I love films, I see lots, I started reviewing them as a kind of hobby. And now I get to share.
I love films, I see lots, I started reviewing them as a kind of hobby. And now I get to share.
Member since:05.03.2004
Reviews:7
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Back in 1995 a small independent film called Before Sunrise came out and did quite well, winning the Silver Bear award at the Berlin film festival and acquiring something of a cult following, not least due to its open ended will they or won't they ending. Now, nine years later, director Richard Linklater and stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy have come back together to make a sequel. As a fan of the first film it was always a risk that a sequel would take away from it, ruin the mystery of the ending, but this is a misplaced fear. Before Sunset not only recaptures the magic but retrospectively adds depth and poignancy to its predecessor.
In Before Sunrise two young people, the American Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and French Celine (Julie Delpy), met on a train and spent an evening and a night exploring Vienna and talking and maybe, for a moment at least, falling in love. The next day they went their different ways, agreeing to meet on the same train platform
in 6 months time. Now it is nine years later and Jesse is an author doing a book signing tour for his first novel, which we soon learn is based on his experience in Vienna. The signing, at a small bookshop in Paris, finishes, and who should be waiting for him between the bookcases but Celine. He has a little time before his flight back to the USA, so they go for a walk around the city and talk. We discover what happened at the planned six months later meeting, the directions that their lives have moved in since then, and oh so much more.
What made Before Sunrise so special was the realism and naturalness of the interaction between the two characters, and the complete absence of any normal 'movie' conventions. There was no plot as such, no storyline or dramatic devices, we just got to watch two young people talking and flirting and getting to know each other. Everything worked perfectly, the dialogue, the body language, the chemistry between the two, it might almost have been a documentary made by secretly filming two people so real did it seem. Somehow that has all been recaptured in Before Sunset. This time the film is one long uninterrupted conversation between the pair, the film takes place in 'real time' as the clock ticks towards the time when Jesse must go to the airport for his flight home. Though this must undoubtedly have been a challenge to film, it is never made into a gimmick and does not distract from the essence of the film.
Whereas in the first film the drama that kept you glued to the screen was the burgeoning romance between Jesse and Celine, in Before Sunset it comes from the gradual way in which the conversation progresses. At first they are playful, superficially flirtatious in a way which mirrors their time in Vienna, but also extremely guarded with little given away. Gradually those barriers are broken down until their lives and feelings are laid bare to each other, with all of their complications. Where Before Sunrise captured the carefree freedom of their early twenties and the simplicity of falling in love, Before Sunset is about just how much more complicated life becomes in your earlier thirties, with romantic idealism just a dim distant memory. It is a testimony to how well Linklater, Hawke and Delpy know these two characters, or perhaps how much of themselves they have put into them, that they are instantly recognisable as being the same people that we met in Vienna, but older and changed by their experiences in the time that has passed.
Perhaps it is because I am of the same generation as Jesse and Celine that these two films struck such a chord, I have grown up with them in effect, and so can completely empathise with the way in which their characters and situations have developed. Before Sunset is an extremely poignant and honest film and is the perfect sequel to Before Sunrise. It is well worth rewatching Sunrise before seeing Sunset, both to appreciate the nuances of character which carry over between the two and to fully understand the impact that the events in Vienna had on Jesse and Celine even all those years later, something that made me appreciate the first film even more.
Maybe in another ten years or so we will get another film capturing what it is to be a forty year old. I for one would welcome it.
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Production Year: 2000 - Drama - Director: Giuseppe Tornatore - Original Language: Italian - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, Matilde Piana
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
In 1994, director Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused,Waking Life) madeBefore Sunrise, a ... more
gorgeous poem of a movie about two strangers (played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) wandering around Vienna, talking, and falling in love. Ten years later, Link...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: Enchanting, Romantic, beautifully shot, Excellent dialogue Disadvantages: You won't like it if you don't like films with a lot of talking in! Otherwise, none.
templeria 05.09.2006 (06.09.2006)
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Review of Before Sunrise (DVD)
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![Before Sunset [DVD] [2004]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78487688.jpg "Before Sunset [DVD] [2004]")
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