Before Sunrise
d. Richard Linklater, 1995
Perhaps I didn't approach Before Sunrise the way it was actually meant to be seen. I saw this and its sequel on the same day, so, for me, the confusion people must have felt at the end of back in '95 was never really there. With that said, I don't know that that really diminished my viewing experience, and Sunrise is a great film. Having seen Dazed and Confused and Waking Life prior to this, I sort of knew what to expect. I was looking forward to watching a film that depended largely on conversation and not so much on plot, I was expecting some pretty long organic takes, and I knew I would not be disappointed. But my expectations, though all were met, did not prepare me for the nuance and power of Before Sunrise. Easily one of the great romances in the history of the movies, the film catalogues the first encounter between Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy), as they meet on a train to Vienna. He's the American guy touring Europe on his way to catch his plane, she's riding the train to Paris where she lives. After a spirited conversation, he convinces her to leave the train and walk around Vienna with him until he has to board his plane (at Sunrise). The film follows them around town as they talk about everything from dreams, to their past, and everything in between. The staggering amount of lovely scenes in Before Before make it worth the time even if it didn't have anything to say about the nature of human connections. By the end of the film, it becomes pretty obvious that Jesse and Celine have fallen in love. But being the optimistic young people that they are, they decide to meet in the same place 6 months later without exchanging phone numbers or any contact information. Sunrise ends with separate shots of each of them; it is shocking, because by this time we are not used to seeing them without each other.
Before Sunset
d. Richard Linklater, 2004
Like I mentioned earlier, I saw Before Sunset immediately after being blown away by Sunrise, and there was no way the sequel (made 9 years later) was going to approximate the power of the original. However, 5 minutes into the film it becomes pretty obvious that everyone involved in the film (from Hawke to Delpy to Linklater) have grown over the 9 years, and have learned how to make a better, more thoughtful and mature movie. Sunset begins in Paris, Jesse is doing a book-signing for the novel he just wrote about the night he spent with Celine in Vienna 9 years earlier. Celine, who lives in Paris, comes to the bookstore to meet him, and they spend the subsequent 80 minutes (the film plays out in real time) walking around Paris figuring out if they are still as in love as they once were. They are now more mature and have a seemingly different and more realistic perspectives on life. And if the connection is there even 9 years after they first met, both of them act as if nothing is going to happen between them again, they are much too settled in life for such a change. A synopsis of the film--2 people walk around Paris for 80 minutes--seems rather dull, but let me just say that this is one of the most exhilarating of all recent films (certainly one of the best of the decade thus far). Linklater's direction is invisible here, as Jesse and Celine stroll down the streets of Paris through long, elaborate shots with a seemingly weightless camera following them. The script, which Linklater worked on with Hawke and Delpy, is even better than Sunrise's, mostly because the characters are now more intelligent and perhaps have more experiences behind them. On the surface Before Sunset a simple love story between two individuals, but on a deeper level it becomes about everyone who's ever encountered someone they felt they had some kind of connection with. And deeper still, beyond the perils of romantic relationships, it's a surprisingly deep examination on the nature of time. Before Sunset exceeds its predecessor on level, which is saying quite a lot. Few films are this exquisitely divine.
