How Terrence Malick blended improv, dance, and history to create the expansiveA Hidden Life.
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Then theres quail hunting.
Malicks got other favorite terms as well, borrowed not just from nature but also from art.
Its not easy, she says, laughing.
Normally, it’s possible for you to just act.
But now you also have to think,Play the light, orVermeer yourself.
A Terrence Malick set sounds like itd be both exhausting and exhilarating.
Keep moving is one of his most common directions.
He wanted us to move all the time, Pachner recalls.
Its kind of weird, because I come from the stage, where a movement always means something.
Also, my character is a farmer, and a very grounded person.
So, the challenge was to keep moving while still making it feel authentic.
The movement inA Hidden Lifeis never dreamy.
Sometimes, its joyful.
Sometimes, its tense.
Often, its enraged.
But then, after a while, you realize that its a dance.
Theres a musical flow to everything.
Emotionally, it was very important that the camera moves.
His movement was enhanced by extreme wide-angle camera lenses, which heighten and extend even the smallest of gestures.
That Terrence Malick doesnt make movies like other people make movies, of course, is not news.
He is allergic to anything that feels presentational, or premeditated, or overly composed.
He cuts out, or greatly abbreviates, scenes that merely move a plot forward.
(Sometimes, they become cameos: Matthias Schoenaerts shows up for a hot second inA Hidden Life.)
Of course, to Malicks detractors and there are many it all sounds like pretentious hooey.
A Hidden Life, however, represented a new chapter for Malick.
Its very hard to coordinate with others who are working on the film …
The reason we did it was to try and get moments that are spontaneous and free.
And with no script, theres no round hole; theres just air.
But Im backing away from that style now.
ForA Hidden Life, then, the director reconciled his particular style of filmmaking with a more narrative approach.
The whole family was ostracized, and Franz was seen as this crazy person, says Pachner.
The daughters told me that when they got married, their mom would say, Its good.
Now your last name is not Jagerstatter.
Much ofA Hidden Lifeis based on letters Fani and Franz sent during his incarceration.
So the film is historical, but its not impersonal.
Some are moral cowards, compelled to become hells middle managers so that they themselves wont share Franzs fate.
Its the uncanny familiarity of this world that is so frightening.
Because theres hate swirling around the meadows of Radegund as well.
When Franzs position becomes known, hes attacked by his fellow villagers.
Later, Fani is scorned and abused by those around her.
The movie starts with images fromTriumph of the Will, says Markovics.
There we see masses of people, and they are like the atoms of an element.
The element is the ideology, which is made up of all these single individuals in the crowd.
Europe is being overrun by right-wing parties.
And the poison never really goes away.
Read aboutcomposer James Howard Newtons work onA Hidden Lifes score here.
