American Pastoral


"There is a beauty in their lives that makes me feel ugly."

Cook, on Faye and BV (paraphrase)

There is indeed a surfeit of heart-stopping beauty in Terrence Malick's
ode to youth and romance. Any scene picked at random from _Song to
Song_ and inserted into an ordinary American narrative film, would have
turned into its immortal visual centerpiece. Towards the end, BV (Ryan Gosling) nonchalantly plucks a red light bulb from the sky, hands it to
Faye (Rooney Mara), who presses against her heart; you can see her entire
being warmed by the gesture, lighting up from within. It is but one
of many that rival the moments of unforgettable lyricism so causally
rendered in _Days of Heaven_ and _To the Wonder_. Once you get over the strangeness of rock-music soundtrack in a Malick film, and become clued
in to the musical cues, it dawns on you that this is as perfect a
realization of his late-stage aesthetics as _Wonder_.

Indeed the two films are companion pieces, with _Song_ focusing on youth
and _Wonder_ the advent of middle age. _Knight of Cups_, shot back-to-back with _Song to Song_ and was released first, is in retrospect a departure
that veers towards surrealism. The informal trilogy addresses everyday
ennui, the yearn for spiritual renewal and authenticity in the 21st century. They are given soul and timeliness by the actors' prayerful monologues.
Malick was a philosopher who specialized in Heidegger, and these films are existential to the core. While they do not stress the life-and-death choices in _The Thin Red Line_, neither are the fates of the characters privileged
by historical significance. These individuals are condemned to freedom, but the choice of being weigh on them like a cross.

The focus on youth seems to bother critics but not so much the audience. The mostly unscripted _Song_ receives much better IMDB ratings than Malick's previous two films. It reminds me of Lou Ye's _Summer Palace_, likewise
spun around the serial affairs and poetic ruminations of a young woman who stakes her soul on the love of an idealized lover. Malick, as always,
avoids the intellectual side of town (the U.T. Austin campus is a coupl
miles from the music hothouse of downtown Austin). Dreamy Faye (Rooney
Mara) is the heart of the film. She starts temping for music mongul Cook (Michael Fassbender) at age 16, hoping to graduate to star and artist.
Keen to experience life and make a name for herself, she lives "from song
to song, kiss to kiss." She pines for BV (Ryan Gosling), an aspiring singer songwriter and heart-throb who ultimately returns to his plebian roots.
He spurns her over her lies and affairs, but they eventually reconciles.

"I never knew that I had a soul. The word embarrasses me."

Faye, in _Song to Song_ (paraphrase)

The mostly silent Fassbender is exceptional as a Lucifer-like antagonist who tempts and ensnares innocents around him. His constant mime work, tap-dance, and clowning around are as intoxicating to women as the luxury and privilege
he spreads around (front row seats at football games, backstage access in concerts). Rhonda (Natalie Portman), a skimpily-dressed waitress when they first meet, is seduced and marries into his lifestyle, bedroom threesomes, hallucinogen binges, and all. Portman is a skilled actress whose easy tears and pleading roles repel me, but here as in _Knight of Cups_ her intense
bursts of emotions propel Malick's fractured narrative, fill in the ellipses between the scenes. The church-going one-time kindergarten teacher feels too deeply, is too introspective for La Dolce Vita, Texas style; she ultimately kills herself.

Rooney Mara's Faye is her opposite. We hear her self-larcerating soliquoy about her compromises ("I wish I could erase every wound, every doubt"),
but her mask remains that of the wide-eyed innocence who survives and
forgets. The camera loves her. She moves gracefully, with a dancer's
gait, almost a necessity for Malick's experimental quasi-musicals these
days. At times she is positively the reincarnation of Audrey Hepburn. In other scenes, like when she runs into BV after their breakup, one wishes
she can portray hesitation as well as unbridled joy -- or has the ability
to show both emotions at once. Perhaps her smooth surface is why she
survives and Rhonda doesn't. _Song_ is defined by Faye's persona, her
bad faith, easy lies, compromises, and eventual self-flagellation. She
is the "weightless" one (for years the film's working title), fluid even
in her sexuality, briefly moving in with Zoey (Berenice Marlohe). Rumor
has it that Mia Wasikowska auditioned; the Australian, who seems incapable
of falsehood, would have improvised her way to a vastly different film.
(Lei Hong of _Summer Palace_ would have neen another great choice.)

Shiny surfaces and false appearances are indeed constant motifs. The
unmoored Faye changes her hairstyle, hair color, clothes, and accessories
every scene. Natalie Portman's Rhonda, in contrast, wears the same
blond hair and skimpy Arizona T-shirte until she is corrupted by Cook.
In one of their first scenes together, Cook gives BV his pricy suit
and notes how the singer moves and walks different, how he turns into
another person. BV has a brief fling with Amanda (Cate Blanchett),
she of the elegant pearl necklace and stunning backless party dress.
He is just a country boy who flings fancy pastries into the river when
no one is looking. They are badly mismatched, attracted to each others'
good looks, and soon part ways over expensive French salad. Malick'
original cut was 8 hour long; the final condensed version is like
cinematic haiku, the story entrusted almost entirely to the production
design. Jack Fisk and the costume department are paramount in this film.

"You want to return to a simple life. I am the same."

Faye (paraphrase)

To the septuagenarian Malick's enduring credit, he manages to capture
the exhiliration and energy of the Millennial generation better then
filmmakers half his age. Young men go airborne, recklessly flinging
their bodies into crowds at rock concerts; BV and Cook indulge in wild
drinking parties in Mexico and mimic astronauts in their private jet.
For all while, the debauchery and excess seem genuinely fun. Yet
what goes up always succumb to gravity in Malick's moral tales. The
pop numbers give way to Saint-Saens; Zbignew Preisner's hymn-like
"Diaries of Hope" also makes an appearance. Cook gets his comeuppance;
BV goes West for a manual laborer's job in an oil field. Faye asks
for his forgiveness and plans to join him. The stationary shots
of night-time Austin recalls the final images of Mount St. Michel
in _To the Wonder_, but this time the place is a siren's call. The
real final image has the young lovers back in embrace: a fitting,
redemptive end to Malick's searching, moving modern-life trilogy.

(for A.)

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