Richard Linklater

Biography

Linklater founded the Austin Film Society in 1985 together with his frequent collaborator Lee Daniel, and is lauded for launching and solidifying the city of Austin as a hub for independent filmmaking.

Many of Linklater's films take place in one day, a technique that has gained popularity in recent years. Slacker, Dazed and Confused, subUrbia, Before Sunrise, and Before Sunset are examples of this method.

In 2005, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his film Before Sunset.

Two of his recent films (A Scanner Darkly and Waking Life) both display a similar animated style. To create this effect, Linklater shot and edited both movies into a completed live-action state, then employed a team of artists to 'trace over' individual frames (a technique known as rotoscoping). The result is a distinctive 'semi-real' quality, praised by such critics as Roger Ebert (in the case of Waking Life) as being original and well-suited to the aims of the film.

Despite his popularity and ability to direct high paying Hollywood productions, Linklater remains in Texas, with his own studio there to run most of his film productions. This is similar to Robert Rodriguez, who is also a Texan film maker who refuses to live or work in Hollywood for any extended period of time.

In 2004 the British television network Channel 4 produced a major documentary about Linklater in which the film maker 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.

His latest film, Fast Food Nation is an adaption of the best selling book that examines the local and global influence of the United States fast food industry. The film was release in North America On 17th November 2006 and is scheduled for release in Europe on 23rd March 2007.

Source:
Wikipedia contributors, "Richard Linklater," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard Linklater&oldid=107078326 (accessed February 13, 2007). [Read More...]

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