PBS高端访谈:大导演林克莱特和他的"Boyhood"

 GWEN IFILL: One of the most honored movies of the year, and a leading candidate for several Oscars, is “Boyhood,” a film by an independent director with a unique style of telling stories.

Jeff spoke¹ with him recently, as part of our occasional feature, NewsHour Goes to the Movies.

ELLAR COLTRANE, Actor: Yes! Yes! Yes!

ETHAN HAWKE, Actor: All right. All right. Don't worry about it.

JEFFREY BROWN: In most films, the aging of characters is a slight of hand, suggested through makeup² of using multiple actors.

In “Boyhood,” the passage of time is real. Director Richard Linklater shot the film over the course of 12 years, annually³ gathering⁴ his four leading actors together for a few days to shoot scenes to tell the story of a young boy named Mason played by Ellar Coltrane from ages 6 to 18.

RICHARD LINKLATER, Director, “Boyhood”: It was planned as much as it could be. It's kind of like your life. How much can you really plan for the next 12 years?

You can have your goals and your outline of what you're working toward, which is certainly what the film did. I knew the last shot. I knew where I wanted it to end, but I didn't really — you know, I'm collaborating⁵ here with an unknown future, like we are all at all times. So it had to incorporate — it had to incorporate that into the actual storytelling.

JEFFREY BROWN: Linklater, age 54, has played with time and storytelling often in his career, notably⁶ in the so-called “Before” trilogy, “Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset” and “Before Midnight,” which tells the story of a romance between two characters played by Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, as they grow older.

ETHAN HAWKE: I think the book I wrote in a way was like building something, so that I wouldn't forget the details of the time that we spent together.

RICHARD LINKLATER: I have always been obsessed⁷ with cinematic narrative⁸ and storytelling. The artificiality of so much plot always bugged⁹ me, so I think I have kind of naturally tended toward time structures, because I think that's closer to how we actually process time and the way we perceive the world, and even our own — the way we drift through, you know, a day, a year, or a life, you know, is it's kind of time-based.

I think it's one of the fundamentals of kind of my cinematic thinking. It must be because I keep kind of playing around it. I don't intellectualize it too much.

PATRICIA ARQUETTE, Actress: You know what I'm realizing? My life is just going to go, like that, a series of milestones¹⁰, getting married, having kids, getting divorced.

JEFFREY BROWN: What does that mean, though, the artificiality of film?

RICHARD LINKLATER: It's not inherent to film. It's inherent in storytelling in general. It depends on how you approach it. I think the three-act structure is an artifice¹¹. A lot of plot points that work so well in a thriller¹², you know, that doesn't happen in most of our lives, but there are these beautiful constructs.

But all film is a construct. It's just what you want, how you want to be perceived and how you want an audience to take in your particular story. And if you're not — I'm often going for a very realistic — I want an audience to lose themselves in the story I'm trying to tell and make it feel like it feels like your own life, to some degree.

So, cinema can be anything. Let's face it. And it's wonderful. It's the greatest storytelling medium ever. And it can be so many things. And I have done a lot of movies, so each one kind of has its own requirement.

JEFFREY BROWN: “Boyhood” is filled with scenes that feel like real life, sometimes in all its awkwardness, as here, when Ethan Hawke, playing the divorced dad, picks up his two children.

ETHAN HAWKE: How about you? How was your week?

LORELEI LINKLATER, Actress: Fun.

ETHAN HAWKE: What you been up to?

LORELEI LINKLATER: Nothing really.

ETHAN HAWKE: You still working on that sculpture project?

LORELEI LINKLATER: Yes.

ETHAN HAWKE: Yes.

LORELEI LINKLATER: I'm all finished.

ETHAN HAWKE: What's it of?

LORELEI LINKLATER: Nothing.

RICHARD LINKLATER: It comes from myself as the kid I was once, talking a lot with my dad, who would pick me up on a weekend. And we — our best conversations were in the car, because you're just in a car. I lived an hour-and-a-half away from him, so we would spend three hours a weekend driving. And that was the best conversations.

ETHAN HAWKE: That is not how we are going to talk to one another. All right? I will not be that guy. You cannot put me in that category, all right, the biological father I spend every other week with and I make polite conversation, you know, while he drives me places and buys me — no.

RICHARD LINKLATER: It's fun to see him sort of figuring out fatherhood and being a very conscientious¹³ parent and trying so hard. It's endearing.

So, and Ethan and I are very similar in that way, that, you know, our parents were divorced, and we have these relationship, both in our past and to varying degrees in our present. So, you know, a film — a scene like that comes up pretty natural for us.

JEFFREY BROWN: Linklater works collaboratively, getting ideas from his actors, including his young ones. But, he says, this is not improvised¹⁵.

RICHARD LINKLATER: I never really improvise¹⁴. I never have.

There's a couple of moments even in “Boyhood” where — I knew what they were going to say. We were on subject. And I had two cameras, and I let — in one case, it's a campfire scene, where Ethan, as dad, and Ellar as son are — they're talking about a potential future “Star Wars” movie, if there ever was going to be one.

ETHAN HAWKE: You think they will ever make another “Star Wars”?

ELLAR COLTRANE: I don't know. I think if they were to make another one, that the period where this game is set is where it would have to be, because there's nothing after, really.

ETHAN HAWKE: Yes. “Return of the Jedi,” it's over. There's nothing…

ELLAR COLTRANE: Yes, there's nothing else to do there.

RICHARD LINKLATER: And we had talked about it. I knew what they were going to say in general, but I didn't think it had to be scripted specifically.

But, other than that, everything is very scripted and very rehearsed and planned out just to — it has to be very tight for me to make it seem loose. I wouldn't know how to turn on the camera and see what happens.

ACTOR: One time, I had lunch with Tolstoy. Another time, I was a roadie for Frank Zappa.

JEFFREY BROWN: Richard Linklater came out of the independent film world, scoring early hits like “Slacker” in 1991 and in 1993 “Dazed and Confused.”

ACTOR: I want that piece of paper on my desk before you leave here today. Do you hear me?

JEFFREY BROWN: In a world of blockbusters made for far more money, he has continued to build a career of smaller, more personal films.

RICHARD LINKLATER: Look at the end of the year here. A lot of the films that people are talking about would definitely fall into personal visions from directors. And, you know, they're not big, manufactured entertainments, but they are — you know, they succeed in their own way.

So there's always a lot of films like that. Hollywood is more — I would think their business model changed. They're structured because of the cost to only do bigger films, so they have kind of abdicated¹⁶ the middle ground of the films they used to do — are completely done kind of outside their system.

They will still distribute them, though. So, it's always changing, but the bottom line, it's always a good year for movies. There's always a ton of great movies, more than you will have time to see, worldwide, and people will always want to make movies that mean a lot to them personally.

JEFFREY BROWN: All right, the film is “Boyhood.” Richard Linklater is the director.

Thanks so much for talking with us.

RICHARD LINKLATER: Yes, good talking to you, man. Good to be here.

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 makeup   

n.组织；性格；化装品

参考例句：

• Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
• Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？

3 annually   

adv.一年一次，每年

参考例句：

• Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
• They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。

4 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

5 collaborating   

合作( collaborate的现在分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• Joe is collaborating on the work with a friend. 乔正与一位朋友合作做那件工作。
• He was not only learning from but also collaborating with Joseph Thomson. 他不仅是在跟约瑟福？汤姆逊学习，而且也是在和他合作。

6 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

7 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

8 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

9 bugged   

vt.在…装窃听器（bug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The police have bugged his office. 警察在他的办公室装了窃听器。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had bugged off before I had a chance to get a word in. 我还没来得及讲话，他已经走了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 milestones   

n.重要事件( milestone的名词复数 )；重要阶段；转折点；里程碑

参考例句：

• Several important milestones in foreign policy have been passed by this Congress and they can be chalked up as major accomplishments. 这次代表大会通过了对外政策中几起划时代的事件，并且它们可作为主要成就记录下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dale: I really envy your milestones over the last few years, Don. 我真的很羡慕你在过去几年中所建立的丰功伟绩。 来自互联网

11 artifice   

n.妙计，高明的手段；狡诈，诡计

参考例句：

• The use of mirrors in a room is an artifice to make the room look larger.利用镜子装饰房间是使房间显得大一点的巧妙办法。
• He displayed a great deal of artifice in decorating his new house.他在布置新房子中表现出富有的技巧。

12 thriller   

n.惊险片，恐怖片

参考例句：

• He began by writing a thriller.That book sold a million copies.他是写惊险小说起家的。那本书卖了一百万册。
• I always take a thriller to read on the train.我乘火车时，总带一本惊险小说看。

13 conscientious   

adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的

参考例句：

• He is a conscientious man and knows his job.他很认真负责，也很懂行。
• He is very conscientious in the performance of his duties.他非常认真地履行职责。

14 improvise   

v.即兴创作；临时准备，临时凑成

参考例句：

• If an actor forgets his words，he has to improvise.演员要是忘记台词，那就只好即兴现编。
• As we've not got the proper materials,we'll just have to improvise.我们没有弄到合适的材料，只好临时凑合了。

15 improvised   

a.即席而作的,即兴的

参考例句：

• He improvised a song about the football team's victory. 他即席创作了一首足球队胜利之歌。
• We improvised a tent out of two blankets and some long poles. 我们用两条毛毯和几根长竿搭成一个临时帐蓬。

16 abdicated   

放弃（职责、权力等）( abdicate的过去式和过去分词 )； 退位，逊位

参考例句：

• He abdicated in favour of his son. 他把王位让给了儿子。
• King Edward Ⅷ abdicated in 1936 to marry a commoner. 国王爱德华八世于1936年退位与一个平民结婚。