A six-hour “Tree of Life”?
Filmgoers with a love for master filmmaking that tends toward the semi-linear embraced "The Tree of Life" in a big way. So when word got out the original screenplay was three inches high and six hours long – and when cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki hinted in the press a few weeks ago that legendary auteur Terrence Malick had plans to work on a cut of the movie that might be several hours longer -- happy forwards and retweets rippled through the cineaste community.
At a Q&A following a showing of the film Thursday night at the Landmark, part of TheWrap’s Awards Screening Series, Lubezki turned a bit bashful about the revelation. "I got scolded, so I don't know if I can talk about it," he said.
Turning to producer Dede Gardner, he asked, "Dede, can I talk about it?"
After the producer gave him the go-ahead, the cinematographer explained.
Much -- if not almost all -- of the intimidating, original three-inch-thick screenplay was jettisoned, and Malick ultimately came in with a very dialogue-light, almost montage-like film that clocks in at a fairly economical two hours and 19 minutes.
Indeed, several reports at Cannes had Sean Penn storming out after the "Tree of Life" screening, complaining that most of his work had been left on the cutting-room floor.
"There was going to be a long version of the movie at one point, and I don't know if it exists or not, Lubezi said. “I saw many edits, and one was probably close to six hours, and it was incredible. And I was hoping that they would finish it, even if it was just to make some DVDs or Blu-Rays, because it was fantastic."
But when the evening’s host, TheWrap’s Oscars guru Steve Pond, asked Gardner if she had anything to add about the prospect of eventually sating Malick fans' thirst with an epic cut of the film on home video, the producer was more circumspect: "No.”
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But as open as Malick was to throwing out much of his script and virtually all of its dialogue, he was exacting when it came to including certain key beats.
"Some scenes he'd thought about for many, many decades," said Lubezki, "and he knew he wanted to capture a certain emotion, and he would not leave the set until that was in the can. The scene where Jack is crying in the high grass and his brother is there, it took many, many weeks for (the child actor) to get comfortable with us to open up like that, and Terry knew he wanted that scene," however long a wait it took.
Before "The Tree of Life," Lubezki had worked with legendary auteur Terrence Malick once before, “The New World.” So by the time he got to this film's Texas set, he already knew the secret of "Life": Don't read the script.
