Pablo Larraín: Richard Linklater’s ‘Boyhood’ Still ‘Lives in My Heart’

Pablo Larraín is singing the praises of auteur Richard Linklater, especially when it comes to Linklater’s 2014 feature “Boyhood.”

Larraín selected “Boyhood” as one of his Criterion Closet Picks. The “Maria” director cited the impact the Oscar-nominated Linklater film had on his career.

“This movie is very important to me. It lives in my heart,” Larraín said. “I admire everyone who did this film. It really, really hit me. When I grow up, I would like to make a movie as good as this one.”

“Boyhood” was filmed across 12 years, with Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette starring. The feature was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

“You know, something that strikes me as a filmmaker is the chance to use time. I think cinema might be the only and the most beautiful time machine that humans have ever created,” Larraín, who has directed a trio of biopics for his “Important Women” trilogy, with “Jackie,” “Spencer,” and “Maria,” said. “And this movie is a very good proof of it.”

And Larraín will have to wait a little bit longer for more years-spanning Linklater features: Linklater is taking “Boyhood” approach for the adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award-nominated 1981 musical “Merrily We Roll Along.” The film version will be shot across 20 years to mirror the events of the story; Paul Mescal, Beanie Feldstein, and Ben Platt are starring.

Linklater told The New York Times Magazine that he is hoping to still direct another feature even after “Merrily We Roll Along” finally wraps — when he is 80 years old.

“I see myself making a film when I’m like 94,” Linklater said. “I really do. I’ll go along, try to stay in shape, try to be healthy, hope to get lucky. But we’re telling a story that takes place over 20 years, and it’s really important, for this story to work, that you feel those years go by. That was ‘Boyhood.’ You had to feel life going by.”

He continued, “And this movie is about long-term friendship and the way life treats people and how that shifts around over 20 years. Everybody involved is clearly doing it because they care, so we just have to assume they’ll keep caring and they’ll care 10 years, 15, 16, 17 more years. You judge people on that.”And if something does happen that stops Linklater from fulfilling his directorial duties, he said, “I would adapt somehow. Or just turn the whole thing over to someone else. I’ll deal with that when it happens. I mean, what’s the alternative? I think of death regularly. But then I have this other side that just expects to play it out, I guess.”