auteur

Yesterday we opened The Tree of Life, one the most eagerly anticipated movies of the summer (at least in the art house world). The Tree of Life is the impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith. It's a philosophical film, it's visually stunning and it's not like anything else you've seen before.

The Tree of Life is one of those films that doesn't belong anywhere other than an art house theater and we welcome the opportunity to bring it to you. It's a film that encourages dialogue and debate and isn't that what a good film is supposed to do, whether you appreciated the film or not?

Director Terrence Malick is one of those rare filmmakers left who is still shrouded in an air of mystery and reclusiveness. In the age of so much information, that's pretty hard to do. But there are still some things you can find out via the world wide web and here are some curious facts:

- Malick studied philosophy at Harvard, graduating Phi Betta Kappa. He even taught some philosophy at MIT for a time.

- He was also a freelance journalist before entering the film world and contributed to the obituaries for Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy in The New Yorker.

- Over one million feet of film was shot for his 2005 film The New World

- Malick is famously protective of his private life and his contracts always stipulate that his likeness may not be used for promotional purposes.

- Malick was born in Waco, Texas where The Tree of Life is set.

- The cinematic equivalent of JD Salinger, Malick took a 20-year sabbatical after 1978's "Days of Heaven" before agreeing to direct "The Thin Red Line" in 1998.

- Zoolander is one of Malick’s all time favorite films.

- Starting with The New World, Malick has instituted “rules” in his filmmaking, including using only natural light, no cranes, no big rigs, and handheld cameras only.

He's a pretty interesting dude and actually lives up to his mythical status.

Check out the trailer:

One more thing, some audiences in other parts of the country have not really understood how to appreciate Malick and The Tree of Life and theaters have had to resort to the following (courtesy of our good friends at the Avon Theater in Stamford, CT):

But we don't think we have anything to worry about in the City of the Arts....