Autocinema

The working method I described in my previous post is relevant to another question commonly asked about some of Malick’s films: To what extent are they autobiographical?

There’s no question that there are close correspondences between The Tree of Life and Malick’s childhood in Waco, between To the Wonder and his experience in marriage, between Knight of Cups and his time spent as a screenwriter and script doctor in Hollywood. But even if those films began with straightforwardly autobiographical scripts — which I doubt — they would have undergone massive change on set, as Malick discovered what resonated and what did not resonate, what particular actors brought to their scenes, etc. Christian Bale once commented that Malick’s mantra on set was “Let’s start before we’re ready,” because in that way the cast and crew and director might find something powerful that they weren’t planning and weren’t expecting.

Teresa Palmer, who in Knight of Cups plays a stripper named Karen, was originally asked to be on set for a single day. But, as she later reported, things changed:

Every night I kept getting another phone call thinking it was my last day on set and just being happy with that one day, and then getting a phone call that one night saying Terry wants you to come back in tomorrow. You okay with that? I was like, yes! Yes I’m okay, that is so exciting. And then the next night, the same thing, the same thing, and I think I ended up shooting about eleven days and they took me to Vegas. I remember Christian [Bale] laughing, he was like, you’ll probably end up being the main character in this movie.

And that’s just one example of how completely the filming can diverge from the script. Imagine then, the transformations that can take place in the process of editing. The Criterion edition of The New World contains an interview with the films’s editors, and they talk extensively about how Malick encouraged them to experiment, to get beyond their usual practices. One of them said that his typical experience in editing was to be constrained by the director, but when working with Malick he often wanted to say, Whoa, Terry, let’s pull it back a little.

With such an improvisatory, open-ended approach, even the most strictly autobiographical script might turn into something very different by the time the story is filmed and edited. It’s safe, I think, to say that the three films I have mentioned have deep roots in Malick’s own experience, but it would be unwise to see any of those films as documenting his life. 

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In other news, things will be quiet around here for a while. I have a great many other responsibilities facing me in the coming weeks — and in any case I need to spend some time thinking about how to proceed here. There’s no question that this will be my major project for the next couple of years; but that’s all the more reason to spend some time thinking through how to pursue it in the most appropriate way. I am hoping that the enforced time away, working on other things, will itself be clarifying — that often happens for me — but it may be that when I’m again able to think about this project I’ll need some time to consider. So those few of you who care: please be patient.