Thursday, June 16, 2011

further readings: terrence malick & philosophy

I came across this article on director Terrence Malick this morning, courtesy of 3quarksdaily.  It's an extremely dense take on Malick and his 2005 film The New World.  I stopped reading once the author started talking about the film itself, but the beginning is a good read for anyone who is interested in seeing, or has seen, Malick's latest, The Tree of Life, playing at Uptown today and the Lagoon starting Friday.  A couple of key selections:
What exactly are these ineffable truths for which Malick is allegedly “longing,” but that he cannot put into words? Answers will hardly be forthcoming. The very premise is insidious: that there exists some special critical language into which films ought in principle to be translatable, such that any one that resists such translation may be said to express “longing,” or to be in the business of “manifestation.” As though there were some betterway to describe these ideas or feelings than the film itself.
The article also touches on the desire of critics to refer to his work as mystical or coming from an unknown, higher place.  Such talk just serves to distract from more useful arguments and detracts from the work as a whole.  I know I'm guilty of falling into that trap when I'm feeling particularly lazy or am struggling to appropriately describe what I'm viewing.
Malick’s movies, let us imagine, may not be “arguments or descriptions,” but they might help us to see what makes such procedures possible; they may not be illustrations of Heidegger (or Wittgenstein, or Cavell, or Thoreau) but, so to speak, companions to them. In this light, the question of whether his films are or are not philosophy, are or are not mystical, loses its power to distract. Instead, the question becomes where to look for Malick’s own “relevances,” that we might “share his purposes.”
This is the last thing the author leaves us before using The New World as an example to flesh out this idea.  I admit that it's a bit beyond me.  It might be helpful if I was a student of philosophy (or at least knew the slightest bit about of the works of Heidegger and the rest), or if I actually read the rest of the article.  Before I do that, though, I should probably watch the movie.  Mostly I wanted to share this with all those who have seen The Tree of Life because, if you're anything like me, the moment you finish watching a Malick film you just want to consume as much info and writings on the director and his films as humanly possible.

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