STACK #124 Feb 2016

DVD&BD

FEATURE

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Acclaimed from the second it rolled into theatres, BOYHOOD has just been decorated with six Academy Award nominations. Zoë Radas spoke to director Richard Linklater about how he put this beautiful, ingenious film together. R ichard Linklater has the kind of patience and measured stride we don’t normally associate with wildly creative

types. Through features such as Slacker (1991), Dazed and Confused (1993), and Waking Life (2001), the director has proven his agile penchant for linking together small subtle moments, which focus far more on the philosophical and understated nature of life than deliberately moving a story forward. In his Before trilogy ( Before Sunrise from 1995, Before Sunset from 2004, and Before Midnight from 2013), we learned that he is perfectly happy to revisit characters years after their initial meeting – literal years. For his latest, wondrous epic Boyhood (which has just been Oscar nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress - Patricia Arquette, Best Supporting Actor - Ethan Hawke, and Best Picture), the filmmaker worked over the course of 12 years. That timeframe means, of course, Linklater produced several other projects in between filming – but continuity of tone was never something which worried him. “I really thought my job was to tell one story; that film I saw in my head was one movie and it didn’t really change,” he explains. “The only thing that changed in it was the people – they got older.

But I really saw a sameness, I was going for nothing that would draw attention to itself. I wanted it to feel like you’re just floating through life. We go through life and the world around us changes suddenly, or the look of the world changes a little bit, not that much, and we change within it. The other nine or so films that I did in this 12-year period, there was plenty of room to express myself in those other stories, but this was one film that I tried to adhere to very closely.” The regular annual meet-ups with actors

Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette and lead Ellar Coltrane were something the director describes as “incremental”, and is quick to point out the distance between Boyhood and the documentary series which several critics have compared it to, 7UP . “I love that series, I think it’s a huge cinematic achievement. But it’s funny how the people in it are so bloody self-conscious about themselves... it defines their lives in a really uncomfortable way for the majority of them.” That component makes the series much

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