by Ali Mozaffari
Cast:
Ethan Hawke, Guillaume Marbeck, Zoey Deutch, Margaret Qualley, Andrew Scott
If we still needed proof that despite his prolific career, Richard Linklater is a versatile filmmaker, this year he returns with two very different and yet not so different films.
Blue Moon is an unconventional biopic that chooses only one night of its protagonist’s life – the renowned American songwriter Lorenz Hart – as he’s witnessing the opening night of iconic musical Oklahoma! by his long-time writing partner.
What could have been a painful show of self-pity becomes an entertaining and poignant character study that limits itself to only one time and place, like many other great works of cinema. And yet we learn so much about the character, his self-delusion in such a small portion of his life.
Ethan Hawke’s portrayal gives a lot of warmth and nuance to a character that is venting and bragging all the time and yet underneath it all, grieving his past glory and his current loneliness and demise. Hawke’s memorable performance is well paired with a dashing Andrew Scott and a mesmerising Margaret Qualley that altogether make you forget what a dialogue heavy film this is.
Linklater takes us from a bitter artist in decline in 1943 America to a young and rising artist, a wannabe filmmaker in Paris. His name is Jean-Luc Godard and the film is Nouvelle Vague, about one of the key moments in cinema history, when a group of young and passionate cinephiles redefined cinema and filmmaking, first with their pens in the iconic Cahiers du Cinéma magazine, and a bit later with their films, which became the French New Wave.
The film follows a young and restless Godard, the last remaining film critic among the Cahiers writers, who still hasn’t made his transition to filmmaking and is restless/breathless about it. With the help of Francois Truffaut and his producer Georges de Beauregard, he decides to make Breathless (À bout de souffle), one of the most significant films of all time, inspiring filmmakers and film movements around the world. But the time is 1959, and Godard is a film critic without much credit to his name as a filmmaker.
Now, you’d think that this in itself would be a dream project for any filmmaker, but what’s fascinating about Linklater’s work is that while it gives you a day by day account of the film’s making, it manages to provide a picture of the environment in which Godard was making it, the influential characters around it, their influences and the overall context.
The two most memorable elements of the film are these: the stylistic choice of shooting the film like its subject Breathless (with the same film look, aspect ratio, etc), which throws you right into the mood and feel of early French New Wave, but beyond that, it cleverly uses some of the unique stylistic elements of Godard’s cinema such as actors staring into the camera, or mimicking some of the film’s shots and camera moves when we’re off the set following Godard around.
Even more of an achievement is how despite the day by day account of shooting the film, Linklater manages to create relationship arcs between his characters, especially between Godard and his female lead, Jean Seberg (played by Zoey Deutch, who is the glowing star of the film as Jean Seberg) in such fleeting and small moments. The performances are all stunning, especially given the heavy weight of history and how well-seen and documented Breathless and those characters are.
Linklater has given us his own love letter to cinema that pays homage to French New Wave and Godard, makes you fall in love with filmmaking and yet doesn’t glorify or idiolise its subjects, while giving you an entertaining ride. To pay this beautiful homage your own homage, go watch it in cinemas when it’s released!
