RICHARD LINKLATER: DREAM IS DESTINY
US, 2016, 91 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Louis Black, Karen Bernstein.
This documentary was made while writer-director Richard Linklater was working on his film Everyone Has Some. (Linklater has continued to write and direct films since 2016.)
The film is codirected by Linklater’s friend and mentor, Louis Black, producer, editor of the Austin Chronicle. There are many sequences with their discussions, Linklater going through boxes of files and documents, especially his detailed annotated diaries from the past.
The film introduces its subject with various clips from a range of films, from his initial classic, Slacker, and reference to the history of the making of Boyhood.
The film serves as providing a biography of the director, his Texas background, the support of his father, his stepmother and sister, all of whom are interviewed. He was born in 1960, a teenager of the 70s, student in the 1980s, intentions to be a writer, some work on rigs, interest in movies. There are many talking heads throughout the film, friends, producers, critics, like Roger Ebert, actors from his films, especially Matthew McConnaughey and Jack Black and, with his Before trilogy, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.
Quite a lot of attention is given to his making of Slacker, when he was in his early 30s. There are interviews, many clips, discussions about his camera work, preparation, his relationship with his actors, encouragement, the modesty of the project, its being taken up by critics and hailed. The contrast is made with his next film, backed by a studio, Dazed and Confused, and its comparative lack of success.
Not every film made by Linklater is quoted in the documentary but most are, especially a focus on the animated films, Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, the use of live action and animation over the action as well as the philosophical and psychological themes.
However, as expected, a lot of attention is given to the Before trilogy, the filming of Before Sunrise in Europe, hoping for European financial assistance, the modesty of the project, the involvement of the two stars in the making, mixed reactions. There was no real intention of making a sequel and this did not come till nine years later, Before Sunset, the two protagonists spending a day together reflecting on what had happened to them. And, nine years later this was taken up in Before Midnight, Linklater noting that by this time the protagonists had had full lives which supply enough material for audience interest.
There were many other films, glimpses of some of them, including the surprising Me and Orson Welles. There are interviews with Jack Black and comment on the making of Bernie.
However, Linklater began in 2002 with the making of Boyhood, a project to be filmed over 12 years, working with the young boy, Elar Coltrane, and seeing him grow to be a teenager leaving home at the end of the film. Ethan Hawke plays the father. Patricia Arquette was to receive an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as the boy’s mother and Linklater himself nominated for Best Director. A lot of those associated with the making of the film express their enthusiasm as well as their puzzle, not knowing how the project would turn out.
Richard Linklater has made a distinctive contribution to American cinema, working outside the studios, working within the studios, based in Austin, Texas, with a distinctive American viewpoint.
