What if we could buy someone else’s identity and live their life to the fullest, without a moment’s respite? In the new film “Hit Man”, cult director Richard Linklater, born in Houston, Texas in 1960, who became famous thanks to the so-called “Before trilogy”, starring Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, winner of a shower of international awards in 2014 for “Boyhood”, describes the adventures of Gary Johnson (Glen Powell), a rather clumsy psychology professor who works undercover with the New Orleans police. His job is to pretend to be a hitman, to prevent murders and frame the culprits. Everything goes well, until Johnson has to take care of the protection of a woman (Adria Arjona), beautiful and very dangerous. Appearances are never what they seem and the exchange of personalities drags the protagonist into an adventure a thousand times more engaging than he could ever have imagined. Based on a true story, reported by “Texas Monthly” in 2001, the film was previewed at the last Venice Film Festival and is now in theaters with Bim.
Why were you interested in telling this story?
“The plot revolves around the eternal theme of identity. The protagonist Gary Johnson does a very interesting job, which is not being himself. In this way he manages to infiltrate and arrest the instigators and murderers. It is like having a gift, a chance to live in an extremely bizarre way. Gary has the possibility of leading a whole life avoiding banality”.
How did you find the story and, above all, the key to telling it?
“I read the article and then I did some research, I watched videos and I did some research. I have a very dark sense of humor, so I decided that, even if it’s about killers and killings, I could tell the facts in a comedic way.”
How do you generally choose the subjects of your films?
“The reason why I decide to make a film on a certain subject is an eternal mystery to me. Perhaps it has to do with investigating the deepest and most inexplicable side of human nature. It is as if making a film on a certain theme could give me a wealth, an additional knowledge”.
“Hit Man” has nothing to do with his famous trilogy about falling in love, the one in which Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy chatted for hours, getting to know each other. Once again he has completely changed genre.
“Hit Man is also a romantic film, after all it is not so different from Before Sunrise and the others. It’s just that this time the romantic side is placed in different circumstances”.
Compared to your beginnings, how much and how do you feel you have changed?
“Things change, but I’ve always thought I’m still the same person, the same as when I started, the impulses are the same as then. I follow a path, I try not to abandon it, maybe I’m more confident than in the past, even if I’m still never completely satisfied with what I do.”
What do you think about the way violence is portrayed in movies?
“Films and violence have always gone hand in hand, even in Italian cinema it was like that, I think of the cinematic genre of the 70s. Of course, in the US it’s different, there is a real obsession with weapons, but I really don’t think that this comes from cinema”.
How do you see the contrast between cinema in theaters and streaming, who will win?
“Cinema always survives everything, I am naturally optimistic, I don’t think there are more dangers for films in theaters today than in the past”.
Of course, films destined for the big screen have a lot more competition to beat.
“Of course, today, you have to compete with many things, many platforms and many channels, starting with YouTube, and yet it’s always a question of choice. It’s up to the public to decide what to do, but this happens all the time, even with books, not just with films.”
