Welcome to a History of Film Festivals In 100 Movies, Episode 3 - Before Sunrise by Richard Linklater.
I’m your host, Jon Fitzgerald, and excited to explore this terrific film, and the Berlinale, one of the top film festivals in the world.
Ok, let’s dig into Episode 3.
In 1995, Before Sunrise played the Sundance Film Festival and was well received, but it would have an even greater impact the following month, at the Berlinale, (which happens to be going on right now).
Linklater’s Personal History
Before we get to the big moment, a little history on Richard Linklater, and how he got his start.
Linklater was born in Houston, Texas, the son of Diane Margaret (née Krieger), who taught at Sam Houston State University, and Charles W. Linklater, III. As a teen, Linklater won a Scholastic Art and Writing Award. Linklater studied at Sam Houston State University (where he also played baseball), until dropping out to work on an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. He frequently read novels on the rig, and upon returning to land, developed a love of film through repeated visits to a repertory cinema in Houston. At this point, Linklater realized he wanted to be a filmmaker. He used his savings to buy a Super-8 camera, a projector, and editing equipment, and moved to Austin, Texas.
Linklater founded the Austin Film Society in 1985 with his college professor Chale Nafus, University of Texas professor Charles Ramirez-Berg, SXSW founder Louis Black, and his frequent collaborator Lee Daniel.
The Austin Film Society (AFS) is a non-profit film society based in Austin, Texas. Founded in 1985 to exhibit independent, experimental, foreign and various other non-mainstream art films, the film society has grown from just film exhibition to fostering independent filmmaking in Texas and has served as a cornerstone in building the film industry in Austin. The film society also owns and maintains Austin Studios, hosts the annual Texas Film Awards gala, and oversees the Austin Film Society grant program. The film society was founded by film director Richard Linklater, who currently serves on the board as artistic director. Other notable members on the board and advisory board include Tim McCanlies, Robert Rodriguez, Charles Burnett, Guillermo del Toro, Mike Judge, John Sayles, Steven Soderbergh, Paul Stekler and Quentin Tarantino. And Jonathan Demme, who would also have success in Berlin, which we will hear more about later. But first a little history on the Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival Origins
Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europe's "Big Three" film festivals alongside the Venice Film Festival held in Italy and the Cannes Film Festival held in France. Furthermore, it is one of the "Big Five", the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The festival regularly draws tens of thousands of visitors each year.
About 400 films are shown at multiple venues across Berlin, mostly in and around Potsdamer Platz. They are screened in nine sections across cinematic genres, with around twenty films competing for the festival's top awards in the Competition section. The major awards, called the Golden Bear and Silver Bears, are decided on by the international jury, chaired by an internationally recognisable cinema personality. This jury and other specialised Berlinale juries also give many other awards, and in addition there are other awards given by independent juries and organisations.
During the peak of the Cold War in 1950, a film officer of the Information Service Branch of the American High Commissioner for Germany stationed in Berlin, proposed the idea of a film festival in Berlin.The proposal was put through a committee, which included members of the Senate of Berlin and people from the German film industry, on 9 October 1950.[4] Through his efforts and influence, the American military administration was persuaded to assist and to give loans for the first years of the Berlin International Film Festival, which commenced in June 1951.
Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca opened the first festival. Why show this glossy hollywood Best Picture were from nearly 10 years ago? Alfred Hitchcock, who worked with the Allies in World War II, had made films for the British Ministry of Information, The star of Rebecca, Joan Fontaine, was the festival’s acclaimed celebrity guest. Six years after the end of the war, large parts of Berlin were still in ruins, and reconstruction had begun, but the city was still a long way from being the vibrant metropolis of art that it was in the 1920s. Under these circumstances, the film festival and its international guests serve the city’s great need for attention and recognition.
The winners of the inaugural awards in 1951 were determined by a West German panel, and there were five winners of the Golden Bear, divided by categories and genres. Cinderella, which won the Golden Bear for a Music Film, also won the audience award, and would ultimately help Disney climb out of debt after a series of box office failures By 1947, the studio was over $4 million in debt and was on the verge of bankruptcy.
In 1957, one of Linklater’s influences, Ingmar Bergman, would win the Silver Bear with Wild Strawberries, considered by many to be one of the greatest films ever made - and for the record, it’s in my top 10. As you will see later, while Linklater has singled this out as one of his favorites, it’s Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander that makes his top 10 list.
A few years later, in 1960 another of his favorites would premiere in Berlin, as part of the Festival’s 10 year anniversary, Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket.
Bresson is among the most highly regarded filmmakers of all time. He has the highest number of films (7) that made the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll of the 250 greatest films ever made. His films had won awards in Cannes and Venice Film festivals, but Pickpocket seems to have the most influence on distinguished filmmakers
At least 3 notable, award winning filmmakers include Pickpocket in their top 10 (Theo Angelopoulos, Paul Schrader, Richard Linklater). The Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos said Pickpocket is the most moving film he’d ever seen.
Christopher Nolan said he studied Pickpocket, along with Bresson's earlier film A Man Escaped, when making his 2017 film Dunkirk, to study how Bresson created suspense through details.
Also playing in the 1960 Berlin festival was Jean Luc Godards Breathless, his first feature film, and part of the French New Wave. Breathless was based loosely on a newspaper article that François Truffaut read in The News in Brief. The criminal character of Michel (ironically the same name as the lead in Bresson’s Pickpocket film) is based on real-life Michel Portail and his American girlfriend and journalist Beverly Lynette. In November 1952, Portail stole a car to visit his sick mother in Le Havre and ended up killing a motorcycle cop named Grimberg.
Godard would win the Silver Bear for Best Director, and this film would become one of the most influential in movie history, with movie Critic Roger Ebert writing,
"No debut film since Citizen Kane in 1942 has been as influential," "headlong pacing, its cool detachment, its dismissal of authority, and the way its narcissistic young heroes are obsessed with themselves and oblivious to the larger society."
Just as Godard would be recognized for his revolutionary filmmaking style, Linklater was working on one of his own.
It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books
For several years, Linklater made many short films that were exercises and experiments in film techniques. He finally completed his first feature, It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (which is available in The Criterion Collection edition of his second feature, Slacker), a Super-8 feature that took a year to shoot and another year to edit.
On It’s Impossible to Learn to Plowby Reading Books, Monte Hellman says,
“With Learn to Plow, Rick created a film that was both extremely realistic and painfully poetic. There wasn’t a false note, and I never felt as if I were watching acting or actors. These were real people and this was real life, and I cared deeply about them and it.”
Here’s an excerpt from from that audio commentary, where Linklater describes scenes from this first feature, where he plays the lead -
Slacker
Next comes Slacker, in 1990. Linklater, who also stars in the movie, filmed around Austin, Texas on a budget of $23,000. The film follows an ensemble cast of eccentric and misfit locals throughout a single day. Each character is on screen for only limited time, before the film picks up someone else in the scene and follows them.
Slacker premiered at the USA Film Festival (which of course becomes Sundance) on April 21, 1990, and was released in the United States on July 5, 1991, by Orion Classics.
The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed over $1 million. In 2012, Slacker was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote,
“Slacker is a 14-course meal composed entirely of desserts or, more accurately, a conventional film whose narrative has been thrown out and replaced by enough bits of local color to stock five years' worth of ordinary movies"
Many of the independent filmmakers of that period credit the film with inspiring or opening doors for them, including Kevin Smith, who has said that the film was the inspiration for Clerks.
In fact, on the eve of his 51st Birthday Kevin Smith revealed his birthday is memorable for many reasons -- including how he previously celebrated his 21st -- seeing a film that would change his life.
"It's also another anniversary. Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the night I [saw Richard Linklater's] Slacker and decided to become a filmmaker," Smith said. "It's been an excellent first half century. Thank you all."
Linklater has said that he wanted the word to have more positive connotations. For example, in a self-interview in the Austin Chronicle, Linklater stated:
“Slackers might look like the left-behinds of society, but they are actually one step ahead, rejecting most of society and the social hierarchy before it rejects them. The dictionary defines slackers as people who evade duties and responsibilities. A more modern notion would be people who are ultimately being responsible to themselves and not wasting their time in a realm of activity that has nothing to do with who they are or what they might be ultimately striving for.”
Slacker officially put him firmly on the map in 1991!
Dances With Wolves & Silence of the Lambs Win Big in Berlin
Meanwhile 1991 was a big year for the Berlin International Film Festival. The Festival had Dances with Wolves and Silence of the Lambs in Competition. Both won top prizes there. Kevin Costner won the Silver Bear for an outstanding single achievement for Dances with Wolves. Dances then went on to win Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director for Kevin Costner, and the Silver Bear for Best Director went to Jonathan Demme for Silence of the Lambs, which had been released after the 1991 Academy cut off, but then went on to win for Best Picture and Best Director in 1992.
This being an anniversary year, a retrospective dedicated to Cold War films was shown at the festival. This included films by other directors that had landed on Linklater’s top 10 list, including: Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, and Vincent Minelli.
Dazed and Confused
Slacker had caught the attention of Universal Pictures producer Jim Jacks, who saw the film at the Sundance Film Festival. Jacks and his partner, Sean Daniels, had been looking for the first project for their new production company, Alphaville Films, which would have an exclusive production and distribution deal with Universal.
Hoping to get Universal to finance the film for 6 million Jacks flew Linklater to Los Angeles to discuss producing a studio film. Linklater agreed, and received a $25,000 check to write the script, which he would use to pay off his debts from producing Slacker.
Dazed and Confused is a coming-of-age comedy that follows a variety of teenagers on the last day of school in Austin, Texas in 1976. The film has no single protagonist or central conflict, rather following interconnected plot threads among different social groups and characters, such as rising ninth graders undergoing hazing rituals, a football star's refusal to sign a clean living pledge for his coach, and various characters hanging out at a pool hall. The movie has a large ensemble cast of actors who would later become stars, including Jason London, Milla Jovovich, Cole Hauser, Parker Posey, Adam Goldberg, Nicky Katt, Joey Lauren Adams, Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey.
The actors were encouraged to improvise and develop their own characters, with some writing in extra scenes. Linklater gathered a number opf 1970s rock songs for the soundtrack. He gave each of their characters a custom mix tape with 70s music that he thought would help them get into character
Linklater let the seniors (actors) design their own paddles. And yes, this is Matthew McConaughey first role in a motion picture. Here is the original trailer.
The story of just how 23-yr old McConaughey landed this role is legendary. By chance, one Thursday evening, Mathew walks into the hotel bar with the casting director Don Phillips happened to be staying.
At some point, he ends up talking to Phillips, ditching his date. They end up sharing drinks and stories into the wee hours. Phillips tells Mathew to come to audition the next day. He does, and here is a clip from that audition (audio in podcast).
He lands the role and his first scene is the drive through. Linklater explains the gist of scene and tells Mathew to come up with some dialogue. He does, introducing the now famous “alright, alright, alright”.
The film had its premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival, then Locarno, Toronto fests before being released in theaters on September 24, 1993, in 183 theaters, grossing $918,127 on its opening weekend. It went on to make $7.9 million in North America. The film was released in less than 200 theaters nationwide. Not considered successful at the box office, the movie would eventually develop a cult following and do well over time, thanks to home video entertainment.
Quentin Tarantino included it on his list of the 10 greatest films of all time in the 2002 Sight and Sound poll.
Before Sunrise to Kick of the Trilogy
Next up for Linklater would become what many believe to be his best work, the first film of the “Before” Trilogy.
Before Sunrise is a 1995 romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater and co-written by Kim Krizan. The first installment in the Before trilogy, it follows Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) as they meet on a Eurail train and disembark in Vienna to spend the night together.
Inspired by personal experiences, Linklater collaborated with Krizan, who previously appeared in his films Slacker (1991) and Dazed and Confused (1993), to develop the screenplay. Casting was extensive; it took nine months for Hawke and Delpy to be cast with principal photography taking place entirely in Vienna.
The plot is considered minimalistic, consisting mostly of monologues and casual conversation with extended dialogue as the characters navigate Vienna. Their contrasting ideas and perspectives on life and love are detailed, with Jesse a romantic disguised as a cynic, and Céline seemingly a romantic. Before Sunrise also explores time, death, and self-discovery.
Here is Linklater describing Before Sunrise:
Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise came on strong at the start of 1995, world premiering to acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival and then winning the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 45th Berlin International Film Festival.
After doing half a dozen more movies, including more boundary pushing titles such as Waking Life and Tape, as well as bigger studio pictures like School of Rock and The Newton Boys, Linklater would return to the Trilogy, doing Before Sunset in 2004.
Before Sunset
The movie brought back the two lovers and its stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Principal photography took place entirely in Paris, and the film is considered to take place in real time. Delpy also contributed original music to the film's soundtrack.
Before Sunset premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 10, 2004, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 2, 2004. It grossed $15 million against a $2.7 million production budget and received universal critical acclaim, especially for Linklater's direction, the performances of its leads, and its screenplay. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and appeared on many publications' lists of the best films of the year, some even calling it one of the best of the decade.
Before Midnight
Then back to a combination of of creative adventures with A Scanner Darkly and studio movie The Bad News Bears, before completing the Before trilogy with Before Midnight in 2013
Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy began developing a third film in 2011, wishing to replicate the nine-year gap between the first two installments. Principal photography began in August 2012, and took place entirely on the Peloponnese coast in Southern Greece.
Before Midnight premiered on January 20, 2013, at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and of course had its international premiere at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.
The film opened to general audiences on May 24, 2013, at five theaters in New York, Los Angeles, and Austin, Texas. It was released wide in 897 theaters on June 14, 2013.
The film grossed over $8 million domestically and over $15 internationally, for a worldwide gross of more than $23. Making it the highest grossing film of the trilogy. And like Before Sunset, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay.
Boyhood
In 2014, he would experiment once again, with Boyhood, a move that would be in production for 12 years!
In May 2002, Linklater said that he would begin shooting an untitled film in his home city of Houston that summer. He planned to assemble the cast and crew for a few weeks' filming annually for 12 years. He said:
"I've long wanted to tell the story of a parent–child relationship that follows a boy from the first through the 12th grade and ends with him going off to college. But the dilemma is that kids change so much that it is impossible to cover that much ground. And I am totally ready to adapt the story to whatever he is going through."[8] IFC, the film's distributor, committed to a film budget of US$200,000 per year, or $2.4 million over the 12-year shooting period.”
Hawke said in 2013:
”It's Tolstoy-esque in scope. I thought Before Sunrise was the most unique thing I would ever be a part of, but Rick has engaged me in something even more strange. Doing a scene with a young boy at the age of seven when he talks about why do raccoons die, and at the age of 12 when he talks about video games, and 17 when he asks me about girls, and have it be the same actor—to watch his voice and body morph—it's a little bit like time-lapse photography of a human being.”
Here is the trailer:
The movie would bring Linklater back to the Berlin International Film Festival, where he would once again earn the Silver Bear for Best Director.
The film ultimately earned $25.4 million domestically and $32 million internationally for a total of $57.3 million, against a $4 million production budget.
Boyhood appeared on more critics' annual "best-of" lists in 2014 than any other film, including the most first-place votes. According to CriticsTop10.com, it was included on 536 lists and topped 189 of them—with the latter being a record by that site's count.
In 2015, Linklater was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.
Since Boyhood, Linklater would continue to make films, occasionally doing with TV, and is currently at work on yet another grand experiment. Why wouldn’t he be?
Linklater Continues to Push Boundaries
Merrily We Roll Along is a musical comedy, starring Ben Platt, Paul Mescal, Mallory Bechtel and Beanie Feldstein. The movie will be filmed over the course of 20 years, making the release date of the movie somewhere in 2040. Sound familiar? If anyone can pull this off, it’s Richard Linklater.
And that’s a wrap, on History of Film Festivals, in 100 movies Episode 3: Richard Linklater, and The Berlin International Film Festival.
Scroll down to see Linklater’s top 10 movie picks.
Richard Linklater’s Top 10
Some Came Running (Vincente Minnelli, 1958)
Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
L’Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983) (then pickpocket)
Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)
Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)
La Maman et la Putain (Jean Eustache, 1973)
The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
Sources
On It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1061-on-it-s-impossible-to-learn-to-plowby-reading-books; By Monte Hellman
Robert Bresson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bresson#Berlin_Film_Festival
Richard Linklater 10 Greatest
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/richard-linklater-10-greatest-films-all-time/
1960 Berlin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_Berlin_International_Film_Festival
Criterion
https://www.criterion.com/current/top-10-lists/42-richard-linklater-s-top-10
boyhood
Critics Top 10
https://criticstop10.com/best-of-2014/
10 Things You Didn't Know About Dazed And Confused - Naeblis Reviews
Music in podcast by Julie Delpy (from Before Sunrise)
Share this post