Day 2 of my LFF experience was pretty great even before I saw A Hidden Life. I'll review it in a minute, but first I want to talk about my general Southbank experience today, because that was so awesome. After the best DVD haul ever (High and Low, Celine and Julie Go Boating, Audition, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Knack.... and How to Get It, the Jeunet and Caro Collection, Playtime, The Discreet Charm of the Bourseogie and Persona), I checked out the BFI's Mediatheque, where I passed the time by watching Derek Jarmon's Jubliee, which, mini review, was okay. I liked a lot of the ideas in it about art, history and sex, as well as the general aesthetic, but I found all of the characters incredibly unlikeable, and not in a good way. It also felt like it had something to say, but didn't actually know what it was it wanted to say. So yeah, it's kind of decent? Anyway, back to the review!
Terence Malick is a strange one. At his best, he makes some of the most poignant visual poems you're likely to see, but at his worst, he churns out navel-gazing, faux deep nonsense. So it's good to see that his latest, A Hidden Life, is a thrilling reminder of what he can do when he's at the height of his powers. The film revolves around a conscientious objector in the Second World War, and it's kind of incredible. True, at nearly three hours long and covering a very weighty subject matter, it's far from casual viewing, but this is a film that engages every one of your senses in the way that only Malick can. It's a patiently told story, with these beautifully shot images of Radegund, an idyllic village in the Austrian mountains. This being a Malick film, the sound and visuals truly tell the story. There's so much in the wind blowing through the grass, and the buzz of insects. The actual plot itself is revealed very slowly, but it rewards the viewer for sticking with it with a heartbreaking and deeply fascinating musing on what it means to stand up for what you believe in.
I love how patient this film is. It sets itself up gradually, never giving away too much at a time, and leaving it down to the viewer to decide what they think. It's heavily focused on ideas of morality, and how much a person is willing to sacrifice in an uncertain and complicated time. Amidst the heady, mountain-set visuals is a series of really difficult discussions about doing the right thing, and the way the dialogue regularly flips between English and German is a really effective way of emphasising that. There aren't any subtitles here, and Malick lets everything play out in the language these people are actually speaking whenever he risks overexplaining. It doesn't even progress as much of a plot, instead mining the deeply ethical discussion from visual representations of the ordeal of Franz Jägerstätter, with all of the dialogue suggesting rather than providing exposition.
Hell, the only criticism I could really give it is that, with its length and subject matter, it really isn't a fun watch. I wouldn't call it overlong, although I did feel its runtime as I was watching it, because, when the film had ended, I realised that its ultimate conclusion wouldn't have impacted me as much if it was shorter. At times, the weighty subject matter gets a little bit much, and if you're not a fan of Malick, then I can't see this doing much to change your mind (unless you really do like looking at grassy mountains), but as someone who really likes him when he's good, I absolutely loved this film. It's tough yet moving, complex yet sensual, and so deeply haunting while also dealing with absolute truth. Malick deals with the most difficult of subject matter in the most nuanced way possible, gradually drawing the deep reservoir of emotion from this story while keeping the tough moral questions at the centre intact, and then fusing those things with his own unique brand of woozy visual poetry. Add in an incredibly brief scene that features one of the biggest rabbits I've ever seen, and you've got one of the best films of the year. In many ways, it's the ideal Terrence Malcik movie: all of the profundity, none of the self indulgence. Would I watch it again? Probably not, but its soulful musings are sure to ring in my brain for years to come
So that was what I thought of the two films I saw at the LFF. First Love is a batshit crazy romp that sets a high bar for next decade, while A Hidden Life is a gut wrenching meditation on the price of doing the right thing that is absolutely one of my favourite films of 2019. As first film festival experiences go, I don't think I could have had a better one!
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