Before Sunset: Nine Years Later...

Nine years after Before Sunrise, Richard Linklater reunited with Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, and Kim Krizan (all credited for the screenplay this time) to make Before Sunset. The film takes place more or less in real-time, and is set 9 years after the original. It also was released in the wake of Hawke's extremely public celebrity divorce from Uma Thurman, which I'm sure was commented on quite a bit at the time. It was a pretty good movie, and lacking some elements from the first, but bringing some new elements, as well.

The original film had that ambiguous ending, and we get to find out here what happened. It has its own ambiguous ending, though, so it evens out. It has a lot of similarities to the first, especially cinematography, a heavy focus on only two characters and dialogue, and a lack of soundtrack, other than diagetic music from their surroundings. There are only a few real major camera movements, and it sticks primarily to steadicam shots following them around Paris.

The plot is simple: Jesse is now an author, having published a novel based on his encounter with Céline in Vienna. His last stop on his book tour is the Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris. When he gets close to the end of his Q&A session, he notices Céline there. They talk, decide to go get coffee, and spend the rest of his time in paris together. He has to catch a flight back to the States at 7:30 that night, and so they only have a few hours together, which takes us through the rest of the movie. They wander around paris, go to a coffee shop, talk at length, catch up on what transpired since Vienna, and discuss marriage, children (Jesse has a wife and a son), religion, politics, his novel, her music, and many other things. It turns out that Jesse went back to Vienna six months later, as they planned. Céline, however, did not; her grandmother passed away a few days before the scheduled meeting, and she couldn't make it. Jesse wrote the book in hopes of seeing Céline again. It ends without a real resolution as well, where we don't know if Jesse will make his plane back to the States, or not.

Jesse is still a romantic cynic, not really believing that his novel's bestseller status means as much as it could. He's dissatisfied with the level of literacy in America, and feels that his novel reflects that. Céline is dissatisfied in her love life, and they both have idealized the one night they spent together. They literally tell each other that they've never been as happy as they have in that one night, and they have each carried the memories of one another throughout the last nine years. Jesse has dreams with Céline in them, where he imagines her in the place of his wife, and he's in conflict with the implications of that idea. He loves his son, but doesn't feel that he can love his wife the way that he should, and mostly because of his night with Céline.

She feels that the night took something away from all of her following experiences, being idealized to the point that it affects the way she experiences her other relationships. She resents the idea that most of her boyfriends get married after they date her (Jesse included), though she isn't certain that she would have wanted to marry them. We see that both characters are just as insecure, uncertain, and confused as they were in their 20s, and their lives are no less complicated with age, as they seemed to predict in the first film.

It's somewhat more somber and less hopeful than the original, though I suppose that's a commentary on the idealism of Generation X in the 1990s, and suddenly find themselves faced with real-world issues and responsibilities in the 2000s. Their chance meeting seems to have been a missed opportunity, and despite his cynicism, Jesse returned to Vienna (owing his father $2,000 in the process) to meet with Céline, only to be alone. This leads him to his marriage, even though he clearly doesn't feel as strongly for her as he does for Céline. She regrets missing their arranged meeting, but was hopeful that he didn't show up either. His novel dredged up those memories for her, and made her irate and frustrated at him as well as herself.

It's a great movie! Check out Before Sunrise and then check out Before Sunset. They're both pretty good, and it's interesting to see the differences in the actors as they've aged as their characters have. I give it four Parisian streets out of five, or four ambiguous endings out of five.

Before Sunrise: A Great Date Movie

I'm going to deviate a little from the current movie schedule by talking about something I actually watched when I was in college. It's Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise, starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, and pretty much nobody else. I'm doing this because I have a Netflix copy of Before Sunset, the sequel released and set nine years after the original (the first one came out in 1995, and the second in 2004), also directed by Linklater and starring Hawke and Delpy.

If you like romantic movies, it's definitely something to check out. If you like good movies, it's worth checking out. I don't normally like these kinds of movies, and I think this movie is pretty awesome. I don't normally like Ethan Hawke all that much (though he's growing on me), and I'd honestly never even heard of Julie Delpy before this. Richard Linklater is pretty fantastic, though, and he is able to present us with one fabulous and strange night in the lives of two virtual strangers.

The plot is simple to minimalistic perfection. Jesse (Hawke) is an American abroad, traveling around briefly to escape his own thoughts, after a painful breakup with his girlfriend (he came to Spain to see her, and they broke up there, hence his aimless wandering). Céline (Delpy) is in a similar situation, returning to Paris for school (university, not ... anything lower) after visiting her Grandmother. They strike up a conversation, and they debark in Vienna for the night before needing to get on separate trains to get to where they're going. They wander the streets of Vienna all night long, talking, getting close, and finding themselves falling in love. Their attraction is constantly at war with the knowledge that they will be parting ways in the morning (hence the title).

Linklater wrote the film with Kim Krizan as well as directing, and the screenplay was nominated for Best Adapted Writing Screenplay for the sequel. Like Linklater's previous movies (notably Slacker), this film is extremely dialogue driven, which is obvious considering there are literally only two characters in the film. It's a testament to the acting powers of these two young stars that the audience is barely conscious of the fact that we're only watching two people have a conversation for two hours. The cinematography also helps, showing them wandering around Vienna, which is a beautiful city (from what we can see on screen).

If you've ever seen Slacker or Dazed and Confused, you know that Richard Linklater specializes in aimless young people, stuck in some sort of transitional state, between youth and adulthood, innocence and responsibility. Jesse is a cynical romantic and seems directionless, but Céline's presence clears the cobwebs and the fog a little bit, and doesn't let him get away with his cynicism. Céline is something of a sweet girl, and was excited by the possibility of getting off the train with Jesse. She reveals later that even though he "convinced" her to go with him, she had decided she would well before then. They share a kiss and long, deep conversations ranging from life, relationships, death, family, education, and religion. The poet David Jewell has a cameo as a bum/poet that says he'll write a poem based on a word of their choosing for money. They pick "milkshake," and they are surprised at how apt and beautiful the poem is.

I just really like this movie, that's pretty much the gist of what I have to say. On the surface, the typical audience will probably enjoy it as a "love that can never be" kind of story, a young love story of hope and regret, blooming emotions that we know will be cut short. Underneath, it's even better, when we really pay attention to the dialogue, what they discuss, and how Linklater follows them around Vienna. They're often framed together, rarely apart, and the implication is that they make love in the park. before they get on the train in the morning, they agree to meet at that very train station in six months. We're never shown whether or not they do, but I can assume based on the plot of the sequel that they do not, and only reunite after nine years serendipitously.

I definitely suggest checking this movie out. Go out and rent it, put it on your Netflix queue, try to catch it on TV (it must be on TV sometimes, but I can't say that I've ever seen it there). I actually own this movie (I bought it for class instead of just renting it), and I may have to buy the sequel after I've seen it this week. I don't know if I can even come up with a clever rating system this time... I give it four and a half angry young men in love, or four and a half hopeful promises out of five.