Cannes 2019: Terrence Malick's “Radegund" Possibly Set to Premiere In Competition

All the rumors swirling about what will be selected for this year’s upcoming Cannes Film Festival should be taken with a grain of salt. I was told a few weeks back that Tarantino was almost a shoo-in, I just decided not to post about it without, at the very least, speaking to a few sources in an around Europe (who have been quite credible and reliable over the years for me). So it wasn’t much of a surprise that yesterday THR basically confirmed QT’s presence at the croisette.

I am here to today tell you of another almost shoo-in and that’s Terrence Malick’s “Radegund.”

The Independent ran a story last fall that we could expect Terrence Malick's “Radegund” to premiere either at Toronto or Venice. That didn't happen. Neither did Berlin this past February. Is Cannes going to be the place where we finally see Malick's latest opus?

I have been told by two separate French sources that Malick has shown “footage” of “Radegund” and that the plan is to, indeed, premiere it at Cannes this coming May. However, as of the publishing of this article, the whole film has NOT been shown to Cannes head Thierry Fremaux and company. Who knows if Malick will get cold feet and decide to further edit the film and wait until Venice or even next year? That is the fear most of the Cannes committee has at the moment, because the footage shown has supposedly “blown people away” and Fremaux very much wants this movie to be in competition.

According to another source close to production, Malick’s power over the film and its future has faded and is now in the hands of the film’s investors and that Malick “might use the next few months until the theatrical release for another cut,”

“Radegund” follows the real-life story of Austrian Franz Jägerstätter, who famously was a conscientious objector and refused to fight for the Nazis during World War II.

Your liking of Malick, of late at least, will depend very much on whether you liked the last three films of his “Texas nouveau-riche“ trilogy: “Song to Song,” “To The Wonder,” and "Knight of Cups." It’s the same idea, same style, same love triangles, same “wonderment” at nature, and same self-congratulatory flattery. I personally didn’t respond to those films. I thought they were Malick jerk-off sessions. However, the biggest problem with these films was the fact that he was casting a who’s who of Hollywood A-listers, which rendered them inauthentic in their attempt to attain romantic naturalism. These films featured some of the biggest names in the business: Ben Affleck, Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams etc. Having star wattage, and well known faces, did a disservice to what Malick was trying to achieve. You don’t buy the romantic yearning these star actors are performing on-screen. Maybe having unknown actors would have benefited the story a little more. Then again, the films also felt like Malick trying to do Malick — a sense of self-caricaturing was apparent throughout.

These three films proved to be soul crushing. After all, Malick was a master who could do no wrong before that, with film after film of considerable importance being released throughout his scattered but rich career: “Badlands,” “Days of Heaven,” “The Thin Red Line,” “The Tree of Life,” and "The New World."

Most importantly, these last three films barely used a script, which is why, despite cautiousness, I am very much looking forward to his next film, “Radegund,” which has the man actually using a script. It was shot with German actors, but I was told it is in English.

It has been over two years since shooting wrapped, but Malick gave a rare, in-depth Q&A following a screening of “Voyage of Time” at Washington D.C.’s Air and Space Museum last September:

Well, here was a script (in “Voyage of Time,”) which was the evolutionary history of the universe [audience laughs]. And lately – I keep insisting, only very lately – have I been working without a script, and I’ve lately repented the idea. The last picture we shot, and we’re now cutting (“Radegund,”) went back to a script that was very well ordered,” he said. “There’s a lot of strain when working without a script because you can lose track of where you are. It’s very hard to coordinate with others who are working on the film. Production designers and location managers arrive in the morning and don’t know what we’re going to shoot or where we’re going to shoot. The reason we did it was to try and get moments that are spontaneous and free. As a movie director, you always feel with a script that you’re trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. And with no script, there’s no round hole, there’s just air. But I’m backing away from that style now.

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