Well, only a tweet from @PeterBradshaw1 (the Guardian):
Peter Bradshaw
"The usual storm of sneering, jeering and booing, I'm afraid, for Terrence Malick's flawed, passionate, idealistic To The Wonder"
Greg Taylor
"Which did you do?"
Peter Bradshaw
"None, I'm happy to report!"
From @GuyLodge
"TO THE WONDER (B+) Malick's Tree of Love, at once less substantial and more satisfying than its predecessor. A thousand Christina's worlds.
Which is to say that, yes, I comfortably prefer it to The Tree of Life, but I sense most won't."
What does 'A thousand Christina's worlds' mean?
EDIT: I found out! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina%27s_World
Well, the jeering and booing is what I feared most.
But on the otherhand, how exciting.
The jeering and booing is so predictable and hopefully means it will win the main prize like with TTOL in Cannes!
Anyway, lots of mixed-reaction tweets out there, but the most worrying thing is a lack of positive comments on the acting, except for Bardem's ...
Meh some people like to get attention, TTOL was boo'd :P
I still have high hopes that I will love this film.. NOW GIVE MAH DA TRAIER!
I'm guessing you will, as it sounds in keeping with TTOL's style (but smaller scale), rather than the rumoured plunge into inaccessible abstraction.
Anyway, this made me smile from @JigsawLounge, even though he only gives it 6/10:
"Oppressively virtuoso god-bothering mega-haiku of enchantment at dusk"
TTOL is my favourite Malick film, followed by The New World :P
and that quote o_O lol
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Film/2012/Sep-02/186420-boos-for-c ult-director-malicks-to-the-wonder-in-venice.ashx#axzz25JEJWCUp
VENICE, Italy: Cult U.S. director Terrence Malick's latest work "To the Wonder" failed to impress its first viewers at the Venice film festival on Sunday, with more than a few boos amid tepid applause.
The eagerly awaited flick with Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, Olga Kurylenko and Rachel McAdams is ambitious in scope, exploring many forms of love through beautifully shot imagery and poetic voiceovers by its protagonists.
It starts with a love story between Affleck and Kurylenko that finds its perfect expression in the picturesque cloister garden of Mont Saint Michel in France -- the "Wonder" in the film and an idyll that quickly turns sour.
The couple move to Oklahoma in the United States where they meet a priest played by Bardem, who is himself falling out of love with God as he is confronted with the poverty and misery in the underbelly of middle America.
This is self-indulgent filmmaking -- a charge also leveled against Malick for his last film "The Tree of Life" starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, which still impressed the jury in Cannes last year and won the Palme d'Or.
In "To the Wonder" there is little acting in the traditional sense and many of the emotions are portrayed through facial expressions and gestures.
While Kurylenko -- the Bond girl in "Quantum of Solace" -- and Bardem mostly manage to pull this difficult performance off, Affleck is unconvincing with his gormless expressions interspersed with occasional scowls and smiles.
While the traditional end-of-love story left viewers unsatisfied, the more moving parts of the film were the exploration of divine love and natural beauty, like the warming light felt by Bardem through a stained glass window.
Todd McCarthy desperately searches for a theme or meaning in a Terrence Malick film. Fails to find one. Cries about it:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/wonder-terrence-malick-venice- 367295
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omg what lol? the theme is LOVE. lol.
Reading review, it sounds like everythign I was hoping for! great news on the score!!!!
Todd's clearly not a fan (ouch!), but on a positive note, he did write this:
"By far the most sophisticated and complex element of the film is the soundtrack, which would likely to be instructive to listen to on its own, without the pictures. On a first impression, it consists of layer upon layer, with an eclectic selection of work by famous composers (Berlioz, Hayden, Respighi, Tchaikovsky, Gorecki, Part, et al.) blended with more esoteric choices and contributions by composer Hanan Townshend along with the voice-overs and natural sounds."
I'm sure the soundtrack (not just the music) would be worth the price of admission alone ..
A rave from the Playlist:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/venice-review-terrence-malicks- to-the-wonder-is-a-raw-heartfelt-film-of-loss-and-longing-20120902
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http://rateyourmusic.com/~SinsOfArcadia
Reviews are typical Malick, you either love or hate it ;)
EDIT-
what a wonderful review! really a great read and far more reasons why its good and has more depth than the other ones.
Nice to read a positive one and to get high praise for Olga, i.e. the lead. Not that I'm familiar with her work, but that's what makes it so exiting. On a side-note, I found it a bit odd the reviewer kept referring to 'we think' rather than 'I think'. Malick is meant to be divisive god-dammit! ;)
shareMight have been written as a group piece or by two critics?
shareOn the Ben Affleck thing: it was always going to be a tall order for anyone to play (essentially) Malick in a Malick film when Malick is so conflicted about talking about himself and has this tendency to erase himself from his work. The situation is conflicted by its essence (see Penn in TToL). 1John4:4
shareAnd further to the point, I've always seen Penn as Malick's alter-ego in issues of faith/disbelief, as he played in both TRL and TToL, whereas Bale serves the same role in issues of love, as seen in TNW, the two coming films, and apparently as originally intended in this film. 1John4:4
shareMalick with someone like Affleck should have gone for the Kuleshov Effect it seems:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuleshov_Effect
Oh sweet , never heard of this :D
shareThat was funny and informative at the same time. Where'd you come up with that?
shareI remember it from decades ago when I used to read books about the history and art of film. Couldn't remember the name of it though, but it quickly came up when I googled the words 'famous edits using the same expression baby food hunger' lol
shareGreat. OK I've got to drop out for a while now; no multitasking during the Belgian Grand Prix! And there's already a crash off the start! 1John4:4
share[deleted]
Cheers, I'll check it out. Any idea if the press conference is streamed anywhere? I think I read it's happening like, now.
shareIt's understandable now why Affleck & McAdams avoided Venice.
shareTo be honest I'm a bit concerned with numerous reports of excessive 'twirling' by Olga's character. Anyway, I've read enough for now ... must try and get back to a scary backlog of work :/
shareThey are probs exaggerating tbh lol
Not gonna let critics change y opinion pn the film, I will see and judge myself ;)
http://www.deadline.com/2012/09/venice-ben-affleck-has-almost-no-lines -in-terrence-malicks-divisive-to-the-wonder/
Interestingly, I understand some footage from Tree Of Life was used in this film.
WHAT??? yaya :D!!!!
http://www.cine-vue.com/2012/09/venice-film-festival-2012-terrence.htm l
sharehaven't seen such bad reviews since... well "the new world" :P
shareI think it would have benefited him this time around if he was less experimental. You can still make a sensual filled, meandering story without the radical editing. Hell, look at what PTA did with "The Master" (from what I've read). And PTA reveres Malick.
@vedderim, is there an available source of PTA discussing Malick? I mean I always assumed he was a fan, but had never read anything directly confirming it.
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Positive 'review' (5/5) from an Italian source here: http://www.supergacinema.it/festival/venezia/venezia-2012/film/8865-ve nezia-69-to-the-wonder-terrence-malick.html
I see they have a poster there as well. I doubt that's official, but wouldn't mind at all if it was.
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Great another positive :)))) and I think thats a fan made :)
share