Richard Stuart Linklater is an American film director and screenwriter.
He is known for films such as Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly,
School of Rock, Before Sunrise and its sequels, and Boyhood.
Early life Linklater was born in Houston, Texas, the
son of Diane Margaret, who taught at Sam Houston State University, and Charles W. Linklater,
III.
He attended Bellaire High School and studied at Sam Houston State University, dropping
out to work on an off-shore 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 theater 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.
He was influenced by Robert Bresson, Yasujiro Ozu, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Josef Von Sternberg,
and Carl Theodor Dreyer.
He enrolled in Austin Community College in the fall of 1984 to study film.
Since his early 20s, Linklater has been a vegetarian.
Career Austin Film Society
Linklater founded the Austin Film Society in 1985 together with his frequent collaborator
Lee Daniel.
One of the mentors for the Film Society was former New York City critic for the Soho Weekly
News George Morris who had relocated to Austin and taught film there.
Morris had previously written articles on Leo McCarey Vincente Minnelli George Sidney
and Douglas Sirk Inspirations
Inspiration for Linklater's work was largely based on his experience with the film Raging
Bull, Linklater told Robert K. Elder in an interview for The Film That Changed My Life.
It made me see movies as a potential outlet for what I was thinking about and hoping to
express.
At that point I was an unformed artist.
At that moment, something was simmering in me, but Raging Bull brought it to a boil.
Early directing For several years, Linklater made many short
films that were, more than anything, exercises and experiments in film techniques.
He finally completed his first feature, the rarely seen It's Impossible to Learn to Plow
by Reading Books, a Super-8 feature that took a year to shoot and another year to edit.
The film is significant in the sense that it establishes most of Linklater's preoccupations.
The film has his trademark style of minimal camera movements and lack of narrative, while
it examines the theme of traveling with no real particular direction in mind.
These idiosyncrasies would be explored in greater detail in future projects.
Slacker To this end Linklater created Detour Filmproduction,
and subsequently made Slacker for only $23,000.
It went on to gross more than $1.25 million.
The film is an aimless day in the life of the city of Austin, Texas showcasing its more
eccentric characters.
1990s While gaining a cult following in the independent
film world, he made his second film, Dazed and Confused, based on his years at Huntsville
High School and the people he encountered there.
The film garnered critical praise and grossed $8 million in the United States while becoming
a hit on VHS.
This film was also responsible for the breakout of fellow Austin, Texas native Matthew McConaughey.
In 1995, Linklater won the Silver Bear for Best Director for the film Before Sunrise
at the 45th Berlin International Film Festival.
His next feature, subUrbia, had mixed reviews critically, and did very poorly at the box
office.
In 1996, Linklater lent his voice to the critically acclaimed animated feature Beavis and Butt-head
Do America.
In 1998, he took on his first Hollywood feature, The Newton Boys, which received mixed reviews
while tanking at the box office.
21st century With the rotoscope films Waking Life, and
A Scanner Darkly, his mainstream comedies, School of Rock and the remake of Bad News
Bears, have gained him wider recognition.
In 2003, he wrote and directed a pilot for HBO with Rodney Rothman called $5.15/hr, about
several minimum wage restaurant workers.
The pilot deals with themes later examined in Fast Food Nation.
In 2004, the British television network Channel 4 produced a major documentary about Linklater,
in which the filmmaker frankly discussed the personal and philosophical ideas behind his
films.
"St Richard of Austin" was presented by Ben Lewis and directed by Irshad Ashraf and broadcast
on Channel 4 in December 2004 in the UK.
In 2005, Linklater was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his
film Before Sunset.
Many of Linklater's films take place in one day, a narrative approach that has gained
popularity in recent years.
Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Tape, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight
are examples of this method.
Two of his recent films,, used rotoscoping animation techniques.
Working with Bob Sabiston and Sabiston's program Rotoshop to create this effect, Linklater
shot and edited both movies completely as live action features, then employed a team
of artists to "trace over" individual frames.
The result is a distinctive "semi-real" quality, praised by such critics as Roger Ebert as
being original and well-suited to the aims of the film.
Fast Food Nation is an adaptation of the best selling book that examines the local and global
influence of the United States fast food industry.
The film was entered into the 2006 Cannes Film Festival before being released in North
America on November 17, 2006 and in Europe on March 23, 2007.
After releasing Fast Food Nation to mixed reviews, Linklater returned to form as a critical
darling with A Scanner Darkly, 2009's Me and Orson Welles garnering an 85% rating on Rotten
Tomatoes, and 2012's Bernie receiving a 91% rating.
Despite the popularity of many of his films and having directed multiple high-paying Hollywood
productions, Linklater remains in Austin, Texas and refuses to live or work in Hollywood
for any extended period of time.
Significance In the early 1990s, Slacker was widely considered
an accurate depiction of Generation X because the film's young adult characters are more
interested in quasi-intellectual pastimes and socializing than career advancement.
However, Linklater has long since eschewed the role of generational spokesperson and
is ironically a "Baby Boomer" himself.
Moreover, the movie actually includes various generations, and many of its themes are universal
rather than generation-specific.
Those of Linklater's films that have non-formulaic narratives about seemingly random occurrences,
often spanning about twenty-four hours, have been hailed as alternatives to contemporary
Hollywood market-driven blockbusters.
In conjunction with these unorthodox narratives, the emphasis on philosophical talk over physical
action in Slacker and Waking Life aligns Linklater's work with art cinema traditions, particularly
those of Europe, from which much recent American cinema is estranged.
Linklater’s films are often cited as being ‘bafflingly diffuse in their style and subject,
ranging from ‘feel-good’ to ‘philosophically serious’.
Following decades of critical bemusement, he announced that the name was actually a
clever ruse, because his films would indeed eventually ‘link later’.
Filmography
It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books
Slacker Dazed and Confused
Before Sunrise subUrbia
The Newton Boys Waking Life
Tape School of Rock
Before Sunset Bad News Bears
A Scanner Darkly Fast Food Nation
"Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach" Me and Orson Welles
Bernie Up to Speed
Before Midnight Boyhood
Awards and nominations Slacker was nominated for Best Director at
the Independent Spirit Awards.
Before Sunrise won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film
Festival.
Waking Life was nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay at the Independent Spirit
Awards.
Before Sunset was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay by the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences and Best Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards.
A Scanner Darkly - Named Best Austin Film by the Austin Film Critics Association.
Me and Orson Welles - Named Best Austin Film by the Austin Film Critics Association.
Bernie - Named Best Austin Film by the Austin Film Critics Association.
Before Midnight is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay by the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences and Best Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards.
Boyhood won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival.
References
External links Richard Linklater at DMOZ
Richard Linklater at the Internet Movie Database Detour Films
Reverse Shot online interview with Linklater and career overview
Mindjack interview with Linklater 'A Scanner Darkly': Reality Bites Interview
with Richard Linklater, MTV Overdrive.
Richard Linklater interview with The A.V.
Club Richard Linklater, Directing 'Darkly'
Linklater directing Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach
Literature on Richard Linklater