The Tree of Life

Ah, what a better way to start my blog than share my thoughts on the most controversial film of 2011, in my opinion of course. Terrence Malick's Tree of Life won Palme D'Or at Cannes and got five star reviews. Many theatres had to put up signs warning people that the film's editing wasn't linear, because so many people walked out and wanted their money back. How does something like this happen?

I saw the film in London. I do not live in the UK so for me it was a very special occassion. I travelled 40 minutes from where I was staying just to see this film, I had waited for it and the posters led me to believe it was going to mind-blowing. It was.

There were about 20 people in the theatre, because the latest Harry Potter had stolen all the crowds. I had a nice chat with a lovely elderly lady, because we were the first ones to go in, we thought "this wasn't everyone's cup of tea". When the film ended, there were maybe 15 people left. I have never seen people leave the theatre before and for the first time, I was also thinking about leaving in the middle of the film, but decided to stay.

 In the end, I did enjoy Tree of Life, but I don't think I fully understood it, but then again, who did? And even though I enjoy artistic film with non-linear editing, I thought this had one major problem. The infamous birth of the universe scene. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful, but in the wrong place, in the wrong time. You start a film with 3 different timelines: the boys as children, the boys as adolescent when the Mother receives the terrible news and then the oldest son as an adult, played by Sean Penn. You introduce the characters and you let the audience have a sneak peek at what the lives of these boys and this family was back then and how it has affected Sean Penn's character. And then, 25 minutes into the film, you put in a 25 minute nature documentary with dinosaurs . And then you carry on like nothing happened. The scene was breathtaking and beautiful, there's no denying that, but for me, it felt like with every passing minute I was moving farther away from the characters and when we got back to them, we had forgotten who they were or how they were relevant to this film.

The middle part was the strongest and most enjoyable part for me. Brad Pitt was amazing, when did he became such a respectable actor? I remember seeing him in films that didn't really matter, that were fun but forgettable. But that's just me. And the young Hunter McCracken, I hope we see more of him. Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain also delivered fine roles as the adul Jack O'Brien and as Mother. All the actors really did an amazing job and the everything from the script to the cinematography worked for me. But leaving the theatre, I had a feeling that if someone asked me what the film was about, I wouldn't know what to say. And I felt utterly confused, like 80 % of everyone who saw this film. But I also felt impressed. Like I said, it was a beautiful film with steady direction and well played characters that weren't one-dimensional.

I bought the DVD a week ago and I watched it again. The film made more sense, but I still felt like the nature scene should have been in the very beginning or at the very end. I would not cut the whole scene, it's beautiful, but I would just... place it differently.

Overall, Tree of Life was very satisfying and beautiful film by Terrence Malick, that left a lot of us in awe as well as confusion, wondering which way am I living. The way of Nature or the way of Grace. How about you? What were you feeling?

The First.

This is a blog about films.

If you don't like films, please turn away. If you do like films, continue. If you love films, you should definately continue.

I have a passion about films. I have very little knowledge about them, but I'm learning as I go. Since I was a little kid, I watched way more films than my friends did and watched them in a way they didn't. I was more interested in what happened behind camera or how the camera moved, what the director allowed us to see and what they didn't show us.

So now I'm creating a blog. Why? Just because. Maybe there's someone else out there who loves films, but doesn't really know anything about them, but wants to share their thoughts about them. And please, share yours. Tell me if you loved the film I hated. Or if you hated the film I loved. Or if you agree with me.

This blog will be about all kinds of films. Old, new, awesome, awful, interesting, boring and everything inbetween. I will cover a lot of different genres. And every now and then, I will also share my thoughts on what's happening in the industry. Like a pro. Which I'm not.

So stay tuned. I'll be back.

Sincerely,
CoffeeCat