{"id":13011,"date":"2019-12-13T18:59:14","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T22:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?p=13011"},"modified":"2019-12-13T18:59:14","modified_gmt":"2019-12-13T22:59:14","slug":"terrence-malicks-a-hidden-life-how-can-a-movie-give-evidence-of-things-not-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2019\/12\/terrence-malicks-a-hidden-life-how-can-a-movie-give-evidence-of-things-not-seen.html","title":{"rendered":"Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life”: How can a movie give “evidence of things not seen”?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I review, for America<\/em>:<\/p>\n

With \u201cA Hidden Life,\u201d the writer and director Terrence Malick set himself a bold and perhaps impossible task: using all the visual resources of film to represent faith itself, \u201cevidence of things not seen.\u201d This nearly three-hour hagiography of the Nazi resister Blessed Franz J\u00e4gerst\u00e4tter refuses any visible success. In a time when even Christians often justify our religion on the grounds that it produces measurable outcomes like stable families or feelings of personal happiness, Malick gives us martyrdom: a protest against, among other things, positive outcome measurements. The \u201chidden life\u201d of the title is not solely J\u00e4gerst\u00e4tter\u2019s but God\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s first hour sets up an idyll in the Austrian farmhouse owned by J\u00e4gerst\u00e4tter (August Diehl) and his wife, Fani (Valerie Pachner). Their marriage is the foundation of their lives, their arms intertwining as the camera lingers on their wedding rings.<\/p>\n

Any fictionalized hagiography has to balance the specific details of this life with the meaning it may hold for others. \u201cA Hidden Life\u201d falls far on the side of the general rather than the specific, in ways that damage the film\u2019s political vision and its insight into character.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I review, for America: With \u201cA Hidden Life,\u201d the writer and director Terrence Malick set himself a bold and perhaps impossible task: using all the visual resources of film to represent faith itself, \u201cevidence of things not seen.\u201d This nearly three-hour hagiography of the Nazi resister Blessed Franz J\u00e4gerst\u00e4tter refuses any visible success. In a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[144,131,1446,86],"class_list":["post-13011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","tag-and-if-my-prayer-go-unanswered-thats-okay","tag-it-is-very-dark-you-are-likely-to-be-wrestled-by-an-angel","tag-terrence-malick","tag-the-dark-continent-europe-in-the-twentieth-century"],"yoast_head":"\nTerrence Malick's "A Hidden Life": How can a movie give "evidence of things not seen"?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I review, for America: With \u201cA Hidden Life,\u201d the writer and director Terrence Malick set himself a bold and perhaps impossible task: using all the visual\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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