Richard Linklater has come a long way from Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993) – films admittedly that caught the zeitgeist of a certain youth subculture of a certain era but, direction-wise, unrecognizable from his latest two films, Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague (the latter showing at this year’s WIFF). I caught both back-to-back last weekend at Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema, and they blew me away. Linklater has been “maturing” since those so-Nineties subculture entries in the Before trilogy (with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) and Waking Life (2001). But none of these can prepare someone for Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague. First, Blue Moon. This “portrait” of American Songbook classic lyricist Lorenz Hart is astonishing, mostly due to Hawke himself, though you’d never know it was him. I kept asking myself throughout: who is this performer? The makeup is so astounding Hawke’s entire body structure, beginning with his (balding) head, has been transformed to replicate Hart. Moreover, this is ultimately a one man show, an almost continuing monologue (writer Robert Kaplow) of 100 minutes as the musical icon at turns philosophies, critiques,
ruminates, tells stories and jokes about the Broadway stage, after walking out of former co-songwriter Richard Rodger’s opening night Oklahoma! Lorenz lambastes it as a crass middlebrow production symbolized by an exclamation mark! Is he bitter? Yes, but also reflective and still high-spirited, as he regales bartender Eddie (Bobby Cannavale) at the famed showbiz bar Sardi’s in March 1943, just months before his death in an alcopholic stupor…..Next up was Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague. Hold on to your hats at this exquisite re-creation of Paris’s New Wave circa 1960. Seemingly a documentary and filmed in grainy black and white so reminiscent of the era, the movie depicts those seminal figures that transformed not just French cinema but world filmmaking – Francois Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, Agnès Varda, etc. – but most of all Jean-Luc Godard - and the making of his first and breakthrough film – a classic and one of the most transformative films in cinematic history, Breathless. Seldom do even the best filmmakers get historical accuracy completely right – there’s always something off about the clothes, hair styles, mannerisms or background street scenes – but Linklater seems to have nailed it…..Two glorious films that I’d say are masterpieces.
