American Cinematographer - March 1997 - 46

Suburban

Blight

Director Richard Linklater and

cinematographer

Lee Daniel continue their collaboration
with a dark look at subUrbia.
by Chris Pizzello

Tospent
young
people
who years
have
their
formative
within the

tranquil, non-threaten¬
ing confines of the suburbs, the
prospect of leaving can be daunt¬
ing and even traumatic. Having the
courage to make the leap often
the difference between a life
of fulfilled potential and one of
means

tragic stagnation. The twenty¬
something protagonists of subUrbia
are all
facing this cru¬
cial stage of selfdefinement,
when

a

has worked with material

by

penned

someone else.
"subUrbia felt like

Linklater's

some¬

thing I could have written," says
saw the
play, I
never
quite stopped thinking about
it. For the first time, I found myself
in someone else's story. I was most
pointedly like the main character
Linklater. "After I

longtime cin¬
ematographer, Lee Daniel, was ini¬
tially leery of creative repetition,
since the film's nocturnal backdrop
and suburban milieu echoed

20, but the others

characters I've also either

done this before?' But he reminded

was

me

cinematic. So I gave
that to him. But it

tions clash with para¬

lyzing fears.

didn't

actually come
alive in my mind until
I saw the rehearsals

by

Richard Linklater
and based on actor/
writer Eric Bogosian's

and

spent time on the

actual location."

play of the same name,

His trust in

on

Jeff (Giovanni Ribisi),

Linklater's

bored, disaffected

instincts is

a

filmmaking
grounded in
years of friendship and

part-time community
college student, and
his group of friends,
who get together one night

to wel¬
pal Pony (Jayce
Bartok), whose rock band has just
enjoyed a successful national tour.
back their old

collaboration. The two
first met in the midbeen

or come

to know. I could defi¬

The arrival of the musician's lim¬

nitely relate to all of them."
While the languid, patient
pace of the film bears Linklater's
distinctive stamp, the more explo¬

ousine in the convenience store

sive tone of the

parking lot where the group hangs
out precipitates a night of drinking,
sex and
soul-searching.

new

come

seen

play and that he
wanted to do the play
one better
by making it

time

the film focuses

that I hadn't

the

nagging ambi¬
Directed

as¬

pects of Linklater's previous pic¬
tures. "I was a little disappointed
after I first read the script," Daniel
admits. "I said to Rick, 'Haven't we

Jeff when I
were

that direction."

piece points to a
direction for the filmmaker.

"In

subUrbia, the challenge was
handling material that was defi¬
nitely more confrontational and
inherently more dramatic,"
Linklater says. "In the past, I've

Eighties when Daniel, a Univer¬
sity of Texas-Austin film student,
encountered Houston native
Linklater at a meeting of the Heart
of Texas Filmmakers club, a group
that was particularly enthusiastic
about the Super 8 format.
"Rick told me that he

feature films - Slacker (1991),
Dazed and Confused (1993) and Be¬

tended to diffuse the drama in

story and not make it such a big

made Super 8 films with sound,
which I'd never done before, so I
asked to see them," recalls Daniel.
"We went to his apartment, and he
showed me these films that he'd
never shown to
anybody. They

fore Sunrise (1995) - all of which
used the framing device of a single
day or night to examine characters

deal. The characters have been

were

raising

really well-done. He'd
splice with Super 8
sound, which was very meticu¬

straddling the bridge between
youth and adulthood. Yet this film

their voices, being more argumen¬
tative. I think collaborating with

lous work. I would never have
had the patience for it! I really

collaboration.

also marks the first time Linklater

Eric

developed

44

American

March 1997

subUrbia

Director Richard

Linklater (in Tshirt) reteams
with

cameraman

Lee Daniel

(behind
Movie cam

Compact) on
subUrbia, the
duo's fourth

like a
natural continuation of the themes
seems

presented in Linklater's previous

Cinematographer

more

a

internal, while in this film

they're

more

external

-

Bogosian really pushed

me

in

learned how to

some

respect for him
American Cinematographer - March 1997

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