Song to Song is writer and director Terrence Malick’s cinematic version of the modernist literary experiment: multiple internalised viewpoints, stream-of-consciousness narrative, chronological fragmentation, and a reality apprehended through symbolic or metaphoric conjunction. He is abetted in this project by Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, whose muted palette of gauzy, twilit pastels is shattered by the abrupt streak of a neon-green, vermillion or ultramarine, nightclub colours that are the visual equivalent of a vivid memory surfacing from a sea of vague recollection.

Song to Song is also, according to an uninspired publicity blurb, a rock ’n’ roll romance tracing four lovers through the Austin (Texas) music scene. In a nutshell, aspiring musician Faye (Rooney Mara) is in love with another aspirant BV (Ryan Gosling), but is still involved with Svengali-ish record-company mogul Cook (Michael Fassbinder reprising his role as a sex-addict), who picks up, marries, then treats abominably, the damaged but sexy ex-school teacher turned waitress Rhonda (Natalie Portman). But don’t expect another Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975), let alone a Taking Woodstock (Ang Lee, 2009). To hang one’s expectations on the hope that Malick might adhere to a conventional story-arc, or that there might be footage of Austin’s famous music festivals, is to invite disappointment.