The first screening ofTree of Life, shown to the press early Monday, drew a mostly positive response, with applause in greater volume than scattered boos.
The film, which stars Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain and directed by Terence Malick (Days of Heaven) a deeply moving visually arresting tone poem which explores childhood memory, faith, grief, forgiveness and reconciliation. Natural images of volcanoes erupting, nebulae, all manner of plant, animal and undersea life and even CG dinosaurs are juxtaposed with a family saga, fraught with father-son conflict. Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain play the parents of three sons, one of whom grows up to be Sean Penn.
The film opens with a quote from the Bible's Book of Job and is clearly Malick's most spiritually-infused work. Chastain's character is heard in voiceover musing on living your life in the way of nature or the way of grace. For young Jack (Hunter McCracken) his mother personifies the way of grace --anchored by love, kindness and acceptance -- and his father, given to bursts of anger and cruelty, represents oppressive nature.
After the film Pitt and Chastain spoke at a press conference about working with a director who creates unconventional cinema more like a French impressionism than the average movie.
"I could go on far too long about Terry's process, but it's very interesting and was a really incredible experience," said a mustachioed Pitt, sporting slicked back hair and wearing quintessential Cannes attire: an off white linen suit, t-shirt, similarly colored sneakers and tinted glasses.
"The story takes place in the '50s and Terry gave us a very dense script, though he never wanted to what he called hammer and tong things," says Pitt. "He was more intersted in catching what was happening on the day. It's like standing with butterfly nets waiting for them to go by."
Chastain spoke of a particularly lovely scene in which a vivid yellow butterfly lands on her hand. She said it was not in the script and just happened, so Malick kept the cameras rolling.
"It was all about capturing happy accidents," says Chastain.
When she did a key early voiceover about the ways of nature and grace, a woodpecker was in the background and she assumed they would have to cut. But instead Malick incorporated the sound of the bird.
Pitt said they would receive about four, single-spaced script pages each morning each morning and "develop something out of that and we'd do two takes." The lighting is all natural and cameras are all hand-held.
Reporters repeatedly questioned why the famously reclusive Malick (who after making Badlands waited 20 years to makeThe Thin Red Line) was not on hand in Cannes. He is widely admired for his intellect and artistry. In addition to writing and directing films, Malick was a Rhodes scholar, journalist and taught philosophy at MIT. He is considered one of the greatest filmmakers ever, though his entire output now consists of only five movies: Badlands (1973), Days of Heaven(1978) The Thin Red Line, The New World (2004) and now Tree of Life, which opens in select cities on May 27. He won best director at Cannes in 1979 for Days of Heaven. The reason for being a no-show at Cannes? He's currently working on an untitled project.
"One of the reasons Terry shies away from a forum like this is that he wants the work to stand on its own, he doesn't want to say what it's about or whether it's autobiographical," says producer Bill Pohland. "He just wants the audience to draw their own conclusions and have it be a piece of poetry or art without interpreting it for them.
"If I can speak for him, I think he sees himself as building a house," says Pitt. " I don't know why it's accepted that people who make things in our business are now being expected to sell them. I think he wants to focus on the making of, the not the real estate. It is an odd thing for an artist to make something and then be a salesman."
Adds Pitt: "You know when you've got a favorite song and you hear the band telling you what it's about and discussing the lyrics and you're immediately disappointed?"
He's met with a resounding silence: "No?"
Trying to probe Malick's mystique, someone asked, "Does he laugh, does he never laugh? Is he stern or is he jovial? Does he like food?"
"Yes, yes and he even goes to the bathroom," says Pitt. "He's quite jovial. He's laughing most of the day like over when a dog messes up. He mines pleasure in the days. He loves all his characters in a very compassionate way.
Pitt added that working with Malick has inspired him to approach acting differently.
"It's changed everything I've done since. I've found in the past that what I thought were the best moments were not pre-conceived. they were not planned. They were happy accident that Jessica was describing. So I will try to go in that more direction, doing an intense study going into it, but then working with non-actors and trying to go off script and and seeing where it takes you."
He also spoke of the film's southern setting, having been raised in Springfield, Mo.
"I'm making a cliche of it, but a Southern upbringing ... there is truth in that there's a purity and sweetness in the mothers and in the father there's more a Father Knows Best mentality. Fathers are the providers. And in the film here you see that the American Dream, as we grew up to understand it is not working for them. The father is on the tail end of that and there's a lot of anger because of it and he in turn passes that on to his son, inadvertently."
The film was shot very close to Malick's birthplace in Waco, Texas, and contain some autobiographical elements, the producers said.
When asked how much might be autobiographical, Pitt said: "I do think there are elements of the story that are personal to Terry or to me. But I don't think it mirrors or is an exact template for either one of us. I find this film more universal. I hope it speaks to all cultures as far as childhood and deciding who you are.
The film has strong religious elements and a spiritual theme.
"We had lots of theological debates throughout the process that were really interesting," Pitt says. "I would say he's more of a spiritualist than (he adheres to) a compartmentalized version of Christianity. He has more of a universal viewpoint."
Adds producer Sarah Green, who also produced The New World: "He's extraordinarily educated in all religion and philosophies so I think that interest speaks in all his work."
When asked about his own religious upbringing, Pitt said: "Many people find religion to be very inspiring. Myself, I found it very stifling. I grew up with Christianity and I remember questioning it greatly. Some things didn't work for me. Some things did. I had a lot of the questions that the film presents. That's why it spoke to me. I grew up being told God is going to take care of everything and it doesn't always work out that way. And then you're told 'Well, it's God's will.' I got my issues. Man, you don't want to get me started."
What Pitt found particularly fascinating about the film was how it blended a family story with a much more ambitious and nebulous spiritual examination.
"I'm surprised by the structure which I find quite ingenious. This marriage of the micro with the macro, it tells this micro story of a family living in a small town in Texas juxtaposed with the birth of the cosmos and cell splitting."
When asked about his parenting style in relation to the authoritarian father he plays, he jokes easily.
"I beat my kids regularly," Pitt says to raucous laughter. "It seems to do the trick. And I deprive them of meals."
The film, which stars Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain and directed by Terence Malick (Days of Heaven) a deeply moving visually arresting tone poem which explores childhood memory, faith, grief, forgiveness and reconciliation. Natural images of volcanoes erupting, nebulae, all manner of plant, animal and undersea life and even CG dinosaurs are juxtaposed with a family saga, fraught with father-son conflict. Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain play the parents of three sons, one of whom grows up to be Sean Penn.
The film opens with a quote from the Bible's Book of Job and is clearly Malick's most spiritually-infused work. Chastain's character is heard in voiceover musing on living your life in the way of nature or the way of grace. For young Jack (Hunter McCracken) his mother personifies the way of grace --anchored by love, kindness and acceptance -- and his father, given to bursts of anger and cruelty, represents oppressive nature.
After the film Pitt and Chastain spoke at a press conference about working with a director who creates unconventional cinema more like a French impressionism than the average movie.
"I could go on far too long about Terry's process, but it's very interesting and was a really incredible experience," said a mustachioed Pitt, sporting slicked back hair and wearing quintessential Cannes attire: an off white linen suit, t-shirt, similarly colored sneakers and tinted glasses.
"The story takes place in the '50s and Terry gave us a very dense script, though he never wanted to what he called hammer and tong things," says Pitt. "He was more intersted in catching what was happening on the day. It's like standing with butterfly nets waiting for them to go by."
Chastain spoke of a particularly lovely scene in which a vivid yellow butterfly lands on her hand. She said it was not in the script and just happened, so Malick kept the cameras rolling.
"It was all about capturing happy accidents," says Chastain.
When she did a key early voiceover about the ways of nature and grace, a woodpecker was in the background and she assumed they would have to cut. But instead Malick incorporated the sound of the bird.
Pitt said they would receive about four, single-spaced script pages each morning each morning and "develop something out of that and we'd do two takes." The lighting is all natural and cameras are all hand-held.
Reporters repeatedly questioned why the famously reclusive Malick (who after making Badlands waited 20 years to makeThe Thin Red Line) was not on hand in Cannes. He is widely admired for his intellect and artistry. In addition to writing and directing films, Malick was a Rhodes scholar, journalist and taught philosophy at MIT. He is considered one of the greatest filmmakers ever, though his entire output now consists of only five movies: Badlands (1973), Days of Heaven(1978) The Thin Red Line, The New World (2004) and now Tree of Life, which opens in select cities on May 27. He won best director at Cannes in 1979 for Days of Heaven. The reason for being a no-show at Cannes? He's currently working on an untitled project.
"One of the reasons Terry shies away from a forum like this is that he wants the work to stand on its own, he doesn't want to say what it's about or whether it's autobiographical," says producer Bill Pohland. "He just wants the audience to draw their own conclusions and have it be a piece of poetry or art without interpreting it for them.
"If I can speak for him, I think he sees himself as building a house," says Pitt. " I don't know why it's accepted that people who make things in our business are now being expected to sell them. I think he wants to focus on the making of, the not the real estate. It is an odd thing for an artist to make something and then be a salesman."
Adds Pitt: "You know when you've got a favorite song and you hear the band telling you what it's about and discussing the lyrics and you're immediately disappointed?"
He's met with a resounding silence: "No?"
Trying to probe Malick's mystique, someone asked, "Does he laugh, does he never laugh? Is he stern or is he jovial? Does he like food?"
"Yes, yes and he even goes to the bathroom," says Pitt. "He's quite jovial. He's laughing most of the day like over when a dog messes up. He mines pleasure in the days. He loves all his characters in a very compassionate way.
Pitt added that working with Malick has inspired him to approach acting differently.
"It's changed everything I've done since. I've found in the past that what I thought were the best moments were not pre-conceived. they were not planned. They were happy accident that Jessica was describing. So I will try to go in that more direction, doing an intense study going into it, but then working with non-actors and trying to go off script and and seeing where it takes you."
He also spoke of the film's southern setting, having been raised in Springfield, Mo.
"I'm making a cliche of it, but a Southern upbringing ... there is truth in that there's a purity and sweetness in the mothers and in the father there's more a Father Knows Best mentality. Fathers are the providers. And in the film here you see that the American Dream, as we grew up to understand it is not working for them. The father is on the tail end of that and there's a lot of anger because of it and he in turn passes that on to his son, inadvertently."
The film was shot very close to Malick's birthplace in Waco, Texas, and contain some autobiographical elements, the producers said.
When asked how much might be autobiographical, Pitt said: "I do think there are elements of the story that are personal to Terry or to me. But I don't think it mirrors or is an exact template for either one of us. I find this film more universal. I hope it speaks to all cultures as far as childhood and deciding who you are.
The film has strong religious elements and a spiritual theme.
"We had lots of theological debates throughout the process that were really interesting," Pitt says. "I would say he's more of a spiritualist than (he adheres to) a compartmentalized version of Christianity. He has more of a universal viewpoint."
Adds producer Sarah Green, who also produced The New World: "He's extraordinarily educated in all religion and philosophies so I think that interest speaks in all his work."
What Pitt found particularly fascinating about the film was how it blended a family story with a much more ambitious and nebulous spiritual examination.
"I'm surprised by the structure which I find quite ingenious. This marriage of the micro with the macro, it tells this micro story of a family living in a small town in Texas juxtaposed with the birth of the cosmos and cell splitting."
When asked about his parenting style in relation to the authoritarian father he plays, he jokes easily.
"I beat my kids regularly," Pitt says to raucous laughter. "It seems to do the trick. And I deprive them of meals."
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