Terrence Malick, creative mind behind To The Wonder, Tree of Life and The Thin Red Line among many others, is on the verge of releasing another exercise in experimental filmmaking in Knight of Cups.
It’s been a long time coming, too, considering that production initially wrapped in the closing stages of 2014, before Malick’s spiritual feature had its worldwide premiere at last year’s Berlin Film Festival. Now, more than a year late, Broad Green Pictures is bringing the feature to theaters in little over two weeks’ time, and today’s new images give fans an early opportunity to get acquainted with the key characters.
Orbiting around Christian Bale’s depressed Hollywood screenwriter, Knight of Cups follows his character of Rick on a existential search for meaning, crossing paths with a stripper (Teresa Palmer), a model (Freida Pinto) and a married woman (Natalie Portman). That’s not all though, as each of Rick’s encounters will underpin one of the film’s eight chapters, and Malick has teased in the past that the spiritual awakening takes cues from a 17th century religious parable, The Pilgrim’s Progress.
Cate Blanchett, Brian Dennehy, Antonio Banderas, Wes Bentley, Isabel Lucas, Teresa Palmer, Cherry Jones, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and Imogen Poots complete the enviable ensemble.
Broad Green Pictures will finally usher Knight of Cups into theaters on March 4. Until then, you can gaze at the latest poster for Malick’s latest below, which turns Christian Bale’s world upside down and attaches it to a spiritual tarot card.
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?