He avoids the red carpet, doesn’t give any interviews or press conferences. Legends surround the phantom and genius who lives far away from Hollywood in the US state of Texas. The publicity-shy US director Terrence Malick (“The Tree of Life”, “The Thin Ridge”), who turns 80 on Thursday (November 30th), prefers to let his films do the talking.
He avoids the red carpet, doesn’t give any interviews or press conferences. Legends surround the phantom and genius who lives far away from Hollywood in the US state of Texas. The publicity-shy US director Terrence Malick (“The Tree of Life”, “The Thin Ridge”), who turns 80 on Thursday (November 30th), prefers to let his films do the talking.
It’s not surprising that Malick wasn’t there in 2019 when his last feature film was celebrated with a standing ovation for several minutes after its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. With “A Hidden Life,” Malick filmed a drama about the resistance in World War II, based on true events. In magnificent images and in a very poetic way, he tells the story of the Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter, who did not want to fight for the National Socialists and was ultimately executed for it in 1943.
“A very curious and very funny person”
The German leading actor August Diehl raved about working with Malick in Cannes. He was a “very open, very modest, very curious and very funny person,” said Diehl in the dpa interview. “He asks a lot about personal life and what you think about things. You talk a lot about philosophical questions or how you see the world.”
They quickly gave up on a script. “The takes last very, very long, in them he is looking for THE moment. The search for the moment is very important for him. There was very little dialogue in the film, it was about working on moods,” says Diehl.
Malick, who lives in Texas with his third wife, has a cinematic resume. He temporarily worked as a laborer on a farm before studying philosophy at the elite universities of Harvard and Oxford. He later worked as a journalist in New York, then in 1969 he enrolled as a film student in Los Angeles.
In 1973 he made his directorial debut with “Badlands”. The newcomer, who produced with his own company on a tight budget, was able to recruit Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek for the roles of a murderous couple in rural America.
He solidified his reputation as a genius five years later with the jealousy drama “Days of Heaven,” which he shot largely without artificial light. The film about the love triangle between Bill, Abby and a farmer in Texas in 1916 starred Richard Gere, Brooke Adams and Sam Shepard and was awarded the directing prize at Cannes in 1979.
Long retreat
Despite his success, Malick withdrew from the film business and lived temporarily in France. It wasn’t until 20 years later that he returned with the anti-war film “The Thin Red Line”. Stars like Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Woody Harrelson and George Clooney wanted to film with Malick. You play US soldiers who fight against the Japanese on a Pacific island in the 1940s and invade an untouched natural paradise. The drama won the Golden Bear at the 1999 Berlinale.
In 2006, Malick brought Colin Farrell in front of the camera for the historical drama “The New World” as a British explorer who falls in love with the chief’s daughter Pocahontas in the US wilderness.
Golden Palm for “The Tree of Life”
It would have been a miracle if Malick had received the Palme d’Or himself for “The Tree of Life” at the Cannes Festival in 2011. Instead, producer Bill Pohlad took the stage. “Tonight I have to take the place of a giant,” he said. Malick was “very shy and secretive.” “He doesn’t want to be a celebrity.”
The philosophical and spiritual work “The Tree of Life” is rather difficult to access but visually powerful cinema. Malick combines a family drama with Hollywood stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn with impressive shots of the creation of the earth and human existence. “It raises big questions,” said Pitt, describing the film in the San Francisco Chronicle.
For Malick it was also a leap back into his own youth. He grew up in Texas, a strict father, the early death of a brother. These are some of the few known fragments of the director’s life.
After “Tree of Life” (2011), Malick fans didn’t have to wait long. “To the Wonder” (2013), starring Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams and Javier Bardem, is a romantic drama with dream sequences. In “Knight of Cups” (2015) he sent Christian Bale searching for meaning through Hollywood in the role of a successful author with Natalie Portman and Cate Blanchett. The shooting must have been just as mysterious as the film. “Terry didn’t tell me what the film was about,” Bale said at the Berlinale. He never knew what he had to do that day.
For “Song to Song” (2017), Malick brought stars such as Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender, Rooney Mara, Natalie Portman and Cate Blanchett in front of the camera. Your characters drift through the Texas music city of Austin.
Immediately after “A Hidden Life” (2019), Malick shot his tenth feature film, the Bible drama “The Way of the Wind”, in several countries, with Mark Rylance as the devil and Géza Röhrig as Jesus. The film is still being edited, producer Alex Boden told the industry publication Variety in August. Malick is “very happy” with the material, but there is no announcement yet.