Hollywood is Egypt. The Hymn of the Pearl and Knight of Cups

Knight of Cups opens with a father retelling the Hymn of the Pearl from the Acts of Thomas: a king's son sent to Egypt for a pearl forgets who he is and falls asleep, while his father keeps sending word. Malick sets the story in Los Angeles, where a screenwriter drifts through parties, pools and palm trees. In the hymn a letter flying like an eagle wakes the prince; the film ends on a single word, begin.

Hymn of the Pearl, Acts of Thomas (Syriac, early third century), trans. G. R. S. Mead (1900) and M. R. James (1924)
Charles M. Stang, foreword to The Pearlsong, Harvard Divinity School
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress (1678), read at the film's opening by John Gielgud

Film: Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick, 2015)

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