Song to Song (2017)

Directed by: Terrence Malick | 129 minutes | drama, music, romance | Actors: Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Holly Hunter, Bérénice Marlohe, Val Kilmer, Lykke Li, Olivia Grace Applegate, Dana Falconberry, Linda Emond, Louanne Stephens, Christin Sawyer Davis, Tom Sturridge

The grand master of existentialist stillness, Terrence Malick, continues with ‘Song to Song’ where he left off with his previous film, ‘Knight of Cups’. In short, the fast and hard-edged, highly symbolic and restlessly moving shots are back, accompanied by various voice-overs that tell stories about the emptiness of existence. Is that repetition of moves bad? Because the playing field is shifted from Hollywood to the music industry, not completely, although Malick must be careful not to appear too pushy.

Central to ‘Song to Song’ are four characters who are in no way inferior to each other in their obsessive search for meaning. Michael Fassbender plays Cook, a prosperous music producer who believes that money can buy everything. Until the realization comes that true love has no price. An insight that is partly due to two former sweethearts.

The first is Faye (Rooney Mara), who tries to climb the social ladder with the relationship. But the higher she reaches, the more she becomes aware of the idea that she aspires to an illusion. The love she feels for musician BV (Ryan Gosling) has a more fundamental basis. The past, however, gives their love little rest. The two lovebirds are on a never-ending quest for perfection. Their frayed edges actually prevent them from finding that happiness. The lesson they will have to learn is that love does not equal perfection. And that they must choose to be themselves, rather than the dream image they will never become.

When Cook has lost Faye’s heart, he finds a new opportunity in Rhonda (Natalie Portman). But even with her, the rich producer quickly lapses into old mistakes. For him, it is a choice between difficult, vulnerable character growth and the simplicity of the hierarchical emptiness. If that choice turns out to be disadvantageous for Rhonda, she herself also faces a split of life. Turning around is not an option. Will she follow Faye in the quest for a meaningful life, including true love, or will she take a different path?

Making choices, that’s what ‘Song to Song’ is all about. In Malick’s universe, there are actually two options. Or, like Sysiphus, you passively let yourself be swept along a perpetual, straight lane of emptiness, suffering and unattainable desires. Or you dare to leave it on the road, look for other ways and every now and then go into a dead end. Or finally collapse into the abyss. A life of choices is not without danger. But it is exactly what it says it is. A life. The music industry in ‘Song to Song’ symbolizes that crossroads. There are those who listen faithfully, but also rather long-suffering and aimlessly. And there are those who make the music. who create. Make those choices. And who, as singer Patti Smith so beautifully tells the viewer, also just make mistakes.

That is, of course, a rather one-dimensional distinction. The experience of music, just like film, for example, is much less passive than is often thought. But that’s not what ‘Song to Song’ is about. What Malick mainly argues is that anyone, any person, can be a musician. Anyone can stray from that deterministic life path and learn to make choices. Whether you’re good at it or not. And, in the philosophy of ‘Song to Song’, whether your music sounds like something or not. The many different types of music that can be heard in the film show that it’s not about what choices you make. It’s about making them. So that you can create the story of your life yourself.