Filmmaker Richard Linklater doesn't speak French, but that didn't stop him from directing a movie that's almost entirely in French. ‘Nouvelle Vague’ focuses on the beginning of the New Wave of cinema, specifically Jean-Luc Godard and his landmark 1960 movie ‘Breathless.’ "I know that sounds insane," Linklater says, "but me not having the language wasn't even in my top 10 concerns about if I could pull off the movie." Linklater spoke with Terry Gross about the impact of the French New Wave, and his other new film, ‘Blue Moon.’ It’s about Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart, the former creative partner of Richard Rodgers.Also, Maureen Corrigan reviews the novel Heart the Lover by Lily King. Follow Fresh Air on instagram @nprfreshair, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter for gems from the Fresh Air archive, staff recommendations, and a peek behind the scenes. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Full Episode
Hi, it's Carrie. Our co-host Tanya Mosley and I will be doing an end-of-the-year Fresh Air Plus bonus episode, answering listener questions about the show and about ourselves. You can send the questions now to freshairplus at npr.org, with plus spelled out. That's freshairplus at npr.org. This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross.
My guest Richard Linklater has made several films that have left a lasting mark on pop culture. Slacker, Dazed and Confused, School of Rock, the Before Sunrise trilogy. His movie Boyhood was groundbreaking. Linklater shot the film over the course of 12 years, so we literally see all the actors and therefore the characters get older.
He's doing the same thing now with his film adaptation of the Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along, which takes place over 20 years. So that is a very long, ambitious project that I am very excited about. Now Linkletter has two new films, both about brilliant but difficult artists. Blue Moon is about the great lyricist Lorenz Hart.
The other new film is Nouvelle Vague, and that's French for New Wave. It applies to the new wave of French filmmakers in the late 50s and early 60s who were experimenting with new ways of telling stories on film. Linkletter's Nouvelle Vague is about the making of the landmark new wave film Breathless, directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Let's start with Blue Moon.
Lyricist Larry Hart and composer Richard Rogers wrote some of the best-known songs in the American songbook, like Blue Moon, Manhattan, My Funny Valentine, Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered, and Where or When. But Hart had become an unreliable songwriting partner. He drank too much. He didn't show up on time and missed deadlines.
No longer able to count on Hart, Rodgers teamed up with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein. Together they wrote Carousel, South Pacific, The Sound of Music, and more. Blue Moon is an imagined version of what happened on the opening night of Rodgers and Hammerstein's first show together, Oklahoma, when after the show, everyone heads to Sardi's.
Hart is feeling rejected and deeply wounded because Rodgers is no longer working with him. He's bitter, but sarcastic and funny. He thinks Oklahoma is corny and sentimental. In this scene, he's talking to Rodgers about doing a new musical together about Marco Polo that would be a send-up of musicals with a hard-earned joy. They disagree about what makes a show too sentimental.
Ethan Hawke plays Hart. Andrew Scott plays Richard Rodgers.
Marco Polo's gonna be a show about joy, but a hard-earned joy, an unsentimental joy. Something wrong with sentimental? What? It's too easy. Oklahoma's too easy? The guy actually getting the girl in the end is too easy? You've just eliminated every successful musical comedy ever written, Larry.
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