Linklater Imagines Godard Embracing AI, Reflects on “New Wave” Creation
PARIS – Director Richard Linklater, whose latest film New Wave dramatizes the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960), believes the iconoclastic filmmaker would have readily adopted artificial intelligence had it been available during his career. Speaking in Paris, the 65-year-old Linklater described Godard as someone who “would have been all over that,” embracing the technology’s potential for deconstruction and innovation.
Linklater’s New Wave isn’t simply a ancient recreation; it’s a meditation on the creative process itself, and a unique tribute to a pivotal moment in cinematic history. The film’s genesis, thirteen years in the making with collaborators Vince and Holly palmo, involved a intentional attempt to “revive” the spirit of the French New Wave filmmakers – Rohmer, Varda, Rivette, and Rossellini among them – thru a process Linklater likened to a “bubble of belief” and a “session of spiritualism.” The project was made possible by the support of French production and distribution company ARP Selection.
The director, also lauded for his ability to capture authentic group dynamics and the passage of time, noted the parallels between his film and François Truffaut’s The American Night (1973), which similarly stages the production of a film.
Linklater, currently based in Austin, Texas – which he describes as an “alter” refuge evolving into a “libertarian lair” – emphasized his continued interest with French cinema and its influence on his work. he films, he says, “like no one the group scenes, the time that goes, the flip-flops of fate.”
