July 9, 2011

Terrence Malick is an acclaimed but enigmatic American film director, screenwriter, and producer. In a career spanning almost four decades, Malick has directed only five feature films including his latest, The Tree of Life, which won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival and opens in Philadelphia this Friday. The Philadelphia Film Society and Westphal will present a two-day retrospective of Malick's films. This three-film retrospective, made possible thanks to Fox Searchlight Pictures, takes a rare look at Malick's past cinematic masterpieces.

The retrospective begins on Wednesday, June 8th with a double feature of Days of Heaven at 7 PM followed by Badlands at 9 PM. The Thin Red Line, the film that garnered Malick Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Writing, will screen on Thursday, June 9th at 7 PM. All screenings will be held at the Mandell Theater (33rd and Chestnut Sts.).  Admission is free with a suggested donation of $5 to the Philadelphia Film Society in support of the upcoming 20th Philadelphia Film Festival in October.

Days of Heaven, starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams and Sam Shepard, is a 1978 American classic that tells the story of Bill and Abby, two poor lovers in the early 20th century, as they travel to the Texas Panhandle to harvest crops for a wealthy farmer. Bill encourages Abby to claim the fortune of the dying farmer by tricking him into a false marriage. This results in an unstable love triangle and a series of unfortunate events. 

Badlands, starring Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek and Warren Oates, is a dramatization of the Starkweather-Fugate killing spree of the 1950's, in which a teenage girl and her older boyfriend slaughtered her entire family and several others in the Dakota badlands. 

The Thin Red Line is a 1998 American war film that tells a fictional story of United States forces during the Battle of Guadalcanal in World War II. It portrays men in C Company and stars Jim Caviezel, Nick Nolte, and Ben Chaplin.