This weekend a friend of mine invited me to join him for a screening at BAM of Terence Malick's The Tree of Life with a live orchestra. 'But that's only for silent films,' I thought. I said yes right away more to spend time with my friend than to see the film again which I had very much admired but not quite loved in 2011.
Seeing it again five years later proved unexpectedly rewarding. Perhaps it was the huge screen - the first time I'd seen it was on a tiny arthouse screen in Manhattan. Perhaps it was the live accompaniment of a huge orchestra and choir but it felt newly electric...
The orchestra fell silent during the non-scored scenes but otherwise their presence and craftsmanship added an epic living spark to an otherwise familiar journey. The Tree of Life no longer felt as arbitrary in its strange structure and this time I didn't want the creation sequence to ever end. The movie's almost embarrassing Oedipal auteur confessions were also transformed into something endearing. Seeing Jessica Chastain so lovingly shot and reintroduced and rediscovering Brad Pitt's amazingly authentic 1950s dad was a dual aching joy.
You probably don't need a reminder that The Tree of Life is one of the most beautiful movies ever made on a visual level. It should be seen on the biggest screen possible always. It seems unthinkable now considering the three consecutive Oscars for Emmanuel Lubezki's cinematographic genius that this one, his most beautiful achievement which runs circles around his recentwork on The Revenant, was a losing nomination. And for something as comparatively gawdy and CGI'ed as Hugo!
What a world.
What a vision this film was and remains.
Do you remember your first time seeing it? I remember I had a rather noisy audience.