Criterion Corner

Scroll to Info & Navigation

Terrence Malick’s Production Designer (Jack Fisk) Talks About THE TREE OF LIFE

“father… mother… always you wrestle inside my immaculately designed sets… always you will.”

this is a monumentally good way to spend 8:20 of your time. believe. Fisk is a legend (look at him casually mention that he worked on Mulholland Drive — no big deal), among the best at what he does, and he sure seems cool with talking about it candidly. speaking with The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Eugene Hernandez, Fisk reveals just how long The Tree of Life has been gestating inside of Malick’s kooky bearded head, and talks about the hows and whys as to what was required to transform that small texan house and the 5 blocks around it into an entire half-remembered boyhood. 

give it a whirl.

THE 25 BEST FILMS OF 2011: A VIDEO COUNTDOWN

there are gonna be lots of “best of” lists floating around during the next few weeks — this one is mine.

please enjoy. and please watch it LOUD (and in 480p… bummer that a lot of these clips were only available in standard-def).

p.s. some of these films i included on the countdown have yet to receive a domestic release here in the U.S, but i’d rather help get people excited for something now than chide them for not seeing it a year from now. also — as with a certain film towards the very top of my list — some stories simply can’t afford to wait for us to catch up.

p.p.s. CERTIFIED COPY was ineligible, as it topped my list last year. a good thing, too, as otherwise i would never have been able to settle on a #1.

p.p.p.s. yes, there is no “22” and there are 2 “19s.” accept the mystery.

Is Terrence Malick’s BADLANDS Coming to The Criterion Collection? that’s what a recent post on Terrence Malick blog All Things Shining would have you believe. the site recently sat down with Badlands’ associate editor Billy Weber (a.k.a. the dude who edited all of Malick’s subsequent films), and here’s what they learned: “Weber told me that either Warner Bros. or Criterion were putting out a special edition. Criterion hasn’t mentioned it as far as I know. Weber stated that it will be out ‘fairly soon.’ He also stated that he did do a commentary for a British reissue of the film in the past, and that it may or may not be used.”  so, there ya have it. it’s hardly definitive, but it’s better than nothing. worst case, we get a Badlands blu from Warner Bros, which would hardly be tragic.  big thanks to @JWiemer for the heads up. (Badlands fake Criterion cover designed by Flemmon)

Is Terrence Malick’s BADLANDS Coming to The Criterion Collection?

that’s what a recent post on Terrence Malick blog All Things Shining would have you believe. the site recently sat down with Badlands’ associate editor Billy Weber (a.k.a. the dude who edited all of Malick’s subsequent films), and here’s what they learned:

“Weber told me that either Warner Bros. or Criterion were putting out a special edition. Criterion hasn’t mentioned it as far as I know. Weber stated that it will be out ‘fairly soon.’ He also stated that he did do a commentary for a British reissue of the film in the past, and that it may or may not be used.” 

so, there ya have it. it’s hardly definitive, but it’s better than nothing. worst case, we get a Badlands blu from Warner Bros, which would hardly be tragic. 

big thanks to @JWiemer for the heads up.

(Badlands fake Criterion cover designed by Flemmon)

Ryan Gosling and Rooney Mara TOGETHER on The Set of Terrence Malick’s LAWLESS okay, just one more quick post about this, as some much more revealing photos of Malick’s shoot at Austin’s Fun Fun Fest have emerged (via Coming Soon). again, don’t expect all / most / any of this footage to end up in the theatrical cut of the film, but this shot gives a much clearer understanding as to what the general feel of these particular characters might be.  (inevitable) UPDATE: oy, and now from The Film Stage comes this shot of Malick himself standing next to Gosling: okay, moving on forever, now…

Ryan Gosling and Rooney Mara TOGETHER on The Set of Terrence Malick’s LAWLESS

okay, just one more quick post about this, as some much more revealing photos of Malick’s shoot at Austin’s Fun Fun Fest have emerged (via Coming Soon). again, don’t expect all / most / any of this footage to end up in the theatrical cut of the film, but this shot gives a much clearer understanding as to what the general feel of these particular characters might be. 

(inevitable) UPDATE: oy, and now from The Film Stage comes this shot of Malick himself standing next to Gosling:

okay, moving on forever, now…

‹ ›

Ryan Gosling and Rooney Mara On The Set of Terrence Malick’s LAWLESS

title prettttyyyyy much says it all. Mara and Gosling — two young actors who may not agree to work for Brett Ratner any time soon — are seen here at Austin’s Fun Fun Fest, having recently signed on to the Malick flick, about which little is known.

Gosling is wearing a similar outfit to that which Christian Bale’s character was seen wearing at Austin City Limits a little ways back, so the folks over at The Playlist (h/t, you guys!) are positing that Gosling may be playing a younger version of Bale’s character, but they admit that they pulled the guess out of their ass. cause — as usual with the ever-elusive Malick — no one knows a thing until Cannes… but obviously they’re playing leather fetishists who join a biker gang in order to fit in, only to find a forbidden love in their requited menace. what a logline.

UPDATE: Follow the Ryan Gosling At Fun Fun Fest Tumblr for more. if, ya know, you really need that much more.

THE TREE OF LIFE: Explored &Unpacked

In advance of THE TREE OF LIFE’s rather monumental release earlier this year, Matt Zoller Seitz cobbled together a series of video essays in which he visually explored the films of Terrence Malick. His episode on Malick’s most recent film was inevitable, but Seitz did the smart thing and let The Tree of Life sit with him (and the rest of us) for a little bit before he decided to give it a go. The results are predictably fascinating, eminently watchable for anyone but particularly  helpful for those either struggling to get a handle on the movie or curious as to how other people are perceiving a major film that is so resistant to typical systems of understanding. and I mean really perceiving it, not just dumping some platitudes into a quick review and moving on to X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. 

up top i’ve posted part 1 of 2, head on over to Indiewire’s Press Play section to see the second portion, which puts the Creation sequence in the rear-view to focus on the rest of the film.

the neat Tree of Life stuff has to be drying up any day now… right? 

‹ ›

Production Photos from THE TREE OF LIFE 

so not to further deify this movie or anything (haven’t you heard? Jafar Panahi’s This Is Not a Film is the new hot mind-blower of the film year), but production intel on The Tree of Life still remains elusive and scattershot, a fact underscored by the film’s bare-bones dvd / blu-ray release. it’d be great to have even a gallery of still photos from the set, just to get a better idea of Malick and “Chivo’s” (his DP) production logistics.

when video surfaced of Malick filming Christian Bale at Austin City Limits i was knocked a bit sideways by how small his crew was, and the trio of Tree of Life production photos above suggests — as one might infer from Malick’s fluid, exploratory compositions — that even his most expansive projects are accomplished by just a few people fiddling about on the same page, doing away with all the cumbersome junk and commotion that one associates with such grand filmmaking. anyway, until Jessica Chastain leads me on a guided tour through her iPhone’s photo library, these glimpses of grace in action will have to suffice.

“[Terrence Malick] isn’t the kind of guy who would ever give a direction like, ‘Cut ten frames from this shot.’ He’d rather say something like, ‘Make this scene feel more like a fleeting thought.’”

THE TREE OF LIFE editor Mark Yoshikawa, describing how Terrence Malick communicates with his fleet of editors.

quote is excerpted from Bilge Ebiri’s ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL piece for Cinema Editor, in which he interviews several of the film’s editors in extraordinary depth. Malick fans need to read (and re-read, and then whisper) immediately.