Richard Linklater Premieres a Tragi-Happy Art-History Double Feature

Being selected to screen a movie at the New York Film Festival is a great honor for any director, but Before trilogy director Richard Linklater has even more to celebrate this year. His film Blue Moon will premiere at NYFF, offering audiences a drama starring Ethan Hawke that tells the story of composer Lorenz Hart as he observes the success of Oklahoma! – a musical by his former partner, Richard Rodgers, which revolutionized musical theater. And that’s not all – another Linklater film, Nouvelle Vague, will also be shown. This film focuses on French director Jean-Luc Godard during the making of his groundbreaking film, Breathless, a hugely influential movie in the early French New Wave. “These are two distinct films, and I think it’s neat that they’re both being completed around the same time,” Linklater shared on the red carpet at the Nouvelle Vague premiere. Although different in subject matter, both films explore a common theme: the birth of a new artistic movement.

As a film buff, I always love hearing about the inspirations behind movies, and Richard Linklater really nailed it when talking about these two. He described them as two incredible moments in art history. He explained that Nouvelle Vague is all about the start of something special – 1959 Paris, right in the center of the New Wave, with a total cinematic revolution happening. Then, completely different, you’ve got the 1943 Broadway opening night of Oklahoma!, which was, in its own way, a revolution in musical theater. But this story is told from the perspective of someone feeling left behind. Though both films deal with artistic beginnings, their overall *feel* is miles apart. Nouvelle Vague is just pure joy, while Blue Moon is almost painfully sad. As Linklater put it, “One’s a beginning and one’s an end.” And he’s right – beginnings are fun, but endings? They really hit you in the feels.

These two films work well together, highlighting both the thrill of creating something new and the struggles of artists who are often overlooked after their work is finished. Viewers can experience both films in late October: Blue Moon will be in theaters starting October 24, and Nouvelle Vague will be available to stream on Netflix from October 31. Although the story of Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon is somewhat sad, Linklater hopes that new artists watching Nouvelle Vague will feel inspired to create their own artistic breakthroughs. “I want to remind young people that this isn’t unusual,” he explained. “It’s simply the energy of youth. Anyone is capable of it. Every filmmaker starting out needs to feel like they’re starting a revolution, at least in their own mind.”

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2025-10-01 20:54