KNIGHT OF CUPS (2015) - The Pilgrim’s Prozac

Cinema of Cruelty (Movies for Masochists)

On this week’s annotated deep dive, The Cultists present Terrence Malick’s ‘Knight of Cups’ (2015). Often regarded as a particularly “tough watch” (even by those who enjoy the film), Cups is a slow and mangled feast of images that will delight some and utterly baffle others. Adding to the challenge is that grasping the more concrete structure of the film demands a familiarity with a rather eclectic back catalogue of source materials that range from a working knowledge of the tarot’s major arcana, to John Bunyan’s 17th century allegorical novel, a spattering of gnostic hymns, and the regret-fueled works of Kierkegaard. And all this to tell what is essentially the lead-up to the beginning of a story that we don't even get to see. In other words, this film is incredibly cruel. But it’s also beautiful.

Deep Dive’s Include: The film’s production and the truly unique filming strategies of Terrence Malick; The adapted source material of The Pilgrim’s Progress and The Hymn of the Pearl; Gnosticism (or why everyone is stuck in the water when they really just want to get closer to the sky); The Knight of Cups and the film’s other Tarot chapter cards; existential angst and other Kierkegaardian philosophy; the statistical likelihood of an earthquake wiping out Los Angeles, and why, according to one of the film’s selected source materials, Christian Bale's "Rick" is the lesser, memory-addled and drugged-up twin brother of Jesus…. Maybe.

Episode safe word: “clarity”