Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life is easily the most-anticipated film here at TFS, so any little update makes us just a bit happier. For every Fast and Furious and Brett Ratner story, a Malick post gives us a breath of fresh air. 24 Frames sat down with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who also did fantastic work on Children of Men, and they got a few new details on the production.
The otherworldly photography in the trailer is breathtaking, so it makes sense with the revelation that Malick consulted with NASA for “footage of the cosmos and other grand imagery.” Lubezki also talked about the unique directing approach Malick used, saying “once you think you got the formula, you realized there is no formula. It’s like no set I ever worked on.” He even said the complete lack of interest Malick had in the actors:
“So the actors are performing the dialogue, but Terry isn’t interested in dialogue. So they’re talking, and we’re shooting a reflection or we’re shooting the wind or we’re shooting the frame of the window, and then we finally pan to them when they finish the dialogue.”
Although star Brad Pitt may have had a similar experience on Andrew Dominik‘s meditative The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, it still took the actor “a couple of days or a week to get into the spirit.” Lubezki even goes as far to say co-star Sean Penn and Pitt probably “thought we insane.” But for a Malick film, emotion reigns supreme:
“Photography is not used to illustrate dialogue or a performance. We’re using it to capture emotion so that the movie is very experiential. It’s meant to trigger tons of memories, like a scent or a perfume.”
Producer Dede Gardner even hinted at a lack of concrete linear story, which should fuel the fire of those thinking the trailer does no storytelling. She said “one of the things you learn when you work with Terry is there isn’t one interpretation. Life’s experience is individualized, so why shouldn’t a film be?”
The Tree of Life will hit theaters May 27th, 2011.