Movie pageant attendees (and now, awards watchers) have been capable of get pleasure from a double dose of Richard Linklater in 2025, because the Austin-based filmmaker has launched two very completely different movies about twentieth century artists and leisure figures. In “Blue Moon,” Ethan Hawke performs twentieth century lyricist Lorenz Hart — who collaborated with Richard Rodgers earlier than being pushed apart in favor of Oscar Hammerstein II — in a somber chamber piece a few bitter artist watching an previous pal succeed with out him. On the opposite finish of the spectrum is “Nouvelle Obscure,” which sees Linklater making use of his distinct knack for making breezy hangout movies to the French New Wave.
The movie, which was shot solely in Paris with a French crew, is a love letter to Jean-Luc Godard and French New Wave cinema, chronicling the chaotic strategy of capturing “Breathless” in 1959. Guillaume Marbeck performs Godard, whereas Aubry Dullin and Zoey Deutch play the legendary co-stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg. Loads of different acquainted faces from the period of French cinema make appearances as nicely, with many critics likening the movie to Linklater’s model of “Midnight in Paris.
“If one of the best ways to criticize a film, as Cahiers du Cinéma critic Godard as soon as mentioned, is to make one, then director Richard Linklater’s reply to creating a tribute to ‘Breathless’ may as a substitute be to not fairly criticize however actually to subvert the tropes of flicks about moviemaking,” IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio wrote in his Cannes overview. “His black-and-white ‘Nouvelle Obscure,’ itself a meticulous recreation of a film made in 1959 with all of the celluloid, Academy-ratio crackle and pop, is extra New Wave hangout film than cinema historical past, with the parade of faces and names inspiring figuring out chuckles within the cinephile viewers.”
Following its Cannes debut, “Nouvelle Obscure” made its U.S. premiere on the 2025 Telluride Movie Pageant, the place Deutsch spoke to IndieWire about what she noticed as parallels between Linklater and Godard.
“They’re two artists which have maintained their inventive integrity as filmmakers that do what they wish to do and make films that they wish to make, not what different individuals wish to see,” Deutsch mentioned. “That could be a uncommon high quality. Even the best filmmakers of all time, most of them, waver at one level or one other, and that’s OK. It’s astonishing that [Rick] has by no means wavered from doing issues that he needs to do for himself — not selfishly, however as a result of that’s what you do. You make issues that dwell within you that it’s important to get out after which it pertains to different individuals. He and Godard share that high quality.”
“Nouvelle Obscure” opens in choose theaters on Friday, October 31 earlier than streaming on Netflix on November 14. Watch the teaser trailer beneath.