On Terrence Malick: not even updated, a collection of articles in English which remains essential

Recently, the second study in French dedicated to the work of Terrence Malick, signed Alexander Mathis, was published: Terrence Malick and America. It followed Terrence Malick's Paradise Lost Fabian Maray. I already have written that they had not fully convinced me, even though I can recognize their qualities. You can also specify the translation of the book by Paul Maher (One Big Soul: An Oral History of Terrence Malick - 3rd Edition last updated edition in English), compilation about the author and his films their manufactures receipt, as well as studies on a given film, such as the great little book by Ariane Gaudeaux about Badlands / Badlands (The wild ride). It is a pity that no more substantial works with us as magazines, meanwhile, have devoted to this remarkable texts author and which is still awaiting a study and informed very detailed volume in our language. Will it be the end of this year, when we arrive the book announces the publisher Deep Red, payable to the author of a stimulating reflection on Stanley Kubrick, Philippe Fraisse? It can be understood that the wish for.

Although the French cinephile contributed to the flame remains quite strong during the eclipse of the filmmaker for a good twenty years between Days of Heaven / Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line / Red Line, the authors Anglophones are not too long after his return chopping analyzes. Between 2007 and 2008 two books have greatly expanded the bibliographic field - so they were made available after the release of The New World / New World. The book by Lloyd Michaels Terrence Malick proves a very good basic book on all aspects, and also for him to be the first to have given us a little biographical information more accurate. As for this collection of articles in English led by Hannah Patterson, although not covering him the latest movies, it is a mine that has as yet no equivalent in France by volume: The Cinema of Terrence Malick second. Its boundaries are immediately obvious: 1) it dates already, since it ignores the contribution of the last three games (The Tree of Life, To the Wonder / At wonder and Knight of Cups), and that they indicate new inflections of malickien film, what its 3rd period might be called (after the first grouping the two films of the 70s and the second binder The Thin Red Line and The New World) 2) as the 1st edition was tackling on the first three films, The New World is the subject of separate items added at the end of volume - it should be noted that while some editors amended their original text in the light of that brought this film, all did not. But this does not invalidate the analyzes of course not the films themselves. Even if one is a little surprised not to see announced a third edition, this 2nd edition is far from obsolete. For those interested in priority to the first four films, it is even essential.

No way to detail here the content of all items. One suspects that all that became the slapstick of the study of malickiennes works therein: several articles, in whole or in part, are so devoted to the influence of Transcendentalists and Heidegger thought; we will not be surprised to find studies on the landscape or the voiceover in his films. Note some specificity: Beyond the analysis of the role of music (developed here about Days of Heaven), a very thorough and fascinating article is devoted to his work; critical and public reception The Thin Red Line is placed in context also to show how it has changed the status of the director and increased its 'mythical aura'; several articles revolve around notions of gender in Malick - in the sense of two English words 'gender' and 'gender' - and show, often quite finely, how he revisits and even revised (war movie and 'film' Criminal Lovers', but also road movie, western, etc.).

Ultimately, though as always in this type of structure there may be some weaknesses, with a small handful of articles that interest jargonnent less or somewhat unnecessarily, much of what has been developed following the many analysts in both English and French is there. If you can read this kind of analysis in English, it is important not to abandon this work because it would not have been updated recently.

Besides books in English given above, I want to remind the chapters on Malick in four of the most fundamental works recently published in the American cinema in France: The Conquerors of a new world of Michel Ciment (a seminal studies in our language on the filmmaker about Days of Heaven) At the gates of Paradise - One hundred years of American cinema. Fifty-eight filmmakers Michael Henry Wilson (written remarkable studies at the time of the release of The Thin Red Line and the New World), modern Hollywood - time lights and Hollywood - Time mutants Pierre Berthomieu (connoisseur of music cinema, Berthomieu develop that aspect much better than many others, including stimulating analyzes). Finally, I recommend the number 54 of the magazine Eclipses, fully dedicated to Malick, published in summer 2014 and therefore considering meanwhile all the movies up To the Wonder.