Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven" (1978) wasn't a commercial success: its box office gross of $3,446,749 was only slightly more than $3 million, the amount it cost to make the film. Charles Bluhdorn, who ran Gulf + Western, the parent company of Paramount, was so impressed with the movie that he offered $1 million for Malick's next project, no matter what the movie was.
Malick accepted—even though he was worn out. However, since Malick was exhausted and bruised after filming "Days of Heaven", he retreated to Paris with his girlfriend, Michie Gleason. It took 20 years for him to make his next film, "The Thin Red Line" (1998).
("Thirty-Three Years of Principal Filming", Bilge Ebiri, NY Mag, 2011 & "The Runaway Genius: Behind Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line", Peter Biskind, Vanity Fair, 2010)
Finally got to see Tang Shu-shuen's The Arch (1968). Incredible. Hong Kong cinema reaching a fork in the road as a new generation asserts itself: stoic tradition or something radical. Even more powerful now knowing what we know almost 60 years removed from when it was released.