Before Sunrise (1995)
Directed by Richard Linklater
Written by Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Richard Linklater
Starring Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Release Date January 27th 1995
Published June 15th, 2004
Massively moneyed blockbusters are supposed to have sequels, not tiny independent romances with cult followings. Richard Linklater however has always been one to do things differently and thus there is now a sequel to his 1995 romance Before Sunrise. With that film set for release in America in July (it's already been seen in Germany where it premiered at the Berlin), I thought it was a good time to revisit the original and I’m glad I did.
On a train traveling through Europe, two twenty-somethings meet by chance and spend one romantic night in Vienna. Jesse (Ethan Hawke) is an American who came to Europe to see his girlfriend and ends up heartbroken and wandering. Celine (Julie Delpy) is a French college student headed home from Budapest after visiting relatives.
Jesse and Celine bond over their mutual distaste with a couple loudly fighting in indecipherable German. They decide to hang out together in the dining car and what begins as a time-killing conversation becomes a series of smart, witty exchanges and real honest romance. He has to get off in Vienna to catch a plane the next morning, she is supposed to just go straight home but Jesse's charm tempts her enough to jump off the train for one romantic night in Vienna.
A more Hollywood style romance would fly off the rails at this point adding mobsters, thieves or something supernatural to the plot in order to give the characters something more to do than just walk and talk. Writer-Director Richard Linklater is more confident in his writing and especially his dialogue to need any Hollywoodized plot devices. His dialogue and his two amazing actors are all the devices he needs.
As Jesse and Celine laconically wander the streets of Vienna, their conversations twist and turn through such diverse topics as reincarnation (they both believe but Jesse has a unique theory), Feminism (Celine believes it may be a conspiracy to get woman to act more like men so they will have sex more), and the inevitable discussion of each other’s pasts which they handle in part with fake phone calls to best friends.
The conversations border on cuteness but the two actors are good at steering away from anything that might be considered cloying. Julie Delpy is a revelation. She looks like your classic French ingenue, the type of shrinking violet that could be blown away by a stiff wind. She changes that right from the start by jumping right into the heavy conversation with the sardonic and clever Hawke and matching him word for clever word. She also curses like a sailor, but an unbelievably sexy French sailor.
What a wonderfully romantic idea. Meeting a stranger on a train and falling in love in some far out foreign locale for only one night. I have always thought it would be amazing to go Europe with a backpack full of books and a laptop of my own writing and just wander until I find my muse. Before Sunrise allowed me to lose myself in that fantasy with two characters who's wit, intelligence and romance could be just the inspiration I would need.
The sequel, Before Sunset, hits theaters in July 2004 and though I haven't seen it yet, the idea of it evokes Claude Lelouche's masterpiece A Man and A Woman and it's sequel of the same title set 20 years later. Both films are romantic and smart, following strangers who fall in love only to separate soon after. Hopefully, Before Sunset will be a more successful follow up than Lelouche's follow-up, which damaged the first film’s legacy as a classic. I doubt that would happen to Linklater who has yet to make a bad film, at least from this critic’s perspective.
If Before Sunset can manage to be as witty, romantic and poetic as Before Sunrise, then those of us who enjoy movies without the aid of special effects and blaring soundtracks will have something to look forward to this summer.
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