Beloved filmmaker Richard Linklater made a splash at this year's BFI London Film Festival with not one but two feature film projects. His first, Blue Moon, is a character study on famed lyricist Lorenz Hart, and his second, Nouvelle Vague, is a recreation of French auteur Jean-Luc Godard shooting Breathless.
With Nouvelle Vague showing as one of a handful of Gala screenings at the festival, FILMHOUNDS had a brief chat with Linklater on the red carpet. One question on a lot of people's minds is why Godard and why Breathless, when there are so many seminal movie projects that a filmmaker could explore on screen? Linklater explained, ” I think Breathless was just so different. It was made so differently. Godard [is] so unusual, it's more funny. [Francois] Truffaut is a fairly normal, respectful guy. But Godard is so counterintuitive, he's kind of driving everyone crazy.”
On the topic of how many productions would be ripe for a cinematic exploration, and what other productions he might want to portray, Linklater toyed with the idea of going big. “This one is really down and dirty”, responded Linkater. “It'd be fun to chronicle some huge production, you know, Cleopatra or something. Yeah, that'd be crazy, but I don't want to do that (laughs). I did my film about making a film.”
We also touched on authenticity and his very busy LFF. You can check out the full FILMHOUNDS interview below:
Nouvelle Vague screened at the 2025 BFI London Film Festival.
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