Directed by Terrence Malick

Produced by Sarah Green, Bill Pohlad, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Grant Hill

Starring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, and Jessica Chastain

Release Date: May 27, 2011 (United States)

Running Time: 139 minutes

Country: United States

Language: English

The Tree of Life (2011)is an American epic experimental drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick and starring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, and Jessica Chastain. After several years in development and missing the 2009 and 2010 release dates, the film premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d'Or.

In January 2012, the film was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Cinematography. In the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll, 16 critics voted for it as one of their 10 greatest films ever made; this ranked it at #102 in the finished list (making it the third film on the list which had been released since the year 2000, behind Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood for Love and David Lynch's Mulholland Dr.).

The film chronicles the origins and meaning of life by way of a middle-aged man's childhood memories of his family living in 1950s Texas, interspersed with imagery of the origins of the universe and the inception of life on Earth.

It begins with a quote from the Book of Job: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth...When the morning stars sang together?” The plot of the film centered around three boys in the 1950s. The eldest son (Hunter McCracken none SAG) of two characters (Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain) witnesses the loss of innocence.

Framing this story is that of adult Jack, a lost soul in a modern world, seeking to discover amid the changing scenes of time that which does not change: the eternal scheme of which we are a part. When he sees all that has gone into our world's preparation, each thing appears a miracle precious, incomparable. Jack, with his new understanding, is able to forgive his father and take his first steps on the path of life.

The story ends in hope, acknowledging the beauty and joy in all things, in the everyday and above all in the family - our first school - the only place that most of us learn the truth about the world and ourselves, or discover life's single most important lesson, of unselfish love.

Date: 16:00 June 21, 2014

Venue: China Film Archive

Admission: 40 RMB

Add: No. 3 Wenhuiyuan Lu, Haidian District, Beijing

北京市海淀区文慧园路3号