Blue Moon
“You know how in marriage they say ‘for better or for worse’? I think, in terms of my life, I have entered the ‘for worse’ part, and it happened so quietly I didn’t even recognize it.”
Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon tells the story of the legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart bravely facing the future as his professional and private life unravel during the opening night party for his former partner Richard Rodgers’ hit show, “Oklahoma!”. In 100 minutes, the film unspools in real-time the events in Sardi’s bar on the evening of March 31, 1943. It is a meditation on friendship, art and love, featuring a rich tapestry of writers, actors, musicians, friends and protégés – a parade of the famous and the soon-to-be-famous. By the time this night is over, Hart will have confronted both a world irrevocably changed by the war, and the seeming impossibility of love.
With powerful performances from Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart, Andrew Scott as Richard Rodgers, Margaret Qualley as Hart’s protégé Elizabeth and Bobby Cannavale as Hart’s bartender, buddy and confidante, the film perfectly captures, with Linklater’s deft, comic touch, a singular, astonishing moment in time.
details
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Runtime
100 min -
Year of Presentation
2025 -
Year of Production
2025 -
Director
Richard Linklater -
Cast
Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Scott -
Production Company
Detour Filmproduction, Cinetic Media, Sony Pictures Classics -
Berlinale Section
Competition -
Berlinale Category
Feature Film
pictures from the movie
Biography Richard Linklater
Born in Houston, Texas, USA in 1960, the director and screenwriter founded the Austin Film Society in 1985 to bring films from all over the world to Austin. To date, he has directed 25 feature-length films, received five Oscar nominations and has won two Golden Globes and two BAFTAS. His work was first presented in the Berlinale Competition in 1995 with Before Sunrise which won the Silver Bear for Best Director. The sequels Before Sunset and Before Midnight also screened at the Berlinale. In 2013, he was awarded the Berlinale Camera. In 2014, his film Boyhood won him another Silver Bear for Best Director.
Filmography Richard Linklater
1988 It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books | 1993 Dazed and Confused | 1995 Before Sunrise | 1997 Suburbia | 1998 The Newton Boys | 2001 Tape | 2001 Waking Life; animation | 2003 Live From Shiva’s Dance Floor; short film | 2003 School of Rock | 2004 Before Sunset | 2005 Bad News Bears | 2006 A Scanner Darkly; animation | 2006 Fast Food Nation | 2008 Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach; documentary | 2009 Me and Orson Welles | 2012 Bernie · Up to Speed; series | 2013 Before Midnight | 2013 Boyhood | 2016 Everybody Wants Some!! | 2017 Last Flag Flying | 2019 Where’d You Go, Bernadette | 2022 Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood | 2023 Hit Man | 2024 Hometown Prison; series, 1 episode | 2025 Nouvelle Vague | 2025 Blue Moon