Before Sunset - A+

Quick Hit: The rare sequel that continues on with a great story, and even betters what I thought couldn’t improve.

​The next movie in the Linklater trilogy after Before Sunrise is Before Sunset. It picks up the narrative thread nine years after the events of the first movie. Jesse has written a book that is almost an exact description of his encounter with Celine all those years ago, and it is a best seller. He is doing a book tour and his last stop is Paris, France. Who should he see as his signing is finishing but Celine? They agree to have coffee together, but they don’t have long. Jesse has to catch a flight back in only a few hours.

There are many, many admirable things to say about this movie. First, there is the remarkable feat of making a movie that has a running time that is the exact same as the time elapsed in the film. There is a never a moment in the characters’ lives where we are not present. The 80 minutes we spend watching the film are entirely with the characters. This is an amazing accomplishment in film, and should have been rewarded more than it was. The cinematographer has to match exactly the different takes to the lighting, in order to create a film that feels as hyper-real as this one does. That in itself is difficult, but when you consider that many of the takes were done in long, unbroken stretches, it only increases your awareness of the technical accomplishments.

Dialogue - FTW

The next thing I want to talk about is the screenplay/the actors. I’ve put these things together because they are inseparable. Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke wrote most of the dialogue together, building off of their previous experiences with the characters. It shows here, because the dialogue is even better than the previous movie. Their characters have grown in separate ways, and become better and worse versions of the people they were when we last saw them. Their acting communicates that perfectly – with some of Celine’s idiosyncrasies coming out and more of Jesse’s insecurity at times. The dialogue is quick-flowing and contains more sexual references – these are two people that are surer of themselves than they were before. It’s a beautiful coming together film, that shows how love can grow even with absence, and shows that growing up is both a terrible thing (one that strips us of our naivety that is so blissful and pure) but also a wonderful thing (as we realize that injustices can happen and work to change them).

I can’t talk about this movie much more without talking about a few things. There are some small reveals here, so I’ll put a spoiler line just to be sure.
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Sooooo Jesse’s married. Yikes. The news is expressed as a small bit of dialogue, but the weight it carries is much heavier. You can feel it land in the script like a brick, and the actors do a great 

job of dancing around it, just as you awkwardly would in real life. As it turns out, Celine is in a relationship too, albeit an absent one.

But you can feel the love here. Jesse wanted so badly for Celine to be at that platform six months later (turns out he was), but she wasn’t… and he wasn’t sure why (her grandmother had died). He eventually says that he thinks he wrote this book as a way of finding her…. Which, after some scenes, causes her to completely lose it, demanding to be left alone.

There is so much confidence here by the writers that we will continue to love these characters that there is no “holding of blows”. The camera itself doesn’t do anything but linger, and the story is much better for it. There is a small bit, as Jesse reveals more and more about his broken marriage, where Celine reaches out to touch him and pulls her hand back before she does. There is more longing and tenderness in that one second shot than in entire RomComs now. I was struck by it, and am happy to pass along that feeling to you.

The film ends with a terrific scene in Celine’s apartment where she sings him a song she wrote about him. To use Shannon’s words: I loved it. I loved it. I LOVED IT.  I would download that and listen to it. It is beautiful. Delpy has the perfect voice and accent to 

deliver it (waltz coming out woltz). I’ve attached it here. It reminds me a bit of “La Vie en Rose”.

The scene ends with her saying that he is gonna miss his plane and him agreeing. Another ending like the last. What will happen to them? Guess we have to wait another nine years to find out.

For more on this film, check out IMDB.