2004-11-02

Ten years ago, when I was in my final year of university, I saw a relatively small movie called Before Sunrise. It was the story of a young man and woman in their early twenties--the same age I was at the time--who meet while travelling on a train in Europe and decide to get off in Vienna and spend the day and evening there together, walking, talking, exchanging ideas, and developing a short-lived but intense relationship. At the end of their time together, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) don't exchange phone numbers or even last names, but they do promise that in six months, they'll meet again in Vienna. I remember at the time I loved the movie, finding it romantic and funny and intelligent. I always wondered if Jesse and Celine had met up again.

Well, ten years later, they do. Richard Linklater has made a sequel to a movie that was very unlikely to ever get one. At the beginning of Before Sunset, we find out that Jesse and Celine never did meet up in Vienna, and in fact have not seen each other since their first encounter. However, Jesse, who is now a bestselling author, has never forgotten Celine, and has in fact written a novel about his experience with her in Vienna. As the movie opens, we see that he is in the famous Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris, giving a reading of his book and doing a Q and A with the audience. As he talks to the audience about the book, he looks up only to see Celine. She lives in Paris now, and recognized Jesse from an article in the local paper about his new novel and his book reading.

One of the cool things about Before Sunset is that it elapses in real time. As Jesse and Celine leave the bookstore for a cup of coffee, he is reminded by the bookstore manager that he must leave soon for the airport in order to catch his plane home. This gives the rest of the movie a pleasurable sense of urgency, as Jesse and Celine struggle to say what they have to say in less than eighty minutes.

As I'm sure you can tell, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Part of it is probably the fact that I can identify with the stage the characters are at; part of it is due to the intelligent, funny, meaningful dialogue between the characters (much of which, if not all of which, was improvised by Delpy and Hawke). And finally, most important of all is the excellent acting and the real chemistry between the two leads. Rarely have I seen a movie where I honestly felt I was watching two people with a genuine emotional connection with each other. It's funny, because the two actors have spent a lot more time with each other than their characters have, and I think often it's the other way around for many movies. You know, the couple who are supposed to have been married for twenty years, when in reality the actors who are playing them have known each other for the four months they were on the movie set together. That kind of thing.

Anyway, if you liked the first movie, you'll probably like this one. If you haven't seen the first movie, I recommend watching it first and then watching this one. Before Sunset would be OK as a stand-alone, but I think it would enhance one's viewing experience to see Before Sunrise first.

A sequel that's as good as the first movie, made ten years afterward...now that's something you don't see every day.

Posted by polarcanuck at 4:48 p.m.

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