Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick, 2016)

[domino harvey]

[willoneill]

And as expected no US distributor at this time.

According to my Facebook feed, eOne has picked it up for Canada.

[DarkImbecile]

Oh, no! if we've lost shaska ocelot, we've lost the American people...

Where did you find that gem, Dom?

[domino harvey]

It was the top comment on YouTube when I watched the trailer

[domino harvey]

So I guess that means the Rooney Mara and Ryan Gosling stuff is in Untitled Indie Rock Thriller

[FrauBlucher]

Criterion just tweeted the trailer. Hhhhmm.

[domino harvey]

I have to admit, it never occurred to me that Criterion could have been working on one of Malick's new films...

[eerik]

Criterion just tweeted the trailer. Hhhhmm.

They often promote new films from directors who are featured in the Collection. Nothing new.

Or they are also releasing Interstellar, Zero Theorem, Abel Ferrera's Pasolini, Venus in Fur, etc.

[domino harvey]

You heard it here first: Criterion to release Interstellar!

[Luke M]

Terrence Malick gonna Terrence Malick. Actually, looks more like one of those late Cronenberg messes starring Robert Pattinson but I'm optimistic

[domino harvey]

The film's official synopsis clears everything up

Once there was a young prince whose father, the king of the East, sent him down into Egypt to find a pearl. But when the prince arrived, the people poured him a cup. Drinking it, he forgot he was the son of a king, forgot about the pearl and fell into a deep sleep. Rick’s father used to read this story to him as a boy. The road to the East stretches out before him. Will he set forth?

[oh yeah]

This looks very, very interesting and I'm glad to see it's fully recognizable as Malick while not lapsing into overly familiar self-parody like with the trailer for (or entire film of) To the Wonder. Some of the video footage looked startlingly like a moment from Godard's In Praise of Love, other wide-angle abstractions reminded me of Doyle's 90s work for Kar Wai, and some of the club footage even conjured a little digital Michael Mann vibe. Fascinated to see what it will all amount to, and I say that as someone who hasn't loved a Malick film since Thin Red Line.

[AquaNarc]

I know a release date is still a ways off but realistically I'm not gonna have to wait like a year to see this, am I?

[aox]

It looks like he simply remade To the Wonder. The shots and music seem almost identical.

Full Disclosure: TtW is my second favorite TM film.

[sir_luke]

A Facebook comment describes the trailer as looking like "Vanilla Sky meets Under the Skin" presumably from someone who has not seen either film?

All that aside, I am (and have always been, since the infancy of my interest in film) a full-on banner-waving Malick fan, and unlike many of the other forum members (and critics and the general public) I am quite fond of To the Wonder (although it took me a couple revisits). I'm thrilled to see him go in what looks like a new direction, at least visually (the integration of video, touched on in TtW, particularly intrigues me). I think the environment of empty excess depicted in the trailer will be a particularly good match for his brand of internalized spiritual contemplation and grand moral struggle. I'll be there opening night, no doubt.

[domino harvey]

I think To the Wonder is his best film, but then again I'm not a Malick disciple so I'm not sure I'm getting the same things out of his films as many others

[Altair]

It wasn't entirely sold on To the Wonder, but he's nonetheless remained one of my favourite directors, and here, it's good to see Malick experimenting: a new environment for his films, the mixing of film and digital (started in his previous film but seems to be on a much larger scale here). Like everyone else surely, this is now amongst the most anticipated films for 2015.

[aox]

I think To the Wonder is his best film, but then again I'm not a Malick disciple so I'm not sure I'm getting the same things out of his films as many others

Agreed. I think I have only enjoyed two of his films completely (TtW and Days of Heaven).

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

And as expected no US distributor at this time.

According to my Facebook feed, eOne has picked it up for Canada.

Screen Daily reports that it's already been sold to a bunch of markets (also including the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Scandinavia, Benelux, Australia, Latin America, etc. etc.) but that they're apparently waiting until Berlin to find a U.S. buyer.

[sir_luke]

IMDb says the U.S. release date will be December 11th, but I don't know how reliable that is since there isn't a U.S. distributor specified

[ianungstad]

Berlin announced their schedule today and updated their plot summary for Knight of Cups:

Rick is a slave to the Hollywood system. He is addicted to success but simultaneously despairs at the emptiness of his life. He is at home in a world of illusions but seeks real life. Like the tarot card of the title, Rick is easily bored and needs outside stimulation. But the Knight of Cups is also an artist, a romantic and an adventurer.
In Terrence Malick's seventh film a gliding camera once again accompanies a tormented hero on his search for meaning. Once again a voiceover is laid over images which also seek their own authenticity. And once again Malick seems to put the world out of joint. His symphonic flow of images contrasts cold, functional architecture with the ageless beauty of nature. Rick's internal monologue coalesces with the voices of the women who cross his path, women who represent different principles in life: while one lives in the real world, the other embodies beauty and sensuality. Which path will Rick choose? In the city of angels and the desert that surrounds it, will he find his own way?

Sounds pretty much like To The Wonder. Runtime seems to be 118 minutes.

[Jeff]

Tweeted early reactions are all over the place as you would expect, but the ones that love it really love it ("fucking glorious," "masterwork," etc.).

Here's the international poster:

[FrauBlucher]

The divisive reviews are par for the course when it comes to Malick.

[Jeff]

Still a bit shaken after KNIGHT OF CUPS - Malick's best since THIN RED LINE, surely. TO THE WONDER essentially an elaborate sketch for this.

KNIGHT OF CUPS: Flirtations w/ narrative, fragments of a life, and a portrait of Los Angeles that outdoes all others. A masterwork.

KNIGHT OF CUPS feels like another branch off of TREE OF LIFE, just as TO THE WONDER did. And it's spectacular.

Terrence Malick goes completely into a Godardian essayism with KNIGHT OF CUPS – an emotional and terrifying world of phantoms and imagery.

Knight of Cups: just find me someone else who is capable to convey such a dense toughts in a single, stunning frame. Overwhelming

Knight of Cups: Terrence Malick's latest is a captivating critique of Hollywood hedonism. America's response to The Great Beauty

Knight of Cups is fucking glorious.

The only full review I've seen thus far though comes from The Telegraph's Tim Robey. They just pulled it down since reviews are embargoed until Monday, but it was a three-out-of-five-star shrug.

[FrauBlucher]

IMDB has the US release date for Dec 2015. Is that possible?