《少年時代》獲好評 有望問鼎奧斯卡
It already won a top prize at the Berlin Film Festival, but Richard Linklater's groundbreaking Boyhood is being talked about for the ultimate movie accolade, an Oscar.
As it opened in the United States on July 18, trade journal Variety said plainly that Linklater deserves an Academy award for the nearly three-hour film.
In an unprecedented filmmaking process, the US director depicts the formative years of his main protagonist and his family using the same actors, shot over 12 years.
"Even though it's only July, it's hard to imagine watching a better-made movie in 2014 than Boyhood," said Variety, noting: "No other film has ever been made this way."
From 2002 until 2013, the actors met in secret each year to shoot the movie, which follows an average middle-class family in the southern state of Texas.
Mason Jr, the eldest child of Olivia and Mason - played by Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke - draws the filmgoer into a story that mixes fact and fiction.
"I was very excited about it, about the idea of watching the life cycle of a boy growing up like that," says Arquette, whose character becomes a single mom and fights for her children against all odds.
Linklater is known for his obsession with time. It is at the heart of his acclaimed trilogy about a couple over the decades: Before Sunrise (1994), Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013).
Those films also star Hawke, along with French actress Julie Delpy.
But he goes further with Boyhood, where the passage of time is the only force driving the narrative forward, as the characters grow up before the viewers' eyes.
Mason, the son, comes of age at the same time as the actor who plays him, Ellar Coltrane, who was 7 years old when filming started, and 19 by the end.
His sister Samantha is played by Lorelei Linklater, the director's own daughter. The movie depicts the characters' marriages, separations, new friends, joys, traumas and first loves, ending with Coltrane starting college.
Arquette says the film works above all because "there's a very human element, and it's not about manipulation".
Linklater "didn't do what you are supposed to do in an entertainment movie", she says.
"His interest is in really deeper relationships, communication, honesty, discovery and time."
Since its first outing at the Sundance Film Festival in January, Boyhood has won multiple awards. The Berlinale gave Linklater a Silver Bear for best director in February.
Critics have also lavished praise on the film, hailing the simplicity and natural way Linklater depicts the transition from childhood to adulthood.
The actors were pleasantly surprised by how the film turned out in the end.
Even though all of them were involved in writing the screenplay, no one really knew what Linklater would make of it all.
At one point his own daughter, bored with the multiyear project, asked if her character could die. Her father said no.
Arquette, who won an Emmy in 2005 for her role in the TV series Medium, says she deliberately didn't ask to see the film before it was finalized.
"He showed me five years put together at one point, and then I said I didn't want to see it again until it was all finished," Arquette says.
For the actress, making the film was a "unique experience" and a challenge, notably because of the physical changes in all the actors that had to be taken into account.
But she says she didn't find it difficult to get inside her own character.
"I found a lot of my mom in her and of myself. For some strange reason it wasn't hard, and I don't know why," she says.
Variety called the film Linklater's "crowning achievement".
"No other American director has done a better job of capturing the verisimilitude of ordinary life," it added.理查德·林克萊特憑藉嘔心瀝血之作《少年時代》在今年斬獲柏林電影節最佳導演銀熊獎，同時有不少預測認爲該片有實力問鼎奧斯卡。
《少年時代》7月18日在美國小規模上映以來，行業雜誌《綜藝》（Variety）坦言道：林克萊特有望憑藉這部時長近三小時的電影拿下奧斯卡金像獎。
這部電影的攝製過程開創了先例。美國導演林克萊特花了12年用鏡頭跟隨着同一撥演員，記錄了男主演的成長過程，及其家人各方面的變化。
《綜藝》雜誌稱：“儘管剛到7月，但我們可以預見到《少年時代》這部電影有望問鼎2014年度最佳影片。此前，也沒有哪一部電影，是用這樣的手法進行拍攝的。”
從2002至2013年間，演員們每年都祕密見面，進行電影的拍攝。《少年時代》以德克薩斯州南部的一個普通中產階級家庭爲素材創作。
影片中，奧利維亞和梅森的長子“小梅森”把觀衆帶入了用現實勾勒虛構的劇情。奧利維亞和梅森分別由帕特麗夏·阿奎特和伊桑·霍克扮演。
阿奎特在劇中飾演的角色發展爲單親媽媽。她說：“關於這部電影，我感到非常興奮。導演能想到這樣的一種拍攝思路，讓觀衆們看到一個男孩成長的生命歷程。”
衆所周知，林克萊特是一個“慢工出細活”的導演。這也是20年前，他倍受歡迎的電影“愛在”系列三部曲之核心：《愛在黎明破曉前》（1994），《愛在日落黃昏前》（2004），《愛在午夜降臨前》（2013）.
這幾部電影都由霍克與法國女星朱莉·德爾比擔任主演。
林克萊特的這一特點繼續延續到《少年時代》這部電影的拍攝中，故事情節隨着時間移軸向前發展，呈現在觀衆眼前的是演員們的成長曆程。
小梅森，劇中兒子的角色，與飾演這一角色的演員艾拉·寇特蘭同齡。電影開拍時他只有7歲，直到最後殺青他已19歲。
他的姐姐薩曼莎由導演理查德·林克萊特的女兒羅蕾萊·林克萊特飾演。這部影片講述了劇中人物結婚、離婚、交友、歷經歡樂、苦澀和初戀，全劇以寇特蘭開始大學生活爲劇終。
阿奎特認爲，《少年時代》這部電影之所以獲得好評，是因爲“它貼近現實，毫不裝腔作勢。”
她說：“林克萊特導演不會照一般的娛樂大片套路進行拍攝。”
“在拍攝中，他喜歡側重展現深層次的人物關係、彼此交流、誠實正直、新奇發現和光陰易逝。”
今年一月，《少年時代》在聖丹斯電影節的首次亮相，已贏得了數個獎項。同年二月，柏林國際電影節授予林克萊特最佳導演銀熊獎。
從幼年時代到成人期的情節過度，單純而自然，影評家對林克萊特執導電影的如此手法大加稱讚。
電影的最終結局令演員們感到驚喜。
即便所有演員都參與劇本的編寫，但無人知曉林克萊特導演設計的最終結局。
由於電影拍攝歷時過久，導演的女兒一度厭拍，甚至問道她在劇中飾演的角色會不會死亡。她父親答道：不會。
2005年，阿奎特憑藉其在電視劇《靈媒輯兇》中飾演的角色，贏得了艾美獎。她說在電影完成拍攝前，她一直沒看。
阿奎特說：“導演曾經把五年來拍攝的片段拿給我看，我告訴他在完成所有電影拍攝之前，我不想再看到這些。”
對阿奎特而言，拍攝這部電影是一種“獨特的體驗”，也是一種挑戰，尤其是因爲還要考慮到所有男演員們的成長。
然而，阿奎特稱，想要入戲並不是件難事。
“在我飾演的這個角色中，我找到了我媽媽的影子，當然也包括我自己的。這種感覺很奇怪，我也不知道這是爲什麼。”
《綜藝》雜誌封這部電影爲林克萊特導演的“最高成就”。
《綜藝》雜誌還稱：“講述關於人們日常生活的電影中，沒有任何一個美國導演，能捕捉到如此逼真的鏡頭。”
