When critics and journalists departed for the Telluride Film Festival a week or so ago, many were hoping that Terrence Malick's TREE OF LIFE would be one of the fest's "secret screenings". Turns out it was. For six people. None of whom were critics.
According to indieWIRE'S Anne Thompson, Malick's highly-anticipated (and long-delayed) fifth feature screened twice: once for Sony Pictures Classics and once for Fox Searchlight (as was reported last week, the latter wound up acquiring the movie from the struggling Apparition Films). Both groups saw a "cut-down" two-hour-and-fifteen-minute version of the film, which one of Thompson's sources called "cinema changing". That the film is receiving anonymous raves is nothing new; that it's now running well under three hours is, as most of the early reactions have clocked the film in the 180-minute range.
Unsurprisingly, Thompson says that every major film festival in the first half of 2011 wants TREE OF LIFE. Cannes would seem the obvious destination, but if the movie is a particularly tough commercial sell (despite the presence of Brad Pitt and Sean Penn), a Sundance or Berlin bow could make sense. For those hoping TREE OF LIFE could make be a surprise Oscar contender this year, Thompson stresses that any kind of 2010 release is out of the question.
