In the flesh...

I've long been a fan of the work of Terrence Malick and when I spoke to Andrew Dominik, writer-director of the masterful (and Malickesque) The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, at Venice recently he told me he was friends with the press shy filmmaker, and had even shot some second unit on the sublime The New World. The geek in me was very excited by that, I can tell you. Now it appears that the powers that be at the Rome Film Festival have, after more than a year's coaxing, persuaded the reclusive Malick to appear on stage at the festival to talk about his love for Italian cinema, as well as his own work, on the proviso that paparazzi be kept outside. That's going to be some hot ticket.