Before the start of the shoot, Terrence Malick and Emmanuel Lubezki devised a series of photography rules or dogma that are to be used in film. They are:

• 1) No artificial lights. All is shot in natural light.
• 2) No crane or dolly shots, just handheld or Steadicam shots.
• 3) Everything is shot in the subjective view.
• 4) All shots must be "deep-focus shots," that is, everything (foreground and background) is visible and focused.
• 5) You (the camera crew) are encouraged to go and shoot unexpected things that might happen in accident or if your instinct tells you so.
• 6) Selective shots: any shot that does not have visual strength is not used. (From IMDB).

If only every film could be shot according to these rules. Some may marvel at the digital everything in blockbusters like 300. Give me scenery so pure and naturally colorful that I can almost touch it any day.

Give me simple touches — her hand to his, his hand running down her back — rather than the violent, gratuitous grinding that now passes for love scenes.

Give me simple statements — the words for eyes, lips in a new language — instead of cliches, over-blown speeches, and last-minute happy endings.

Show me a young actress — still a child at 14 — who can carry history and raw emotions, who can stand at the crossroads of love and death on screen. 

Show me a pure world that was once new but is not lost.

Show me a film so beautiful it haunts me.

Jennifer Leblanc