《少年时代》获好评 有望问鼎奥斯卡

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 2017 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·林克莱特凭借呕心沥血之作《少年时代》在今年斩获柏林电影节最佳导演银熊奖，同时有不少预测认为该片有实力问鼎奥斯卡。

《少年时代》7月18日在美国小规模上映以来，行业杂志《综艺》（Variety）坦言道：林克莱特有望凭借这部时长近三小时的电影拿下奥斯卡金像奖。

这部电影的摄制过程开创了先例。美国导演林克莱特花了12年用镜头跟随着同一拨演员，记录了男主演的成长过程，及其家人各方面的变化。

《综艺》杂志称：“尽管刚到7月，但我们可以预见到《少年时代》这部电影有望问鼎2017年度最佳影片。此前，也没有哪一部电影，是用这样的手法进行拍摄的。”

从2002至2013年间，演员们每年都秘密见面，进行电影的拍摄。《少年时代》以德克萨斯州南部的一个普通中产阶级家庭为素材创作。

影片中，奥利维亚和梅森的长子“小梅森”把观众带入了用现实勾勒虚构的剧情。奥利维亚和梅森分别由帕特丽夏·阿奎特和伊桑·霍克扮演。

阿奎特在剧中饰演的角色发展为单亲妈妈。她说：“关于这部电影，我感到非常兴奋。导演能想到这样的一种拍摄思路，让观众们看到一个男孩成长的生命历程。”

众所周知，林克莱特是一个“慢工出细活”的导演。这也是20年前，他倍受欢迎的电影“爱在”系列三部曲之核心：《爱在黎明破晓前》（1994），《爱在日落黄昏前》（2004），《爱在午夜降临前》（2013）.

这几部电影都由霍克与法国女星朱莉·德尔比担任主演。

林克莱特的这一特点继续延续到《少年时代》这部电影的拍摄中，故事情节随着时间移轴向前发展，呈现在观众眼前的是演员们的成长历程。

小梅森，剧中儿子的角色，与饰演这一角色的演员艾拉·寇特兰同龄。电影开拍时他只有7岁，直到最后杀青他已19岁。

他的姐姐萨曼莎由导演理查德·林克莱特的女儿罗蕾莱·林克莱特饰演。这部影片讲述了剧中人物结婚、离婚、交友、历经欢乐、苦涩和初恋，全剧以寇特兰开始大学生活为剧终。

阿奎特认为，《少年时代》这部电影之所以获得好评，是因为“它贴近现实，毫不装腔作势。”

她说：“林克莱特导演不会照一般的娱乐大片套路进行拍摄。”

“在拍摄中，他喜欢侧重展现深层次的人物关系、彼此交流、诚实正直、新奇发现和光阴易逝。”

今年一月，《少年时代》在圣丹斯电影节的首次亮相，已赢得了数个奖项。同年二月，柏林国际电影节授予林克莱特最佳导演银熊奖。

从幼年时代到成人期的情节过度，单纯而自然，影评家对林克莱特执导电影的如此手法大加称赞。

电影的最终结局令演员们感到惊喜。

即便所有演员都参与剧本的编写，但无人知晓林克莱特导演设计的最终结局。

由于电影拍摄历时过久，导演的女儿一度厌拍，甚至问道她在剧中饰演的角色会不会死亡。她父亲答道：不会。

2005年，阿奎特凭借其在电视剧《灵媒辑凶》中饰演的角色，赢得了艾美奖。她说在电影完成拍摄前，她一直没看。

阿奎特说：“导演曾经把五年来拍摄的片段拿给我看，我告诉他在完成所有电影拍摄之前，我不想再看到这些。”

对阿奎特而言，拍摄这部电影是一种“独特的体验”，也是一种挑战，尤其是因为还要考虑到所有男演员们的成长。

然而，阿奎特称，想要入戏并不是件难事。

“在我饰演的这个角色中，我找到了我妈妈的影子，当然也包括我自己的。这种感觉很奇怪，我也不知道这是为什么。”

《综艺》杂志封这部电影为林克莱特导演的“最高成就”。

《综艺》杂志还称：“讲述关于人们日常生活的电影中，没有任何一个美国导演，能捕捉到如此逼真的镜头。”