Catalog
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Filmography
INTRODUCTION
LIVE IT OR LEAVE IT A RICHARD LINKLATER’S FILM FESTIVAL
Time is a relentless force that hunts us down and reshapes us no matter how hard we resist it. We better stand up and do something before time gets wasted and devours us in the films of Richard Linklater.
CONTENT 05 | Director’s biography 01 | Director interview 12 | Filmography and awards 19 | Featuring
Boyhood
Before sunset
Waking life
Dazed and Confused
Slacker
21 Years: Richard Linklater
49 | Festival information 51 | About Austin 52 | Location 34 | Schedule 45 | Reference
04 |
Filmography
THE DIRECTER
LIVE IT OR LEAVE IT A RICHARD LINKLATER FILM FESTIVAL
The Directer
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RICHARD LINKLATER THE DIRECTOR | THE WRITER | THE PRODUCER | THE THINKER
I’ve always been most interested in the politics of everyday life: your relation to whatever you’re doing, or what your ambitions are, where you live, where you find yourself in the social hierarchy.
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The Directer
“Everyone is encouraged to see their lives, the world through the eyes of the rich.”
BIOGRAPHY Self-taught writer-director Richard Stuart
ironic way. He has very unique style about the
Linklater was born in Houston, Texas, to Diane
concept of films. He revealed his film philoso-
Margaret (Krieger), who taught at a university,
phy in one of his interviews ”it’s all about time
and Charles W. Linklater III. Richard was among
and growing”. Like cubism, Linklater uses a day
the first and most successful talents to emerge
or few hours referring a segment of time and
during the American independent film renais-
growing up. Time is invisible but it marks its
sance of the 1990s. He has very deep
passage across faces, creasing eyes.
attachment to his home—Texas. The independence of the characters and culture is all reflexed in his storytelling. In every film he gives a new definition to describe the present Austin and Texas. Despite Linklater’s filmography is very diverse—there are low-budget tales of young misfits (Slacker, Dazed and Confused), experimental animated films (Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly), mainstream comedies (School
Many of his films are noted for their loosely structured narrative; two of his projects – the Before... films and Boyhood – feature the same actors filmed over an extended period of years. He is also known for loyalty to his actors, having worked with Ethan Hawke and Ma t thew McConaughey in many of his films. Those of Linklater’s films that have non-formu-
of Rock, 2005’s Bad News Bears), and philo-
laic narratives about seemingly random
sophical romances (the Before trilogy). However,
occurrences, often spanning about twenty-four
many of these films have something in com-
hours, have been hailed as alternatives to con-
mon: they follow characters through a single
temporary Hollywood market-driven
day in their lives, reflex the era in a real, casual,
blockbusters.
The Directer
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MOMENT TO MOMENT Why Richard Linklater makes movies BY NATHAN HELLER | THE NEW YORKER
To get to the place where Richard Linklater was shooting his new film, you had to travel a short distance that seemed far: past the Barton Creek Greenbelt, a preserve on the edge of downtown Austin; past an R.V. park and a country club; past the turnoff to the Salt Lick Bar-B-Que, one of the last open-pit joints in Texas. You’re in Oak Hill now, where the Hill Country starts. The trees crop up more densely on the sides of Route 290. In the spring, along the highway, there are wildflowers, but in August the grass bakes and leaves droop drowsily from the surrounding branches. At the Texaco, you’d turn, and down Mowinkle Drive you’d spy a group of trailers near a small house. These marked the final preparations for “Boyhood,” a movie that Linklater had been shooting in Texas over the past twelve years.
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The Directer
To get to the place where Richard Linklater was
Balance sneakers, big shorts, white athletic
shooting his new film, you had to travel a short
socks pulled up as far as they would go. (His
distance that seemed far: past the Barton
partner, Tina Harrison, has been at him to pur-
Creek Greenbelt, a preserve on the edge of
chase some more charismatic socks, but so far
downtown Austin; past an R.V. park and a coun-
the idea hasn’t taken hold.) At fifty-three,
try club; past the turnoff to the Salt Lick
Linklater looks much as he did when he made
Bar-B-Que, one of the last open-pit joints in
his first films. He is squarely built, with san-
Texas. You’re in Oak Hill now, where the Hill
dy-brown hair cropped into a grown-man
Country starts. The trees crop up more densely
version of a bowl cut. He wears a brush of five-
on the sides of Route 290. In the spring, along
o’clock shadow and, usually, a look of
the highway, there are wildflowers, but in
heavy-lidded, glazed repose that gives no indi-
August the grass bakes and leaves droop
cation how quickly he moves: one second he’ll
drowsily from the surrounding branches. At the
be next to you, gazing off; the next he’ll be
Texaco, you’d turn, and down Mowinkle Drive
gone, light-footed, flitting through a distant
you’d spy a group of trailers near a small house.
doorway. He went to college on a baseball
These marked the final preparations for “Boyhood,” a movie that Linklater had been shooting in Texas over the past twelve years. “I always say I’ll never make a film in Austin in summer, but I always end up here,” Linklater
scholarship, and, even now, he has the aspect of a man continually on the verge of stealing third. At a time when independent cinema is often thought to be the Hollywood farm leagues, Linklater has claimed it as a bright alternative
said before the day began. It was a hundred
to studio production. Working with a team of
degrees, dry. He had arrived in a dirt-brown
actors, a few funders, and his own production
Toyota Tundra pickup, dressed like a PTA dad
lot, he operates more like the leader of a reper-
on a fishing trip: red short-sleeve shirt, New
tory theatre than like an industry director,
The Directer |
09
turning out films that find broad national audi-
filmmaking, Linklater’s notion of cinematic
ences across a vast stylistic range. Linklater
refinement has less to do with virtuosic cam-
has been acclaimed for “Slacker,” his anti-nar-
erawork than with creating a moment that’s
rative début, and for “Dazed and Confused,” his
worth capturing.
high-school comedy. He is beloved for movies like “Before Sunrise” (romantic, hyper-verbal, European) and “Bernie” (gothic, hyper-Texan, strange). He adapted “Fast Food Nation” for the screen; he dreamed up the semi-animated dream-within-a-dream “Waking Life.” Then he made “School of Rock.” “With his first four or five films, you may have
“Almost every other director I’ve worked with hides behind the monitor—they love to huddle up with the director of photography and talk about ‘the light’ or ‘the frame,’ ” Ethan Hawke, who has appeared in eight of Linklater’s films, says. “Directors are interested in ‘If you turn a little to the left, your nose catches a light in a great way.’ Rick would puke if anybody said
thought you had Rick pegged, and you would
that on his set. Like, ‘What are we doing, an ad?’
have been wrong,” Quentin Tarantino, who calls
We’re playing human beings here.”
“Dazed and Confused” his favorite film of the nineteen-nineties, says. “He’s done it very quietly, one step at a time.” Although few of Linklater’s films have much plot in the traditional sense, they lack the dead points and the aimlessness that many plotless movies have: they’re funny and buoyant, bouncing forward with an unself-conscious, joshing wit. Going against the fashions of contemporary
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The Directer
This brand of naturalism brings its own imperatives. As Linklater entered his forties, he kept returning to the idea of making a movie about growing up. But he couldn’t see how it could work. “If you make a film about childhood, you’ve got to pick a moment—you know, ‘The 400 Blows,’ ” he says. Most childhoods aren’t like Truffaut’s, though. They have no single, representative dramatic stretch. They gain
meaning across years and disparate moments.
with the eight-hundred-dollar stereo and a
The problem nagged at him until it didn’t. “I sat
junker for a car. But he considered himself too
down at my computer, and I had a flash of that
out-of-touch to pick music for “Boyhood,” so he
feeling: why couldn’t you do that?”
got kids about Mason’s age to nominate the
Linklater started filming “Boyhood” in 2002, shooting a few days every year; the finished product will arrive in theatres next month. As news of the project emerged, it was often compared to Michael Apted’s “Up” series. But Apted’s project is a sequence of documentaries; Linklater’s is a single feature-length work
music they most remembered from each period and write little essays on their associations: this song recalled the long, hot summer of 2009; that one was bound up with the memory of getting dumped. The result, which extends from Coldplay to Family of the Year, is a tribute to the fading moments of the now.
of fiction covering crucial points from the age of seven to eighteen in the life of its protagonist, Mason (Ellar Coltrane), and his family: a sister (Lorelei Linklater, the director’s now twenty-one-year-old daughter) and separated parents (Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke). Viewers watch Mason find his way through childhood and head to college. By the time the film is over, they’ve not only witnessed his growth but shared it—the evolution of a personality, the changing soundtrack of those years. As a teen-ager, Linklater was the guy
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FILMOGRAHPY
Slacker Tape Before Sunrise
The Newton Boys Woodshock
1985
1988
1991
1993
1995
1996
1998
2001
Dazed and Confused
SubUrbia It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books
Waking Life
Me and Orson Welles
Bad News Bears
Before Midnight
Fast Food Nation Live from Shiva’s Dance Floor
Bernie
School of Rock
2003
2004
2005
2008
2006
2011
2012
2013
2014
Before Sunset Boyhood Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach
A Scanner Darkly
Up to Speed
2001 2002
2005
Waking Life
Before Sunset National Society of Film Critics
International Cinephile Society Awards
Ottawa International Animation Festival
Venice Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
2007
Austin Film Critics Association
2009
Austin Film Critics Association
Austin Film Award
Austin Film Award
Best Screenplay shared 3rd Place
Best Screenplay shared 2nd Place
Best Animated Feature Film
‘CinemAvvenire Award for Best Film
Silver Bear
2012 Austin Film Critics Association Austin Film Award
Los Angeles Film Critics Association San Diego Film Critics Society
Best Adapted Screenplay shared
Best Screenplay shared
Hollywood Film Awards Best Screenwriter shared
Dublin Film Critics’ Circle Best Screenplay shared
Before Midnight 2013 Austin Film Critics Association Austin Film Award
Bernie
Me and Orson Welles
A Scanner Darkly
1995
Before Sunrise
Film Year Award Category
Utah Film Critics Association
Best Adapted Screenplay shared
Alliance of Women Film Journalists
Boyhood Best Film
Best Screenplay shared
Boston Society of Film Critics
Best Film
Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association
Best Director
2nd Place
Denver Film Critics Society Best Director
Best Screenplay
Best Director
Detroit Film Critics Society Best Film
Best Screenplay 2nd Place
Best Director
Chicago Film Critics Association Best Film
Best Screenplay
Best Director
Best Austin Film
Best Director
Austin Film Critics Association Best Film
Best Director
2014
National Society of Film Critics
Village Voice Film Poll Best Screenplay shared
Houston Film Critics Society Awards
Best Director
Los Angeles Film Critics Association New York Film Critics Circle North Texas Film Critics Association Norwegian International Film Festival Online Film Critics Society Awards
Best Director
Norwegian Film Critics Award
Best Director
Best Director
Best Director
Robert Altman Award for Best Director
San Francisco International Film Festival
Founder’s Directing Award
Best Director
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards
Best Director
Best Director
Best Original Screenplay
Southeastern Film Critics Association
Best Director
Seattle International Film Festival Best Film
San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards
Phoenix Film Critics Society Best Director
Kansas City Film Critics Circle
Iowa Film Critics Best Director
Best Screenplay
Gotham Independent Film Awards Audience Award
Boyhood 2014 Florida Film Critics Circle Best Director
Film Year Award Category
Dublin Film Critics’ Circle Best Director
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards
Best Director
Golden Globe Award Best Director
Best Director
Critics’ Choice Movie Award Best Picture
Best Direction
British Academy Film Awards Best Film
Best Original Screenplay
Best Director
2015 Academy Award Best Picture
Best Original Screenplay
Best Screenplay
Vancouver Film Critics Circle Best Director
Best Screenplay
Toronto Film Critics Association Best Director
Sydney Film Festival Sydney Film Prize
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Filmography
FEATURING
Boyhood
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Before Sunset
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30
Waking Life
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Dazed and Confused
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Slacker
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2002
2005
BOYHOOD R | 165min | Drama | 15 August 2014
Boyhood is really about finding out who you are.
Boyhood is by far Linklater’s most celebrated film and it’s easy to see why. It’s a triumph of the human spirit; a film made out of pure love for cinema and love for life. The adventurous epic is made up of “moments”, and this final exchange between Mason and Nicole is a beautiful way to end the film and leave audiences thinking. Instead of trying to seize the moment, let it seize you instead. Just let the world do its thing and enjoy it while you’re here.
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Boyhood
2007
2010
2014
You know how everyone’s always saying seize the moment? I don’t know, I’m kind of thinking it’s the other way around, you know, like the moment seizes us.
PLOT Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater's Boyhood is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason (a breakthrough performance by Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason's parents and newcomer Lorelei Linklater as his sister Samantha, Boyhood charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. Snapshots of adolescence from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations and all the moments in between become transcendent, set to a sound track spanning the years f rom Coldplay's Yellow to Arcade Fire's Deep Blue. Boyhood is both a nos talgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting.
Boyhood
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CAST
Ellar Coltrane | Mason
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Boyhood
Ethan Hawke | Dad
Boyhood
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Patricia Arquette | Mom
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Boyhood
Lorelei Linklater | Samantha
Boyhood
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w
You know how everyone's always saying seize the moment? I don't know, I'm kinda thinking it's the other way around. You know, like the moment seizes us. 窶年icole<Boyhood>
FROM BABY FAT TO STUBBLE: GROWING UP IN REAL TIME By Manohla Dargis July 10, 2014 | New York Times Review
Boyhood
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27
The first shot in “Boyhood,” Richard Linklater’s
of death linger. Mr. Linklater’s characters can
tender, profound film, is of a cloudy sky. The
talk a blue streak, but rarely in his work, and
second is of a boy staring up at that sky, one
never in “Boyhood,” do you hear the hum of his
arm bent under his head, the other flung out
narrative design under their words.
straight on the ground. He’s a pretty child with
It’s almost surprising that no one seems to have
calm eyes, a snub nose and a full mouth. It’s a
made a movie like “Boyhood” before. Its closest
face that you get to know and love because,
counterpart is probably the “7 Up” series,
even as this child is watching the world, you’re
Michael Apted’s multipart documentary project
watching him grow. From scene to scene, you
that since 1964 has dropped in every seven
see the curve of his jaw change, notice his
years on the same, more or less, British women
thickening brows and witness his slender arms
and men, beginning when they were 7. Watching
opening to embrace the world and its clear and
seemingly carefree children thrive and fail as
darkening skies.
they age — or, more prosaically, turn into dreary,
For a filmmaker known for the loquaciousness
respectable citizens — can be like a knife in
of his characters, Mr. Linklater has an almost
your heart. It can also be somewhat eerie, sim-
un-American rejection of overexplanation.
ply because the series compresses decades of a
When you first meet Mason at 6, gazing at the
human life into scenes that are, by turns, seam-
sky while lying on a patch of grass, he looks a
less and jagged — an eeriness tha t
touch beatific. He also looks like a little kid
“ Boyhood ” shares as 12 years of Mason’s life
staring into space. Is he happy, sad or bored?
slips by in 165 startlingly fast minutes. We’re
And when he gazes at a dead bird, what does he
here today, gone tomorrow.
think?; how does he feel? Mr. Linklater doesn’t say. Instead, he fills the frame with a close-up of Mason’s face, letting the silence and weight
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Boyhood
Boyhood
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BEFORE SUNSET R | 80 min | Drama, Romance | 30 July 2004 (USA)
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Before Sunset
"Life's hard. It's supposed to be. If we didn't suffer, we'd never learn anything." â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Jesse PLOT Early thirty-something American Jesse Wallace is in a Paris bookstore, the last stop on a tour to promote his best selling book, This Time. Although he is vague to reporters about the source material for the book, it is about his chance encounter nine years earlier on June 15-16, 1994 with a Parisienne named Celine, and
CAST
the memorable and romantic day and evening
Ethan Hawke Jesse Julie Delpy Celine Vernon Dobtcheff
Bookstore Manager
they spent together in Vienna. At the end of their encounter at the Vienna train station, which is also how the book ends, they, not providing contact information to the other, vowed to meet each other again in exactly six months at that very spot. As the media scrum at the bookstore nears its conclusion, Jesse spots Celine in the crowd, she who only found out about the book when she earlier saw his photograph promoting this public appearance. Much like their previous encounter, Jesse and Celine, who is now an environmental activist, decide to spend time together until he is supposed to catch his flight back to New York.
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NINE MORE YEARS ON, AND STILL TALKING Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy Discuss ‘Before Midnight’
The courtship of Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse
“The most unique property of cinema is how it lets
(Ethan Hawke), the bright, neurotic, hyperverbal
you mold time, whether it’s over a long or a very
pair who met in Richard Linklater’s “Before
brief period,” Mr. Linklater said on the phone
Sunrise” (1995) and reunited in “Before Sunset”
recently. One of the most versatile American
(2004), unfolded to the sound of ticking clocks —
filmmakers of his generation, he has also shown a
there was always a train or a plane to catch,
recurring interest in time as cinema’s most dis-
another life to get back to. Nine more years have
tinctive special effect. Many of his films take
passed, and in “Before Midnight” (opening May
place over compact periods (“Dazed and
24), there are no more looming deadlines, save for
Confused,” “Tape”), some in real time (“Before
the ones built into life itself. The screen romance
Sunset”) or entirely beyond the bounds of earthly
that defined Generation X is now officially
duration (“Waking Life”).
middle-aged.
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Before Sunset
Q. At what point during the nine-year gap
Q. In the first two films, because Celine and
di d you get serious about the idea of a
Jesse are getting acquainted, it’s natural for
third movie?
their conversations to be expository. Now
Julie Delpy: It got serious for me basically the last week of the shoot. Before
they’re a long-term couple, but there’s still a lot about their lives that you need to get across.
that I was like, what are we doing? No,
Delpy: The long opening scene in the car
I’m joking.
was probably the most challenging thing
Ethan Hawke: For years I would go to dinner parties and people would tell me how they thought the third film should go. I
to write. It had to explain but not be too on the nose, and at the same time plant the seed of what will happen next.
think the idea of it has lived since the day
Hawke: That was one of the hardest
we wrapped the second.
things to deal with: Once people have
Richard Linklater: It was a similar trajectory as after the first one — five years of it being maybe a jokey idea, but nothing of any substance. We were on the fence last spring, and someone did the math
been together for years, what do they have lef t to say to each other? Tha t led to the giant dinner scene, which gave us an excuse to have them talking to other people.
and said if we shot it in the summer, it
Linklater: The subtle frustrations come
would be the same time differential.
out in a comical way when it’s in a social
Hawke: The game-changing event is when we realize the three of us all want to write the same kind of movie and we see the characters in the same place.
setting. Celine’s struggles are the subtext of a lot of what she says there. We’re trying to capture how conversations and arguments actually flow through a day, through a relationship, through a life.
Linklater: But there’s no way to get there
The conf licts don’ t come up all at once,
until a lot of time has passed. If this is a
and they’re not resolved all at once.
sculpture, time is the thing that wears it, that shapes it. That time has to go by.
Before Sunset
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WAKING LIFE R | 99 min | Animation, Drama, Fantasy | 16 November 2001
CAST
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Waking Life
Trevor Jack Brooks
Boy Playing Paper Game
Lorelei Linklater
Girl Playing Paper Game
Wiley Wiggin
Main Character
Glover Gill
Accordion Player
Lara Hicks
Violin Player
The worst mistake that you can make is to think you're alive when really you're asleep in life's waiting room. —Guy Forsyth
PLOT Waking Life is Linklater’s least accessible
Early thirty-something American Jesse Wallace
film; an experimental animated/mo-cap
is in a Paris bookstore, the last stop on a tour to
meandering film about dreams and reality.
promote his best selling book, This Time.
The whole film is basically made up lengthy
Although he is vague to reporters about the
existential conversations, the like of which
source material for the book, it is about his
you expect stoners to have all the time.
chance encounter nine years earlier on June
This particularly long segment from Kim Krizen (playing herself) touches on the notion of how no-one perceives the world in the same way, yet we find joy in sharing experiences with other people. It’s boggling stuff, but fascinating.
15-16, 1994 with a Parisienne named Celine, and the memorable and romantic day and evening they spent together in Vienna. At the end of their encounter at the Vienna train station, which is also how the book ends, they, not providing contact information to the other, vowed to meet each other again in exactly six months at that very spot. As the media scrum at the bookstore nears its conclusion, Jesse spots Celine in the crowd, she who only found out about the book when she earlier saw his photograph promoting this public appearance. Much like their previous encounter, Jesse and Celine, who is now an environmental activist, decide to spend time together until he is supposed to catch his flight back to New York.
Waking Life |
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REVISITED: RICHARD LINKLATER’S “WAKING LIFE” By Charmaine Li
The opening shot in Waking Life, Linklater’s first animated drama film, is of a young girl holding out a haphazardly-made paper fortune teller. “Pick a colour,” she says to a boy curiously gazing at her. He chooses and the g i r l u n c a n n i l y reve a l s h i s f o r t u n e : “ D re a m i s destiny.” Waking Life follows a peripatetic young man – played by Wiley Wiggins – as he floats through a number of random conversations, speculations and rants on freedom, dreams and death. This is a film more explicitly immersed in topics
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Waking Life
of intellectual discourse than your average film and each person attempting to explain their view is brimming with loquacity and energy – perhaps inebriated by their own ideas.
rather than on any particular message. Waking Life features a non-narrative structure complementing, on one hand, the nature o f dreams and , on the other, the worldviews
Linklater’s no stranger to pushing cinematic
o f several characters in the movie who are
boundaries and Waking Life, at the time of
p a s sionately opposed to submit ting to
release, was much-lauded for its technological
social narratives.
coup. First filmed with flesh-and-blood actors, the American director then worked with a team of animation artists to stylize and enhance each sequence with a technique based on rotoscoping. The result is a wispy, impressionistic atmosphere, gently drifting and disorienting, clearly a mirror to the mind-set of the unnamed protagonist, who wanders from one person and state of consciousness to another. In this way, Waking Life is similar to Boyhood
Waking Life leaves the audience in that uniquely morning kind of daze, questions about last night’s dreams resounding. In this case, the questions tackle free will, the meaning of life, language, dreaming – have we reversed Freud? Are the dreams we’ve seen informing our waking experiences? One answer we have is that, ultimately, Waking Life instils a suspended sense of wonderment at the vast intricacies of the human experience.
(2014) – in both films, Linklater focuses on elements of rapture, transient emotions and the ever-shifting dynamics between individuals
Waking Life
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DAZED AND CONFUSED R | 102 min | Comedy | 10 February 1994 (Argentina)
CAST Jason London Pink Joey Lauren Adams Simone Milla Jovovich Michelle Shawn Andrews Pickford Rory Cochrane Slater Adam Goldberg Mike Anthony Rapp Tony
Dazed and Confused
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39
PLOT It ’s the last day of school at a high school in a small town in Texas in 1976. The upperclassmen are hazing the incoming freshmen, and everyone is trying to get stoned, drunk, or laid, even the football players that signed a pledge not to. As night turns to dawn, Pink, Wooderson, Don, Ron Slater and several other friends decide to smoke marijuana on the 50-yard line of the football field. The police arrive, so they ditch the drugs. Recognizing Pink, the police call Coach Conrad, his football coach. Conrad lectures Pink about hanging out with “losers” and insists that he sign the pledge. Pink says that he might play football, but he is not going to sign the pledge. Pink leaves with his friends to get tickets to an Aerosmith concert. Mitch arrives home after sunrise to find his mother has waited up for him. She decides against punishment but warns him about coming home late again. Mitch goes to his bedroom, puts on headphones and listens to “Slow Ride” by Foghat as Pink, Wooderson, Slater and Simone travel down a highway to purchase their tickets.
NERVOUSLY CONTEMPLATING LIFE AFTER HIGH SCHOOL By JANET MASLIN | New York Times
Richard Linklater, the 31-year-old director of "Slacker" and now "Dazed and Confused," is a
sometimes becomes aimless and the film's improvised quality becomes overpowering. The
contemporary of the high school-age charac-
actors bounce off one another with crazy riffs
ters who appear in his new film. And Mr.
and cosmic observations, some of them unex-
Linklater remembers exactly how things looked
pectedly funny. Mr. Linklater wrote "Dazed and
and felt and sounded on May 28, 1976, the date
Confused" as well as directing it, but not much
on which his story unfolds. It is the last day of
of the film sounds tightly scripted.
school in the nameless Middle American community where the film takes place, and a couple of dozen characters are dealing with their hopes and fears. The film has a large cast and a microscopic scale, since many of the matters it addresses are deliberately small.
No film whose plot involves the quest for Aerosmith tickets can take itself too seriously. So "Dazed and Confused" has an enjoyably playful spirit, one that amply compensates for its lack of structure. And at the heart of many of its tiny encounters are matters of real ten-
"Dazed and Confused" unfolds in a loose, natural
derness, as when Mitch Kramer succeeds in
style that suits its teen-age characters, whose
deflecting his attackers and making friends
collective mental state is reflected by the title.
with some of the older characters in the
To the blaring, less-than-nostalgic music of
s to r y. Mr. Linklater convincingly evokes a
bands like Foghat and Deep Purple and Black
spirit in which Mitch's progress, all in the course
Oak Arkansas, these high school students drive
of a single busy night, can be considered a
around and contemplate the future in "American
real triumph.
Graffiti" fashion. Their drifting is treated as a form of forward momentum, even though it
Dazed and Confused
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42 |
Filmography
SLACKER R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama | 5 July 1991
A day in the life of Austin
CAST
PLOT
Rudy Basquez Taxi Driver
Written by Rick Gregory
Jean Caffeine Roadkill Jan Hockey Jan Hockey Stephan Hockey Running Late Running Late Hit-and-Run Son
Presents a day in the life in Austin, Texas among its social outcasts and misfits, predominantly the twenty-something set, using a series of linear vignettes. These characters, who in some manner just don’t fit into the establishment norms, move seamlessly from one scene to the next, randomly
Bob Boyd Officer Bozzio
coming and going into one another’s lives.
Terrence Kirk Officer Love
Highlights include a UFO buff who adamantly insists that the U.S. has been on the moon since the 1950s, a woman who produces a glass slide purportedly of Madonna’s pap smear, and an old anarchist who sympathetically shares his philosophy of life with a robber.
Slacker | 43
SLACKER AT TWENTY AARON LAKE SMITH
With the demotion of the physical realm, some essential nutrient required for genuine weirdness to thrive is lost.
In Richard Linklater’s 1991 portrait of Austin’s freak gentry Slacker, there is a piece of recurrent graffiti that reads, “If you don’t like NYC, don’t go.” This early lumpen premonition of the coming Friends-era migration seems to be a preoccupation for this filmmaker. After a short stint living in New York, Linklater moved back to his Texas hometown and made Slacker on a shoestring budget of loans and maxed-out credit cards. When the film met with success, Linklater refused to move to Hollywood— instead he took an unconventional route, bunkering down in Austin and buying a twostory warehouse for Detour, his fledgling film production company. Nurtured by Detour and the Austin Film Society nonprofit, Linklater in Austin built up a small-film cottage industry. Slacker, though often canonized as a portrait of 1990s youth culture, is at root a local film. It was shot and produced entirely in Austin with 44 |
Slacker
local non-actors and musicians like the
a sympathetic ear for their rants can now, on
Butthole Surfers’ drummer Teresa Taylor. The
the Internet, find an audience from the alleged
fictionalized, documentary-style film doesn’t
comfort of their own homes. There seem to be
have a plot or recurring characters—long,
fewer and fewer pedestrians on the streets,
omniscient shots track from one set of Austin
fewer random interactions with strangers as
hipsters to the next—but it manages to suc-
concrete cities are made into virtual ghost
ceed on its own terms. Now, Slacker feels like a
towns by cloud computing. But is it possible to
terrarium—a little universe of the living ideas
appreciate it without the contrast of the other
and archetypes of a bygone time, preserved
seasons? Watching Slacker, there’s the creep-
behind glass.
ing sense that without incidental human
The world Linklater presents in Slacker is a fleeting snapshot of a time and place that no longer exists—the fliers stapled to the telephone poles have long since disintegrated and disappeared. The independent video stores have mostly gone out of business, replaced first by Blockbuster, then by Redbox, now by at-home streaming. The J.F.K. conspiracy theorists that used to wander the streets looking for
encounters, life loses some of its meaning. Places like Austin in 1991 don’t seem to exist anymore—today, the revitalized city centers all look the same, filled with people in American Apparel clothing, working side by side on matching aluminum Macbooks. With the demotion of the physical realm, some essential nutrient required for genuine weirdness to thrive is lost.
Slacker | 45
21 YEARS: RICHARD LINKLATER A documentary about Richard Linklaater
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21 Years Richard Linklater
CAST
PLOT
Joey Lauren Adams
It’s been said that the first 21 years defines the
Jack Black
career of an artist. Few directors have single-handedly shaken up the film establishment
Louis Black
like the godfather of indie, Richard Linklater. From
Julie Delpy
the groundbreaking SLACKER to his innovative BOYHOOD, Linklater has just reached the 21-year
Ethan Hawke
mark and has unapologetically carved his signa-
Zac Efron
ture into American pop culture. This compelling
Matthew McConaughey
documentary takes you on a behind the scenes tour into Linklater’s style, skills, and motivation via his friends, actors, and other directors. Get a raw and honest perspective on Richard through candid conversations with Ethan Hawke, Jack Black, Keanu Reeves, Billy Bob Thornton, Matthew McConaughey, Jason Reitman, Julie Delpy and others, and see their stories brought to life through hilarious animated sequences. For a guy who became famous for celebrating the cool and casual, Linklater emerges as a surprisingly strategic and visionary director who has already established a legacy and perfected a style that can’t be denied.
21 Years Richard Linklater
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Filmography
FESTIVAL INFORMATION
Austin, Texas | 51 Attractions | 52 Schedule | 54
COME TO EXPERIENCE THE THE REAL AUSTIN
Five out of Richard Linklater’s first seven features were shot primarily in Austin; the first, “It’s Impossible To Learn To Plow By Reading Books,” begins there, and the only one to omit it entirely is “Before Sunrise” (though Ethan Hawke’s Jesse is from Texas). Begin with “Slacker”: shot in 1989, unleashed into the festival circuit system in 1990 and released nationally in 1991, at the time generally understood as a fond portrait of a place whose economy could sustain an entertaining but determinedly non-producing class. To some extent, that’s accurate, but the fact that the second scene is a fatal hit-and-run signals the film’s darker undercurrents.
State Theater Orginally built in 1935 by Interstate Circuit Inc., the State Theater opened on Christmas Day 1935 with “The Bride Comes Home”.
Austin
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7
2 4 1 3
6
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Filmography
5
ATTRACTIONS
1. State Theatre 713 Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78701 2. Texas State Capitol 1100 Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78701 3. Austin Museum of Art 700 Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78701 4. Texas Governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mansion 1010 Colorado St, Austin, TX 78701 5. Sixth Street Sixth Street Historic District, Austin, TX 78701 6. Mexic-Arte Museum Congress Ave, Austin, TX 7870 7. HOPE Outdoor Gallery 1101 Baylor St, Austin, TX 78703 Map
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SCHEDULE
DAY 1 Opening night
5:30pm
Directer and Cast interview Richard Linklater Ethan Hawke
7:00pm
Julie Delpy
7:10pm 10:00pm 10:30pm
12:00 am
Boyhood + Behind Scene
After party Theme: Back to the 80â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
DAY 2
10:30am 12:00pm 1:00pm 2:30pm 3:00pm 4:30pm 6:00pm 9:00pm
Slacker
Before Sunset
Waking Life
Detour Filmproduction Tour
DAY 3
10:30am 12:00pm 1:00pm 2:30pm 3:00pm 4:30pm 6:00pm 9:00pm
Dazed and Confused
Before Sunset
Waking Life
Detour Filmproduction Tour
Bus pick up
Reference http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000500/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1065073/awards http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/11/movies/moviereview-linklaters-boyhood-is-a-model-of-cinematicrealism.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/movies/ethanhawke-and-julie-delpy-discuss-before-midnight. html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://berlinfilmjournal.com/2014/08/ revisited-richard-linklaters-waking-life/ https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/film-review/ slacker-at-twenty/ https://thedissolve.com/features/ interview/666-interview-richard-linklater/
Class: GR 612 Integrated Communications Instructor: Christopher Morlan Design: Jialu Li (Cece) Binding: Jialu Li(Cece) Typeface: Tile: Campton Bold Body text: Campton Book Caption: Archer Medium Italic