went on to win the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, as well as the prize for Best Director at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival.

Those rambling philosophical voiceovers; the placid images of nature, offering quiet contrast to the evil deeds of men; the stunning cinematography, often achieved with natural light; the striking use of music—here is a filmmaker with a clear sensibility and aesthetic who makes narrative films that are neither literary nor theatrical, in the sense of foregrounding dialogue, event, or character, but are instead principally cinematic, movies that suggest narrative, emotion, and idea through image and sound.

Chris Wisniewski about Days of Heaven and The New World[15]

Following the release of Days of Heaven, Malick began developing a project for Paramount, titled Q, that explored the origins of life on earth. During pre-production, he suddenly moved to Paris and disappeared from public view.[16] During this time, he wrote a number of screenplays, including The English Speaker, about Josef Breuer's analysis of Anna O.; adaptations of Walker Percy's The Moviegoer and Larry McMurtry's The Desert Rose;[16] a script about Jerry Lee Lewis; and a stage adaptation of Sansho the Bailiff that was to be directed by Andrzej Wajda, in addition to continuing work on the Q script.[17] Malick's work on Q eventually became the basis for his 2011 film The Tree of Life.[18]

Twenty years after Days of Heaven, Malick returned to film directing in 1998 with The Thin Red Line, a loose adaptation of the James Jones World War II novel of the same name, for which he gathered a large ensemble of famous stars. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, won the Golden Bear at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival,[19] and received critical acclaim.[20]

After learning of Malick's work on an article about Che Guevara during the 1960s, Steven Soderbergh offered Malick the chance to write and direct a film about Guevara that he had been developing with Benicio del Toro. Malick accepted and produced a screenplay focused on Guevara's failed revolution in Bolivia.[21] After a year and a half, the financing had not come together entirely, and Malick was given the opportunity to direct The New World,[22] a script he had begun developing in the 1970s.[23] Consequently, he left the Guevara project in March 2004.[22] Soderbergh went on to direct Che.

The New World, which featured a romantic interpretation of the story of John Smith and Pocahontas, was released in 2005. Over one million feet of film was shot for the film, and three different cuts of varying length were released. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, but received generally mixed reviews during its theatrical run,[24] though it has since been hailed as one of the best films of the decade.[25][26][27]

Malick's fifth feature, The Tree of Life, was filmed in Smithville, Texas, and elsewhere during 2008. Starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, it is a family drama spanning multiple time periods and focuses on an individual's reconciling love, mercy and beauty with the existence of sickness, suffering and death. It premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival[28] where it won the Palme d'Or. It has also been awarded FIPRESCI's Big Prize for the Best Film of the Year. A limited theatrical release in the United States began on May 27, 2011.

Malick recently finished shooting his sixth feature in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and Pawhuska, Oklahoma. Filming in Pawhuska took place in two locations, a Catholic church and the Triangle Building, a three-sided, three-story building. Other details about the film are being closely guarded, with no title or plot information as yet announced. The film will star Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Olga Kurylenko, Javier Bardem and Rachel Weisz.[29]

On November 1, 2011, Filmnation Entertainment announced international sales for Malick's next two projects: Lawless and Knight of Cups. Lawless will star Ryan Gosling, with a supporting cast including Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara and Haley Bennett. Knight of Cups will star Bale, and will also feature Blanchett, along with Isabel Lucas. The films will be shot back-to-back in 2012.[30] Production designer Jack Fisk has indicated a June start date.[31]

During the weekend of September 16, 2011, Malick was photographed and caught on film while on set for one of the first times ever, while he and a small crew were following Christian Bale and Haley Bennett around the Austin City Limits Music Festival as part of preliminary shooting for Lawless.[32][33] He was also seen directing Ryan Gosling and Rooney Mara at the Fun Fun Fun Fest on the weekend on November 4, 2011.[33][34]

[edit] Personal life

Malick is famously protective of his private life.[35] His contracts stipulate that his likeness may not be used for promotional purposes, and he routinely declines requests for interviews.[16][36]

From 1970 to 1976 Malick was married to Jill Jakes.[37] He is currently married to Alexandra W.B. Malick, who starred as Queen Anne in The New World.[38]

[edit] Filmography

Year Film Functioned as Notes
Director Producer Writer Composer Actor
1969 Lanton Mills Yes Yes Yes Yes Short Film
Role Unspecified
1971 Drive, He Said Yes First directorial effort of Jack Nicholson
Dirty Harry Yes Uncredited Re-Write
1972 Deadhead Miles Yes
Pocket Money Yes Yes Role: Worksman (Uncredited)
1973 Badlands Yes Yes Yes Yes Role: Caller at Rich Man's House (Uncredited)
1974 The Gravy Train Yes
1978 Days of Heaven Yes Yes Yes Awarded the prize for Best Director at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival
Worker (uncredited)
1998 The Thin Red Line Yes Yes Awarded the Golden Bear at the 1999 Berlin Film Festival
1999 Endurance Yes
2000 Happy Times Yes
2002 Bear's Kiss Yes Uncredited Re-Write
2004 The Beautiful Country Yes
Undertow Yes
2005 The New World Yes Yes Yes
2006 Amazing Grace Yes
2011 The Tree of Life Yes Yes Awarded the Palme d'Or at the 2011 Cannes International Film Festival.

Awarded The Big Prize for the Best Film Of the Year, FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics
2012 Untitled Terrence Malick Project Yes Yes
Unknown Lawless Yes Yes Shooting back to back with 'Knight of Cups in 2012[39]
Unknown Knight of Cups Yes Yes

[edit] Bibliography

  • Peter Biskind, 1998. Easy Riders / Raging Bulls, London: Bloomsbury.
  • Peter Biskind, 1998. 'The Runaway Genius', Vanity Fair, 460, Dec, 116–125.
  • Stanley Cavell, 1979. The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film, Enlarged Edition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Michel Chion, 1999. The Voice in Cinema, translated by Claudia Gorbman, New York & Chichester: Columbia University Press.
  • Michel Ciment, 1975. 'Entretien avec Terrence Malick', Positif, 170, Jun, 30–34.
  • G. Richardson Cook, 1974. 'The Filming of Badlands: An Interview with Terry Malick', Filmmakers Newsletter, 7:8, Jun, 30–32.
  • Charlotte Crofts, 2001, 'From the "Hegemony of the Eye" to the "Hierarchy of Perception": The Reconfiguration of Sound and Image in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven', Journal of Media Practice, 2:1, 19–29.
  • G. Roger Denson, 2011, 'Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life" Plays Garden of Eden to the Family of Man", "Huffington Post", June 6.
  • Terry Curtis Fox, 1978. 'The Last Ray of Light', Film Comment, 14:5, Sept/Oct, 27- 28.
  • Cameron Docherty, 1998. 'Maverick Back from the Badlands', The Sunday Times, Culture, Jun 7, 4.
  • Martin Donougho, 1985. 'West of Eden: Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven', Postscript: Essays in Film and the Humanities, 5:1, Fall, 17–30.
  • Roger Ebert, Review of Days of Heaven, Chicago Sun-Times Inc
  • Graham Fuller, 1998. 'Exile on Main Street', The Observer, Dec 13, 5.
  • John Hartl, 1998. 'Badlands Director Ending his Long Absence', Seattle Times, Mar. 8
  • Brian Henderson, 1983. 'Exploring Badlands'. Wide Angle: A Quarterly Journal of Film Theory, Criticism and Practice, 5:4, 38–51.
  • Les Keyser, 1981. Hollywood in the Seventies, London: Tantivy Press.
  • Terrence Malick, 1973. Interview the morning after Badlands premiered at the New York Film Festival, American Film Institute Report, 4:4, Winter, 48.
  • Terrence Malick, 1976. Days of Heaven, Registered with the Writers Guild of America, Apr 14; revised Jun. 2
  • James Monaco, 1972. Badlands, Take One, 4:1, Sept/Oct, 32.
  • Kim Newman, 1994. 'Whatever Happened to Whatsisname?', Empire, Feb, 88–89.
  • Brooks Riley, 1978. 'Interview with Nestor Almendros', Film Comment, 14:5, Sept/Oct, 28–31.
  • J. P. Telotte, 1986. 'Badlands and the Souvenir Drive', Western Humanities Review, 40:2, Summer, 101-14.
  • Beverly Walker, 1975. 'Malick on Badlands', Sight and Sound, 44:2, Spring, 82–3.
  • Janet Wondra, 1994. 'A Gaze Unbecoming: Schooling the Child for Femininity in Days of Heaven', Wide Angle, 16:4, Oct, 5–22.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Solomons, Jason (July 3, 2011). "Terrence Malick: The return of cinema's invisible man". The Observer. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2011/jul/03/observer-profile-terrence-malick. Retrieved July 3, 2011. 
  2. ^ Robey, Tim (April 9, 2011). "Terrence Malick: Hollywood’s poet returns". London: Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/8437450/Terrence-Malick-Hollywoods-poet-returns.html. Retrieved May 29, 2011. 
  3. ^ "A horrible state of war". Wsws.org. January 23, 1999. http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/jan1999/thin-j23.shtml. Retrieved May 29, 2011. 
  4. ^ "Terrence Malick – Biography – Movies & TV". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/person/100893/Terrence-Malick/biography. Retrieved May 25, 2010. 
  5. ^ a b Bowles, Scott (December 16, 2005). "The Terrence Malick file". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2005-12-15-malick_x.htm. Retrieved May 25, 2010. 
  6. ^ Michaels, Lloyd (2009). Terrence Malick (Illustrated, revised ed.). University of Illinois Press. p. 14. ISBN 0252075757. http://books.google.com/books?id=jSNCB6yCJPoC&dq=terrence+malick+lebanese. 
  7. ^ http://www.examiner-enterprise.com/sections/news/local-news/bartlesville-resident-irene-malick-mother-filmmaker-dead-99-services-today
  8. ^ Lloyd Michaels, Terrence Malick, Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c2009, p. 14
  9. ^ ZINDA. "ZENDA – February 1, 1999". Zindamagazine.com. http://www.zindamagazine.com/html/archives/1999/feb1_1999.htm. Retrieved May 29, 2011. 
  10. ^ Hoover, Carl (September 9, 2010). "Waco native Terrence Malick's 'Tree of Life' set for 2011 debut". Waco Tribune. http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/staff/sound_sight/Waco-native-Terrence-Malicks-Tree-of-Life-set-for-2011-debut.html. Retrieved May 2, 2011. 
  11. ^ Biskind, Peter. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. Simon and Schuster. 1998. 248-249.
  12. ^ var authorId = "" by Scott B. (February 19, 2002). "IGN: Featured Filmmaker: Terrence Malick". Movies.ign.com. http://movies.ign.com/articles/324/324778p1.html. Retrieved January 2, 2011. 
  13. ^ a b Jeff Stafford (2008). "Badlands". Turner Classic Movies. http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article.jsp?cid=87364&mainArticleId=339836. Retrieved October 19, 2010. 
  14. ^ Biskind, Peter. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. Bloomsbury, 1998. p. 296-297.
  15. ^ A Stitch in Time: Chris Wisniewski on Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven and The New World at Reverse Shot. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  16. ^ a b c Biskind, Peter (August 1999). "The Runaway Genius". Vanity Fair. http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/classic/features/runaway-genius-199812. Retrieved October 20, 2010. 
  17. ^ Gillis, Joe (December 1995). "Waiting for Godot". Los Angeles. 
  18. ^ "The Tree of Life". Time Out New York. May 24, 2011. http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/film/1456971/the-tree-of-life. Retrieved May 27, 2011. 
  19. ^ "Berlinale: 1999 Prize Winners". berlinale.de. http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1999/03_preistr_ger_1999/03_Preistraeger_1999.html. Retrieved 2012-02-04. 
  20. ^ "The Thin Red Line". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1084146-thin_red_line/. Retrieved May 29, 2011. 
  21. ^ Taubin, Amy (September/October 2008). "Guerrilla Filmmaking on an Epic Scale". Film Comment. http://filmlinccom.siteprotect.net/fcm/so08/che.htm. Retrieved May 17, 2011. 
  22. ^ a b Tartaglione, Nancy (March 10, 2004). "Malick's Che decision deals morale-denting blow to indie sector". Screen Daily. http://www.screendaily.com/malicks-che-decision-deals-morale-denting-blow-to-indie-sector/4017728.article. Retrieved October 20, 2010. 
  23. ^ David Sterritt (July 2006). "Film, Philosophy and Terrence Malick". Undercurrents. FIPRESCI. http://www.fipresci.org/undercurrent/issue_0206/sterritt_malick.htm. Retrieved October 20, 2010. 
  24. ^ "The New World Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1152954-new_world/. Retrieved January 2, 2011. 
  25. ^ "Best of the Decade #2: The New World". Reverse Shot. http://reverseshot.com/article/2_new_world. Retrieved January 2, 2011. 
  26. ^ "The TONY top 50 movies of the decade – Film – Time Out New York". Newyork.timeout.com. November 25, 2009. http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/film/80947/the-tony-top-50-movies-of-the-decade/6.html. Retrieved January 2, 2011. 
  27. ^ Mick LaSalle, Chronicle Movie Critic (January 1, 2010). "Top films of the decade". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/01/MVK31B78QT.DTL&type=movies. Retrieved January 2, 2011. 
  28. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Official Selection". Cannes. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/article/58041.html. Retrieved April 14, 2011. 
  29. ^ "Tulsa World article, Oct. 5, 2010". Tulsaworld.com. http://www.tulsaworld.com/scene/article.aspx?subjectid=268&articleid=20101005_268_0_BARTLE615180. Retrieved January 2, 2011. 
  30. ^ "FilmNation continues relationship with Terrence Malick on two new films". FilmNation Entertainment. November 1, 2011. http://www.wearefilmnation.com/news/2011/11/1/filmnation-continues-relationship-with-terrence-malick-on-tw.html. Retrieved November 3, 2011. 
  31. ^ Desowitz, Bill (December 2, 2011). "Jack Fisk Climbs The Tree of Life". Thompson on Hollywood. http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/jack-fisk-climbs-the-tree-of-life. Retrieved December 2, 2011. 
  32. ^ "Christian Bale, Terrence Malick & Arcade Fire Featured In Footage From Mystery Film Shoot At ACL". indieWIRE. http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/christian_bale_terrence_malick_arcade_fire_all_feature_in_footage_from_myst/. 
  33. ^ a b Kevin Jagernauth (November 4, 2011). "Set Pics Of Ryan Gosling & Rooney Mara Shooting Terrence Malick's 'Lawless'". IndieWIRE. http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/set_pics_of_ryan_gosling_rooney_mara_shooting_terrence_malicks_lawless. Retrieved November 10, 2011. 
  34. ^ "new Terrence Malick movie being filmed at Fun Fun Fun Fest (Ryan Gosling included)". Brooklyn Vegan. November 5, 2011. http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2011/11/new_terrence_ma.html. Retrieved November 10, 2011. 
  35. ^ "Film review of "Rosy Fingered-Dawn" (a documentary on Malick). Retrieved 10 January 2010". Skyarts.co.uk. http://www.skyarts.co.uk/film-docs/article/rosy-fingered-dawn-terrence-malick. Retrieved January 2, 2011. 
  36. ^ Davenport, Hayes; December 15, 2005; Alumni Watch: Terence Malick '65; The Harvard Crimson; retrieved May 3, 2007.
  37. ^ "Overview for Terrence Malick". TCM.com. http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/120355. Retrieved June 24, 2011. 
  38. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0539530/bio
  39. ^ http://www.deadline.com/2011/11/afm-filmnation-selling-terrence-malick-films-lawless-and-knight-of-cups/

[edit] External links

Carlos Losilla, Jean-Cristophe Ferrari, Alessandro Cappabianca, and others; edited by Toni D'Angela

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