“Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey” by Terrence Malick

The notoriously idiosyncratic filmmaker approached his producers with the idea of a documentary, without having a script. He simply explained the need to make the film by mustering the following two quotes:

“Is no one inspired by our present picture of the universe? Our poets do not write about it; our artists do not try to portray this remarkable thing. The value of science remains unsung by singers: you are reduced to hearing not a song or poem, but an evening lecture about it. This is not yet a scientific age.”
—Richard Feynman

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead — his eyes are closed."
—Albert Einstein

Terrence Malick’s scientific team consists of various respected researchers, scientists and professors from universities such as MIT, UC Berkeley, Cambridge and Caltech. However, Dr. Andrew Knoll, professor of Natural History at Harvard University, NASA consultant, and author, served as the official scientific advisor of the film. “My job was to double-check the scientific data, so that everything that Terry narrates is correct. However, what you will see on the screen transcends evidence, facts, statistics and data. It is an ambitious vision, the trace of an intelligent creator and a cinematic philosopher: after this entire journey, where are we? And, believe me, I can answer with great certainty whether the first cells were developed 4 or 3,5 billion years ago. But for the questions that Terry is fundamentally interested in, I have no answers. And that’s what rocked my world about the film”.

“Judging as a scientist, I found everything that is recorded in the film well founded and accurate”, adds Lee Smolin, theoretical physicist of the Perimenter Institute. “As a thinking viewer, though, I was doubly amazed by the juxtaposition of the imagery of the evolvement of the universe and contemporary everyday life. It made me wonder precisely what it is that we understand about the meaning of our life, what it is that we appreciate…”

A source of reference for the final imagery were the paintings of 19th century painter Albert Bierstadt. That is the reason why Malick refers to the documentary as “Bierstadting”. “He wanted us to work with the style of Bierstadt”, remarks Dan Glass, who was the special effects supervisor. “To construct an image consisting of numerous, but visible, levels – very small details such as stardust, floating particles only visible by microscope, whatever would give a feeling a volume to the composition of the image…”

The Onassis Stegi collaborates with Flix.gr, a website focusing on cinema.

Since December 2016 and every month until May 2017, cinema aficionados meet at the Onassis Stegi for a series of screenings which promise surprises, introduce auteurs and make the tour of the world, proposing images that we want to see on the big screen.
Among these, one can find selections from the global cinematic map, premieres of beloved Greek films, tributes to unexplored areas of contemporary cinema, the small screen currently challenging the big one, classic masterpieces like we’ve never seen them before, creators that have not been forgotten by time, screenings for children which will be taken over by grown-ups.

The rendezvous, however, will expand outside the movie theater: live performances, cinema courses, exhibitions, concerts and open discussions with the audience will accompany each screening, offering a well-rounded cinematic experience and a different way of looking at cinema.