In “Before Sunrise”, American man Jesse and Frenchwoman Céline meet on a train. With time to kill, they spend a night together exploring Vienna where they fall deeply in love. They promise to meet back in Vienna in 6 months, but—as we learn at the start of “Before Sunset”—the fateful rendezvous never takes place. Now 9 years later, Jessie is an author touring his book “This Time” (a fictionalized account of his night with Céline) through Europe. His tour concludes in Paris where a curious Céline is waiting to meet him. With 60 minutes to kill before Jesse must leave for the airport, the two stroll around Paris and reconnect. They discuss where life has taken them and reveal that they’re each in relationships now (in fact, Jesse is married, with kid). But it’s clear that neither of them truly got over that night of pure, spontaneous connection. Their conversation bounces from the mature and analytical, to flirtatious, to philosophical, to depressive, and on to the nature of love as youth comes to a close.
I watched “Before Sunrise” a few years ago as a part of this very weekly film project, and it’s probably at top 5 romance film for me. Maybe my favorite. I included its sequel on this year’s film list (for Valentine’s Day) out of pure self indulgence—I had to know what came of Jesse and Céline. Similar to the first film, this film’s strength lies in its dialogue. The films are essentially two-actor plays that happen to take place on a stroll through European cities. The dialogue flows so naturally (actors Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are credited as writers, workshopping their own natural speech into the film), so you are presented with two fully realized characters during a moment of authentic connection. I was focusing so much on these two characters that I didn’t even notice an 11 minute one-shot, and I love those! It’s action-less, yet enthralling, uplifting, and heartbreaking. And in this film, there’s an underlying sadness of regret that adds texture to the love story. Anyone who has ever loved and lost—or lost anything from a more hopeful, younger version of yourself—will understand this film.
If there’s one knock I have of the story, it’s the ending. I can handle ethically grey characters and unresolved plot lines, but this one felt unfair. Lol. Like “Sunrise”, this film ends on a ambiguous cliffhanger. But while “Sunrise” places its scheduled rendezvous out of the reel, 6 months in the future, this film just fades to black. We are denied our character’s choices, not for the next chapter, but within the very chapter we’re watching. This film sort of addresses this in the opening dialogue: That what we bring to the film influences what we see in its ending. But the murky suggestion made by the ending doesn’t deny us a suggestion, just details. Still, I was otherwise melted by this film and you better believe I’m here for the love trilogy’s finale.