This film is one of my favorites from last year, along with "Sideways" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". Is it just a coincidence that three best films of the year all deal with ability to connect with other people, with meeting one's true love and losing it, with memories that will not go away, and with possibilities of second chances?
"Before Sunset" is one of the best sequels ever made but it stays on its own. It is so perfect, so simple, so sublime, so clever, so romantic, and so moving that it makes me happy to know that the films like that exist and there is hope that as characters get older we may witness their next meeting and conversations.
Who would think that watching two people talking may be that fascinating? That's what the power of great dialog does. As much as I loved dialogs in "Before Sunrise", in this film they are even better - the characters are older, wiser, more interesting, I'd say. Ten years is a long period in a human life - our characters are still young and attractive but they've gone through losses and changes, disappointments and some sad realizations about life. It is privilege of the young age to hope that "there'll be many people with whom you'll connect with. Later in life, you realize it only happens a few times." If we only knew how to cherish and keep these unique and unforgettable connections. If we only knew that they were unique...
Julie Delpy along with Ethan Hawke, contributed to the screenplay; and there is no doubt that their contributions made the characters interacting on the screen absolutely honest and believable.
Julie Delpy gives one of the best performances of the year as Celine. She is amazing in showing mystery, charm, disappointments, dreams, and the dark sides of this woman. Her singing and Nina Simone's impersonation in the last scenes of "Before Sunset" are among the most charming and seductive ever - oh yes, baby you will miss that plane. 9.5/10
Plot summary
Nine years later, Jesse travels across Europe giving readings from a book he wrote about the night he spent in Vienna with Celine. After his reading in Paris, Celine finds him, and they spend part of the day together before Jesse has to again leave for a flight. They are both in relationships now, and Jesse has a son, but as their strong feelings for each other start to return, both confess a longing for more.
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April 12, 2022 at 11:28 AM
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"I know what you meant for me that day. I just want another try, I just want another night"
Life as few know it
I'm a movie lover. That first thing said, i have to recognize that i'm really hard on movies, and i usually discard many of them for being under-prepared, for so many errors and things like that. But with "Before Sunset" i felt different. We all know movies are just fakes: what happens, what we see is not the real life. It's just a construction. It's just somebody imagination becoming a visual media. But when i was watching this movie, i didn't felt that. I was seeing real people, with real problems and having thoughts, and fears and hopes. It's the most real acting i ever saw. All about it is just perfect: the ambiance, the set, the city, even the apartment we can see at the near end. Every piece of the movie was connected, and you can tell a whole story about the characters just for hear them, or seeing the way they talk, the things they said, the music they chooses or the things they have. In that way of thinking, i found this movie inspirational, a well-made piece of life, and incredibly deep and wide film. I think this is a portrait of life as only a few can know, of all the shadows and lights we all share.
So, i really recommend it, even if you didn't saw the first one.
Linklater, Delpy & Hawke make an impossible sequel work (including minor SPOILERS)
"Before Sunrise" was one of the most beautiful independent love stories of the 90's. Part of its appeal came from the open ending. We didn't know how the lives of these two young people would continue and what would become of them. The whole movie was like a snapshot that left the rest to our imagination. A sequel to such a story seemed to be unnecessary, but apparently director Richard Linklater himself couldn't stop thinking about these two intriguing characters and had to envision their lives after this one fateful day in Vienna.
Here it is now, the most unlikely sequel I have ever seen, "Before Sunset" - made not for money but for pure artistic purpose only. Much of the magic of part one could have been destroyed, but somehow Linklater and his two main actors managed to pull it off. "Before Sunset" takes place nine years after Jesse and Celine first met and as soon as the movie starts you feel like you meet old friends you haven't seen in a long time. You know these people and immediately feel at home with them. I was afraid that "Before Sunset" might give answers to questions that shouldn't be answered in the first place. If "Before Sunrise" was a dream that two young people had, then this movie could only be the rude awakening, the confrontation with reality. And somehow it is just that. It's a bit disillusioning to hear that all did not turn out as well as one might have imagined. We learn that Jesse and Celine are not particularly happy in their lives and that they are not really the romantic persons they used to be nine years ago. The soothing thing to see, however, is that they are still here. They both have passed their 30th birthday, they have jobs and their future is more or less decided, but they're still longing for passion in their lives and as soon as they meet each other, it's there again. They might have given up a lot of their dreams and beliefs but one thing remains true: their feelings for each other. While they're talking it's like they turn back time and become the young, hopeful people they once were again. I'm getting a bit carried away, but that's the beauty of these two movies, "Sunrise" and "Sunset". The story sucks you in and you're not able to stop thinking about it for a long while.
Another thing "Before Sunset" did, it made me reflect on my own life. How have I changed in the past nine years? What has become of my dreams? Obviously, I have gotten more cynical, because at times I was irritated by Celine's talk about environmental problems and her emotional outbursts. It took me way longer than last time to "bond" with her character this time around.
Anyway, the performances by Hawke and Delpy are wonderful once again. Their acting is as natural as can be, and thinking of Hawke's recent divorce in real life you wonder how much of his character in the movie is based on his own personal experiences.
Unfortunately, the movie is over way too soon. After about an hour you have already arrived at the final scene - a scene that is just amazing. It makes you hope that somehow everything will work out for Jesse and Celine and that maybe they will stay together this time. As part one, "Before Sunset" doesn't have a definite ending, though.
It's sure nice to see that apparently Linklater cares about Jesse and Celine as much as I do and made such a good sequel. He could probably even make a third part. "Before Sunset" has convinced me that it could work.