
This film was released 6th May 2016, and is no longer screening.
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Rick (Christian Bale), a disillusioned screenwriter, reflects upon his privileged life and complex relationships with brother (Wes Bentley), father (Brian Dennehy) and ex-wife (Cate Blanchett) in a Hollywood devoid of meaning. “Where did I go wrong?” he rhetorically asks in voiceover; “I am pieces, fragments of a man.”
Knight of Cups represents a development of the impressionistic aesthetic Terrence Malick has been exploring since he returned from extended hiatus with Tree of Life (2011) and To the Wonder (2012) – it is cinema as a stream of consciousness and its success is somewhat dependant on how the viewer approaches it. Malick is uninterested in the familiar tropes of narrative cinema and is working towards a visual poeticism, driven by associative editing and a layered sound design. The result is never less than distinctive, and at times quite profound. (Notes by David O’Mahony.)
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WARNING: This film contains a sequence of flashing lights which might affect customers who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy.