Knight of Cups Review

by Alan McIntyre Smith

The First review of this blog coincides with the release of Terrence Malick’s latest feature film, Knight of Cups.  I was excited to begin with this director as he writes with the camera and prefers poetic visuals over standard plot points.

For viewers more comfortable with traditional narrative structure and character development, Knight of Cups could be a frustrating viewing experience.  But if you can open up and let the movie wash over you, the film will reward single or multiple viewings. 

“WE ARE NOT LEADING THE LIVES WE WERE MEANT FOR...”

So says a woman’s voice at some point over an image of Christian Bale in extreme close-up distortion, floating like a zombie through the constant party that is his life.  The fact that I can’t tell you what specific image played over that line is a testament to the success of director Terrence Malick’s latest feature film, as it culminates a style he has been developing over the past four projects with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC and his editing team. 

Synopsis

“I CAN’T REMEMBER THE MAN I WANTED TO BE…”

The “plot” of the film follows Rick, a successful Hollywood screenwriter, as he wanders through a simulacrum dream world of studio back-lots and phony city streets. Apparently he is on the cusp of an incredible deal for the studio but he seems to be blowing it, much to the chagrin of his agents and studio suits.  He is trying to wake himself from a long slumber, but can’t quite remember his past self, or what he set out to do.  Rick visits his brother Barry (Wes Bentley) and senile father Joseph (Brian Dennehy) several times, each encounter ending with a fight between his family members.  He visits men on skid row, watches Dr. Nancy (Cate Blanchett) attend to her patients, gets his fortune told by a gypsy, meets a model at a party and follows her to a fashion shoot.  Scene after scene go on with a constant cutting between past and present, people, places and animals so to continue to list them out would not be useful; it’s not the point.  It’s the interconnectedness of the moments, emotions, sounds and visual splendor that make viewing this film worth the time and effort.

Character Development via Visual Storytelling

“I THINK YOU’RE WEAK”

Rick begins the film on shaky ground, literally waking up to an earthquake shaking his apartment; he flees to a doorway and wanders out to the public patio where a pipe has broken, spraying and arc of water onto the sidewalk.  The quake is never mentioned again, but is a harbinger of things to come.  His character is empty, as implied by a home invasion where the robbers can find nothing to steal.  Lost, Rick wanders the desert yearning for freedom.  He sees the means to escape in women, airplanes, cars, tarot, Vegas, but somehow can’t make a break with his life.  

No one can get through to him until we meet Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) who is introduced with the title card: DEATH.  She confesses to Rick that when she broke off their affair she was pregnant with a child that could have been his, which prompts a subtle tonal shift.  Suddenly there are repercussions to his choices.  As Elizabeth confides in Rick the scene shifts to the sea side and then a boardwalk on an ocean beach.  Rick spontaneously jumps off the end of the pier and swims in the ocean.  Before long the camera is on the road, racing uphill towards the open sky.  Has Rick attained freedom at last?

“HOW DO I BEGIN?”

Rick’s voiceover plays towards the end of the film as we see him standing in a barren valley, staring up at formidable rock walls blocking his path.  A man wandering alone in the desert is a series of shots that Malick cuts to throughout the film – weaving a cinematic quilt of similar situations and ideas and allowing the audience to associate as they see fit.  We are also treated to shot after shot of staircases and escalators, which point to a path up, however we rarely see Rick actually ascending – the stairs are there as a guide, but it is up to the person to make the steps.

Visual Themes

The search for freedom is one of the primary themes of the film, shown in the images of transportation – airplanes, boats, cars and the open road.  We often see Rick driving through tunnels, a visual representation of a knight on a quest or a sexually-themed joke.  He tries to find freedom through womanizing, racking up an impressive roster of beauties from his past and present, but they do more to confuse Rick and help him sink to lower depths.   His spell is not easily broken.  Rick’s father has lost his mind and is often portrayed as confused and angry, representing a freedom from the constraints of society, something that is clearly on the mind of our protagonist.

Malick has been sheding specifics for several films, burrowing down to the humanist/existential core of the human condition.  He tells his stories with pictures that can evoke a wider emotional gamut than a specific situation, word or dialogue.  One of his most common structural devices is to utilize the ancient elements:  earth, air, fire, water.  As this film is named for the Tarot suit of cups, water plays as the central element, followed closely by love, lust and confusion.

Wave after wave of image and sound wash over us, with constant visual reminders of the ocean waves lapping up on sandy LA beaches as Bale dips and chases one woman after another through the water, under piers, and into swimming pools.  Water provides the strongest elemental through-line in the piece, often the source of the director’s scene transitions, the ocean is never far from the frame.  

Air is evoked almost as often, with constant glances skyward, airplanes taking off and landing, fog, steam, energy-generating windmills and billowing clouds.  Earth is depicted as giant stones and mountains that enclose around Rick (Bale) and block his escape.  But there is a hint of their impermanence early on with an earthquake sequence that reminds us how fragile our reality might be.  Fire is represented in the near-constant sun in frame, looking down on the actions with an impassive eye, and to a lesser degree with some beach fires and Dr. Nancy’s burn victims.

Shooting Style

The shooting style builds on the progress made with The Tree of Life and To The Wonder, and it feels like the filmmakers have reached an apex of this type of camerawork and pastiche editing.  The extreme wide lens reveals the warped nature of Rick’s world, and the hand-held camera is free to explore the upper-crust parade. 

There are only a few lines of dialogue spoken on camera, so for much of the film voices are disembodied from figures.  No character is solid.  No moment is still.  Everything changes, is spontaneous, and chaotic. 

The director intercuts beautiful high-end cameras with degraded Go Pro footage so he can shoot  freely with an aggressively wide-angle lens.  The camera flies in and out of characters faces and takes full advantage of the wide-lens characteristics.  Rick is a giant in the frame as the camera hovers inches from his face, yet with his eyes half-closed and withdrawn performance, we are drawn to the backgrounds – Rick’s surroundings.  The beautiful girls.  The sparkling pools.  The diamond necklaces.  Etc…

The post-modernist interior location walls are often made of window, lighting scenes with a
natural magic hour glow.  The windows also remind us of the exhibitionist tendencies of the people that are attracted to the film business.

The sun is the primary source of light, and we are never allowed to forget it.  Much as life on earth cannot exist without water, we certainly wouldn’t be here without the fire in the sky.