Malick fans get big surprise at South by Southwest

Director Terrence Malick, who lives here, was not expected to appear at South by Southwest — or anywhere, really, given his reputation for staying out of the limelight.

And indeed, the notoriously reclusive filmmaker was a no-show onstage at the premiere of his latest film, “Song to Song,” an experimental lovetriangle melodrama set against the backdrop of the Austin music scene.

Instead, his A-list cast appeared Friday at the star-studded openingnight event of the 2017 South by Southwest Film Festival to describe what it’s like to work with the iconoclastic director.

“It’s interesting, it’s challenging, it’s rewarding, it’s fun, it’s scary,” said Michael Fassbender, who co-stars in the very Malickian picture. “He never stops writing.”

“We all wanted to have this experience of working with Terrence Malick,” added Ryan Gosling, addressing a sold-out house at Austin’s Paramount Theatre alongside castmates Fassbender, Rooney Mara and Berenice Marlohe. “It’s like nothing else. He’s one of the few filmmakers where you could watch a few seconds of his movies and you know that he made it.”

That’s certainly true of “Song to Song,” a torrid interrogation of love, longing, relationships and betrayal centered on a young musician, Faye (Mara), involved with two men — successful and manipulative record exec Cook (Fassbender) and struggling songwriter BV (Gosling).

Filming his famous stars on the fly throughout Austin hot spots and at music festivals like Austin City Limits and the Fun Fun Fun Fest, Malick works real musicians and mosh pit carnage into the free-flowing narrative, grounding his tortured love triangle in a quasi-verite world of backstage passes, obnoxious pool parties and the occasional cameo from the likes of Iggy Pop, Johnny Rotten, Big Freedia and a chain sawwielding Val Kilmer.

Which is how, even as Malick favorites like “Knight of Cups” star Christian Bale ended up on the cutting-room floor, one of punk rock’s grand dames came to appear in “Song to Song,” sharing a moving scene with Mara.

“Every day was different,” Gosling said. “Suddenly, Patti Smith was there, and she’s with you for a few days and you get to hang out with her and watch her work.”

Ultimately, the ensemble film firmly belongs to Mara. The two-time Oscar nominee infuses her conflicted character with a searching existential torture shared with the heroes of several recent Malick films, whether she’s keeping secrets from a lover or staring plaintively at steaks in the meat section of a Costco.

“It was really challenging and painful at times but also really fun at times,” said Mara, who did the film so long ago — some concert footage was shot as far back as 2011 — that she joked that it was hard to recall what the experience felt like.

“I remember the whole time being really aware that it’s special to be making something this way.”

Surprise!

As the audience left the theater, it seemed that this would be yet another opening for a Malick movie without Malick.

Then — surprise! — there he was, in the flesh early the next morning seated next to Fassbender and fellow filmmaker Richard Linklater for the panel “Made in Austin: A Look into ‘Song to Song’” at the Austin Convention Center.

The three dived into Malick’s intensely immersive and improvisational filmmaking methods, in which no time is wasted and no opportunity for filming is missed.

With the exception of a 30-minute break for lunch, Malick’s crew was constantly shooting or recording the many voice-overs that float over scenes in the final movie.

“I don’t think we could have survived anymore,” Fassbender said. “Once we started going, there was no stopping.”

As divisive reviews continued to roll in from critics who loved and hated the Malickian drama, the soft-spoken filmmaker, 73, revealed that his initial “Song to Song” cut ran eight hours.

The final film, which Broad Green Pictures is set to release Friday, runs a languid 120 minutes — and that’s without scenes featuring Bale, Benicio Del Toro and Haley Bennett, who all apparently were left on the cuttingroom floor.

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