Is cinema dead? Not while Terrence Malick is still alive:
Though even when he leaves us, even if the big-budget epic films creating our contemporary mythology steal all the attention, epic-mythic cinema is probably closer than small niche films to cinema’s ultimate purpose in our civilization: to work out the cosmological and thematic structure of our society. There is no high and low art, nor is there some pure art uncontaminated by motive. Something becomes more of an art as it becomes more of what it truly is—that is, as it helps us develop and frame the true, good, and beautiful ideas and themes that animate our existence.
