(2004)
directed by Richard Linklater
Nine years have passed since Jesse and Celine spent the night together, strolling across the city of Vienna, talking their hearts out, and promising to meet again in six months. Jesse is now a famous writer visiting Paris to read from his bestselling novel which is based on their night together. Celine is in the audience. He looks up and there she is! There is delight and shock in their eyes when they meet. Watching the movie, I understand their shock because I am also nine years older, having watched “Before Sunrise” when it was first released. “Were you there in Vienna in December?” Celine asks. My heart sinks. Celine’s question instantly tells me she wasn’t there.
Jesse has changed. The boyish softness in his face is gone. His face is chiseled and mature. Celine seems unchanged. Jesse is a successful writer, married, with a young son. Celine is a fiercely committed environmentalist with a boyfriend who constantly travels and is rarely home.
We learn all this while they have coffee and talk. Unfortunately, they don’t have much time because Jesse has to catch a flight back to America. They walk out of the bookstore and into the city of Paris. They walk and talk just like their time together in Vienna. The director, Richard Linklater, films them in long takes. The film feels like it takes place in real time. At first, they talk in abstractions. They avoid questions we want answers for. Are they happy? Are they still attracted to each other?
“Before Sunset” is my favorite of the three movies which comprise the “Before Sunrise” trilogy. This film is truly extraordinary. It is not easy for actors to walk through an actual city while engaged in a conversation that sounds natural. We instantly accept that their conversation is real. Hawke and Delpy wrote the screenplay themselves, starting from the characters and dialogue created in the first film. That first film, “Before Sunrise,” captured the exhilaration of discovering a conversational intimacy with another person. “Before Sunset” is even better because the characters are older and more experienced.
Julie Delpy acted in the film, “White,” directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski. “Before Sunset” shares a fascination with intersecting time lines with Kieslowski’s film. We find out what happened in Vienna in December. We also find out that Celine studied for several years at New York University while Jesse was living in that city. Jesse eventually confesses that he wrote his book and came to Paris for the book signing because that was the only way he could think of to see Celine again.
All this time, Jesse and Celine are deep in conversation as they walk through the city. The time for Jesse’s flight home is fast approaching. “Baby, you are gonna miss that plane,” Celine says.