With typical langour, Terrence Malick shot his latest film, Knight Of Cups, in 2012 and then embarked on more than two years of post-production. Starring Christian Bale, its first trailer arrived a year ago, and the film's had a gradual roll-out on the festival circuit over the subsequent 12 months. Now, with its UK release finally imminent, a brand new promo has arrived.
Knight Of Cups' official synopsis is reliably opaque: "Once there was a young prince whose father, the king of the East, sent him down into Egypt to find a pearl. But when the prince arrived, the people poured him a cup. Drinking it, he forgot he was the son of a king, forgot about the pearl and fell into a deep sleep. Rick’s father used to read this story to him as a boy. The road to the East stretches out before him. Will he set forth?"
In practice that translates into a typically dreamlike fractured Malick narrative about Christian Bale's jaded Hollywood screenwriter. Facing a bereavement and further family problems, he loses himself in the gloss, glamour and gonzo excess of Hollywood.
Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Brian Dennehy, Antonio Banderas, Freida Pinto, Wes Bentley, Isabel Lucas, Teresa Palmer, Imogen Poots and Armin Mueller-Stahl also star, with Ben Kingsley serving as narrator. Knight Of Cups has already been out in some territories, and will reach the UK on January 1.