I’m headed to Cannes this coming weekend. Yes, there’s the Tarantino, but there also is Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life.” That’s the other BIG American premiere.
After winning the Palme D’or in 2011 for “The Tree of Life,” Malick has been going through an existential crisis with his work, at least if you’re speaking to most critics. His post-’Tree’ output has been polarizing, at best; “To the Wonder” (2012) “Knight of Cups” (2015) “Voyage of Time” (2016) and ” Song to Song” (2017). All those films nabbed mixed reviews. This from a man that was MIA for twenty years, between 1978 and 1998, by not releasing a single film during that time frame, Malick has now become the hardest working man in show-business. Shocking? Well, yeah. He was known as a hermit for most of his career, an incredibly shy individual, but this sudden resurgence is strange.
“A Hidden Life” is supposed to be a return to more script-led filmmaking for Malick, who has been mostly dilly-dallying in more improv-based naturalism with his last few films. Regardless, we have a few stunning pictures from his latest opus. You can expect a review of the film immediately following its press screening next week.