Tag Archives: Terrence Malick

“A Hidden Life” Trailer, Clips & Posters

Rightfully written and directed by Terence Malick, The Hidden Life follows the life of Franz Jägerstätter, which the Catholic church beautified in 2007, as a conscientious objector to World War II and Hilter.

Winner of Cannes 2019 François Chalais Award, Terrence Malick, masterfully guides August Diehl, who plays Jägerstätter, an Austrian. Known as a rambunctious young man and womanizer, Franz leaves the small town where he grew up to work in the salt mines.

He returns three years later, riding a motorcycle and a devout Catholic. He marries Franziska, played by Valerie Pachner, whose religious faith is almost as powerful as Franz.

Franz denounces Hilter and WW II, resulting in the small town cauterizing him. He continues tending farm alongside his wife and children.

Eventually, the Nazis sent him to prison for his religious faith and denouncing Hilter and the war, saying he could not be both Catholic and Nazi. They executed him in 1943, and Franz becomes a martyr and beatified by the Catholic church.

I invite you to take a look at Malick’s movie, The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt, Sean Pen, and Jessica Chastain. He uses similar angles and tender moments to tell the story of a young boy growing up with an angelic mother and a spiteful father.

The trailer shows Malick’s talent for serene and pastoral countrysides of quiet long and buoyant moments of love and joy. Only Malick can tell the story of Jägerstätter’s tragic end to a blissful life taken by a strong belief and devotion to God.

The red carpet interviews at TIFF discuss Malick’s direction and the area where they filmed the farmhouse. The Jägerstätters lived in St. Radegund, a small village of 500 people in Upper Austria, near Salzburg and the German border. In the same province, where Hitler was born and spent his early youth–not far from Berchtesgaden, his mountain retreat during his years as head of the German state.

The video captures them sharing their experiences working with Malick.

He arrives home, but the consequences of him being a conscientious objector will be a sad and frightful ending. The camera work and acting drive the scene forward with Malick’s direction.

The next two clips are Malick’s signature work, narrative with telling their story through his wife’s letters.

“Song to Song” Trailer and Film Clips

Directed by Terrence Malick, who brought of The Thin Red Line and The Tree of Life, brings his filmmaking style in this modern love story set against the Austin, Texas music scene, two entangled couples—struggling songwriters Faye, played by Rooney Mara, and BV, played by Ryan Gosling, and music mogul Cook, played by Michael Fassbender, and the waitress whom he ensnares, played by Natalie Portman, —chase success through a rock ‘n’ roll landscape of seduction and betrayal.

I am curious how this will play out with Malick’s style of artful and non-sequitur cut ways he uses to tell a deep and meaningful life of his characters.

The Andy Warhol styled poster is pretty cool and does convey a modern twist of Pop Art and its crazy, eschewed pop culture.