Music In “The Tree of Life”
I saw Terrence Malick’s new movie, “The Tree of Life,” yesterday. This top-prize winner at Cannes was half terrific large-scale art film, half indulgent sophomoric art film. There was virtually no story, at least not one that lends itself to synopsis. Call me old-fashioned, but it’s hard for me to care about fictional characters without a modicum of narrative. Aside from some of the awe-inspiring visuals, the movie’s music was the chief attraction. Critic Alex Ross breaks down the soundtrack for us here. Any film that uses Toscanini’s rendering of the finale from Brahms Fourth isn’t all bad in my book.
