As the year draws closer to its end, it’s becoming clear we can’t trust certain Italian distributors, but hopefully by 2015 we’ll see at least one of Terrence Malick‘s upcoming films (and potentially a Criterion release of one of his earlier films). In the meantime, however, it’s time to take a look at one of the defining aspects of his filmography: the use of voiceover. Last year, The Dissolve‘s Scott Tobias and Kevin B. Lee teamed for a video essay on the subject and it’s now making the rounds as of late.
Beginning with Sissy Spacek‘s voice-over in Badlands, the video tracks the evolution of its usage, leaning more poetic as he would go on, from Linda Manz in Days of Heaven to the multiple narrators in The Thin Red Line and The New World. It also touches on The Tree of Life, which has the least amount of voice-over in his films thus far, but still effectively utilized to incredible effect. Lastly, it looks at the more religious overtones of the voice-over found in To the Wonder. Check out the video essay below along with editor Billy Weber discussing voice-over, and for more, go behind-the-scenes of The Tree of Life here.
What do you think about Malick’s use of voice-over?