Once upon a time, Terrence Malick was known for the lengthy gaps between his films. His much-revered late ’70s tone poem Days of Heaven was followed up 20 years later with 1998’s meditation on war The Thin Red Line. In the past decade and a half, Malick’s productivity has seen an uptick: since 1998, he’s released three new films: The New World (2005), The Tree of Life (2011), and To the Wonder (2012).
In 2015, Malick could end up releasing two films: Knight of Cups (out in December) and Weightless (in post-production with no set release yet). With the latter, Malick takes to the environs of an archetypal modern major city: Los Angeles. Although the director is most well known for his stunning natural vistas, as the trailer below evinces, Knight of Cups finds him extracting breathtaking beauty, even from the gridlocked City of Angels.
The trailer for “Knight of Cups”:
Below you can watch a group roundtable about Knight of Cups, held at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, featuring Bale and Portman. The film received its premiere there; its United States release is currently scheduled for 11 December, followed shortly by a UK release in early 2016 on 1 January.