Is ‘A Hidden Life' A Comeback For Terrence Malick?

Terrence Malick's “A Hidden Life” will be premiering at Cannes next month.

According to a source close to production, Malick’s power over the film and its future had faded and was now in the hands of the film’s investors, when the film was submitted to Cannes, and that Malick “might use the next few months until the theatrical release for another cut,”

“A Hidden Life” clocks in at 180 minutes and tell the true-life story of Austrian Franz Jägerstätter, who famously was a conscientious objector and refused to fight for the Nazis during World War II.

Your liking of Malick, of late at least, will depend very much on whether you liked the last three films of his “Texas nouveau-riche“ trilogy: “Song to Song,” “To The Wonder,” and "Knight of Cups." It’s the same idea, same style, same love triangles, same “wonderment” at nature, and same self-congratulatory flattery. I personally didn’t respond to those films. I thought they were Malick jerk-off sessions. However, the biggest problem with these films was the fact that he was casting a who’s who of Hollywood A-listers, which rendered them inauthentic in their attempt to attain romantic naturalism. These films featured some of the biggest names in the business: Ben Affleck, Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams etc. Having star wattage, and well known faces, did a disservice to what Malick was trying to achieve. You don’t buy the romantic yearning these star actors are performing on-screen. Maybe having unknown actors would have benefited the story a little more. Then again, the films also felt like Malick trying to do Malick — a sense of self-caricaturing was apparent throughout.

These three films proved to be soul crushing. After all, Malick was a master who could do no wrong before that, with film after film of considerable importance being released throughout his scattered but rich career: “Badlands,” “Days of Heaven,” “The Thin Red Line,” “The Tree of Life,” and "The New World." 

Most importantly, these last three films barely used a script, which is why, despite cautiousness, I am very much looking forward to his next film, “A Hidden Life,” which has the man actually using a script. It was shot with German actors, but I was told it is in English.

It has been over two years since shooting wrapped, but Malick gave a rare, in-depth Q&A following a screening of “Voyage of Time” at Washington D.C.’s Air and Space Museum last September:

Well, here was a script (in “Voyage of Time,”) which was the evolutionary history of the universe [audience laughs]. And lately – I keep insisting, only very lately – have I been working without a script, and I’ve lately repented the idea. The last picture we shot, and we’re now cutting (“Radegund,”) went back to a script that was very well ordered,” he said. “There’s a lot of strain when working without a script because you can lose track of where you are. It’s very hard to coordinate with others who are working on the film. Production designers and location managers arrive in the morning and don’t know what we’re going to shoot or where we’re going to shoot. The reason we did it was to try and get moments that are spontaneous and free. As a movie director, you always feel with a script that you’re trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. And with no script, there’s no round hole, there’s just air. But I’m backing away from that style now