“Rodgers & Hammerstein” is a name combination that can hardly be thought separately for musical connoisseurs. Since her breakthrough with the play “Oklahoma!” (only real with exclamation marks!) Composer Richard Rodgers and Liedertexter Oscar Hammmerstein II worked together for two decades. Numerous successful musicals with a large (pop) cultural reverberation were created-including “The Sound of Music”. It would be easy to process this success story into a film, especially since music biopics are currently one of the most promising genre in the segment of medium-budgeted Hollywood cinema. Richard Linklater is not interested in the rise of the famous duo, but in the event of the often forgotten third party in the group: Lorenz Hart, who was Rodgers' first creative partner before Hammerstein replaced him in 1943.
But even his story does not follow the classic using biographical key data: “Blue Moon“Is named after Harts, probably the most famous composition, a song for millions that works best when you hear it alone. It is therefore fitting that Linklater focuses on Hart's life and career path on the interiors of the New York restaurant in Sardi. There, a conversation piece takes its course in real time, which is so old -fashioned, reduced and theatrical – including appearances and exits – that one would not be surprised if it had also originated on stage.
Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) is homosexual, but also hopelessly expire Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley).
“Blue Moon” initially begins with the end. After three quotes from companions Harts draw the image of a sociable but lonely person, we see the protagonist (Ethan Hawke) stumble through a rainy alley in crouching and finally collapse. A news voice summarizes its musical merits, and soon it becomes clear that we hear a death report. A few days later, the author and songwriter will succumb to the consequences of his excessive alcohol consumption.
The plot then jumps back three months and we are in Sardi's, which we will no longer leave for the following almost 90 minutes of film. It is the evening after the premiere of “Oklahoma!”, The first piece that Rodgers (Andrew Scott) brought on stage without the participation of hard. You do not experience the reasons for your separation directly, but you quickly indicate – for example, how hard at first demonstratively resisting the temptation to take a sip out of the whiskey glass in front of his nose before it was a bourbon after that Tips down others.
One bon motor follows the other
Hardly talks constantly, and really every of his sentences ends up on a punch line. He never stumbles over his words or gets tangled in a thought. Sometimes it almost looks like he is a machine that is programmed on producing witty bonmots. In conversation with Barmann Eddie (Bobby Cannavale) and the pianist Weegee (John Doran) it is about homosexual subtexts in “Casablanca”, the beauty of half -erect tails, the still ongoing Second World War and of course always about music – knowledge of “Oklahoma !! ” In particular and the American musical history in general, at least not hurt if you want to follow the dialogue of dialogue.
But just as the gel, which is plentiful in his hair, insufficiently conceals a half -bald, at some point melancholy and bitterness mix into its sophisticated appearance. Especially when hard again and again to mocking about “Oklahoma!” Start that his former partner is expected to carry to Olympus while the end of Hart's career seems sealed. But even if he naturally makes hints about his homosexuality that is hardly openly lived in the Middle 20th century or mourning his unrequited love for the 20th student Elizabeth Weiland (“The Substance” star Margaret QUALEY).
The words are in the center
Richard Linklater is the opposite of a director who plays forward. Not a stylist, but a good-sometimes also very good-craftsman, whose lack of vanity and inconspicuous, elegant formal language get along with almost every genre. Thus, his works are often with their scripts, which is particularly important in the event of a dialogue and performance-driven film such as “Blue Moon”. Linklater only rarely expands the many, many words visually, but is usually limited to simple shot and counter-shot arrangements.
They only sometimes become interesting if, for example, they constitute size differences (especially those between Lorenz and Elizabeth). In one scene, the restaurant seems to be literally shared in half when one side suddenly suddenly the triumph of “Oklahoma!” Celebrating people fills, while Hart in the others continues at the counter. If he then overrides to the celebrating (and Rodgers), it actually looks like he is a different place that is actually not intended for him.
A little comfort at the end
In any case, as soon as he removes from the bar, hardly belonging to somewhere: equally funny and cruel is the scene in which he is Rodgers (which he unsuccessfully persuaded a new piece together) and Elizabeth (who loves him, ” but not “) familiar with each other and instantly switch to flirting mode, so that Lorenz is almost between them not only because of its low height disappear. Sometimes you wanted at least a little bit of the transformative power of the numerous musicals that are repeatedly referenced in the dialogues – a little more “Oklahoma!”.
So it is on Robert Kaplov's tragicomic, from time to time that something too ground script, to wear the film – and especially to Ethan Hawke, which, among others,. After “Before Sunrise” and “Boyhood” can be seen for the ninth time in a film by Richard Linklater. He shows hard as a man who is damn to be lost because everything he could still hold on, either lies in the past or has become unreachable. But although we already know that he will divorce from life in the same year, “Blue Moon” ends on a hopeful note when the title -giving song is used again. The fact that everyone present knows the text is perhaps no reason to live on forever – but maybe enough to stay at the bar for a little longer.
Conclusion: Richard Linklater talks hard of the end of the career of the Lorenz song text – not in the form of a classic biopics, but as a tragicomic, both spatially and limited dialogue, which is mainly driven by Ethan Hawkes Performance.
We saw “Blue Moon” as part of the Berlinale 2025, where it was shown as part of the official competition.