Sunday, May 9, 2010

Before Sunset (2004) A Film by Richard Linklater


Sequels, those intolerable addendums that Hollywood regularly churns out in the sole interest of hearty financial returns, have never seen a finer day than Richard Linklater's Before Sunset, a film that rightfully completes and enriches its predecessor in ways that required the span of nine years between the two productions. Before Sunrise concluded with its two short-term lovers making a last second agreement to meet back in Vienna in six months in the same spot, still ignorant of each other's last names, phone numbers, or any means of communication but dead-set on carrying out the plan anyway, because their intimate connection was seemingly too unshakable to fail them. Though one would expect that this is where Linklater would begin the sequel, he opts to leap ahead nine years instead, equaling both the elapsed time since the release of the original and the years ticked away from the lives of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Right from the opening sequence, it is evident that the time passed has made its inevitable mark on the two as well as on the production stamp, a discernment made concrete when Linklater splices antique images of the lovers from the first film amidst the tranquil cinematography of Before Sunset. If Before Sunrise looked lived-in, durable, and immutable, the sequel's wispy patina is like that of a postcard slowly fading away into obscurity, mirroring the weathered state of Jesse and Celine's relationship.

On the coda of his European book tour, Jesse is answering questions in an elegant Parisian bookstore about the ambiguous ending of his successful novel - which, to no one's surprise, is based on the events of Before Sunrise - when he spots Celine peering at him from a nondescript aisle. Her full, curvy features from years before, witnessed in the momentary archival glimpses, have given way to a coarser, thinner bone structure, indicative of not only aging physically but hardening her worldview from a handful of dispassionate experiences and missed opportunities. Indeed, soon enough we learn that this is actually the pair's first meeting since their romantic evening in Vienna (which Celine calls a "one-night-stand" in her waltz in the closing scene, an ostensibly self-effacing jab at herself for all her preoccupations with sex). Life - or more specifically, Celine's grandmother's death - got in the way of her fulfilling her promise to meet Jesse at the specified time and place. A potentially crucial opportunity was muffed, and the two of them have to deal with that through cordial niceties that only serve to mask what is clearly lamentation and heartache underneath, especially for the always amiable and understanding Jesse, who actually did show up in Vienna and was forced to pay the dividends.



All regrets and gentle grudges are tossed aside though, at least at first, while Jesse and Celine agree to catch up before his flight back to the United States. It would take a vegetable not to realize the immediate similarities between this and their previous rendezvous through French streets and cafes, for after the initial small-talk is exchanged, Jesse and Celine get right back to effortless, rambling discussion as if they had never ceased in the first place. They speak about Jesse's notion that people do not change, his experience in a Trappist retreat, Celine's work as a student in New York City during the same time that Jesse lived there, and the nature of aging and responsibility. But what gradually leads to the most personal admissions is when they summarize their current scenarios: Celine has a blasé relationship with a war photographer whose work causes him to be away half the time, and she now affiliates herself with environmental agencies in a half-hearted attempt to cure a hobbled world; Jesse, an established author, has a wife and a son but feels like he's "running a small nursery with someone [he] used to date". As adults invested in routine, they are more guarded and closed-off than before, and are thus less willing to release their emotions, so the conversation at first plods when it finally gets to this seemingly commonplace realm. But once the two hop aboard a tour boat on the Seine in a scene of masterful staging and careful pacing, the river breeze seems to stir up the hitherto concealed layers and the past lovers begin positioning their mundane existence in relation to their idyllic night in Vienna and the liberties it produced. Jesse asks, "Oh, God, why weren't you there, in Vienna?" He knows precisely why, but his real question has more to do with a lifetime of wondering how things would have turned out if she was.

These private revelations continue to crescendo until they reach their peak in an escort car driving back to Celine's apartment. It's a scene that curiously echoes the last moment at the train in Before Sunrise, because it is perceived that this is the final chance for communication before separation once again (the film's rigidly maintained real-time structure allows for no wasted minutes in the face of Jesse's fast-approaching airport deadline). Yet the potent sense of hopefulness in the original has been replaced by confessional hysteria, with Jesse and Celine voicing their feelings in an anarchic display of regret, sadness, anger, and pity. Hawke and Delpy handle the situation beautifully, exploding and regrouping in a matter of seconds, filling the gaps with tentative acts of subtlety - one fleeting moment has Celine reaching her hand out to comfort Jesse as he looks out the window only to pull it back submissively when he turns around. All of the repressed dissatisfaction about the formulaic lives these two spontaneous characters lead comes to the forefront. Perhaps realizing the importance of not letting her out of his grasp once again, Jesse offers to take her to her door, which leads to a tour of the inside of her apartment. Miraculously, Jesse and Celine manage a quaint reversal of their previous emotional outpouring. There seems to be a mutual acknowledgment of their success in overcoming the hurdle that spelled failure last time. They do not leave each other, and one gets the sense that Jesse isn't planning to, as he indifferently delays his escort. Maybe they exchange numbers this time. Maybe they realize they really should be together. Regardless of the end result, Linklater has provided an utterly complete and stirring portrait of two harmonious souls in discordant stride.

9 comments:

Ceci said...

Thanks for this interesting and very true comment - I absolutely adore these two films; Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke are great actors and they participated in writing the scenario of the second film too...Great moment of cinema!

Carson Lund said...

Thanks for commenting, Ceci. I love these two films, if you couldn't tell from my essays. I think they are some of Linklater's best works, although I don't think he strikes a sour note very much at all. I was aware that Delpy and Hawke did do a large portion of the screenwriting, which definitely adds extra verisimilitude to their discussions.

LEAVES said...

From what I've heard, Delpy basically had everything that she had to do already done and then everyone else had to struggle to keep up. I feel like this comes out in the film because Delpy, as a human being/artist, is probably better than whoever was responsible for writing her lines in the first one, especially given that she had embodied the character before. It has to help somehow. I love everything about the film, but I think the thing I love most is the extended gamesmanship in the first half where they feel each other out while holding their true cards close to their chest until the inevitable 'collapsing together' of the end. That part is great also, but I had to elevate one portion over another for rhetorical reasons. Keep up the good work.

Carson Lund said...

I agree that it's a beautifully life-like representation of two people meeting again and only gradually revealing their innermost truths. That you refer to it as "gamesmanship" is interesting, because it shares similarities with the idea of performance, which is arguably what Jesse and Celine are caught up in for most of the rising action. He's acting as a man with a mid-life crisis who desperately wants Celine, and she's acting like a hardened cynic who just can't afford love at this point in her life (notice how she continually reminds him of his airport deadline). This culminates in the directly metaphorical conclusion, with Celine literally performing twice in a row before Jesse. It suggests that as people age and acquire responsibility, they must proportionally conceal their deepest emotions. A lovely film.

Unknown said...

Hey.....Carson...
A really nice post...I read it completely....
I really loved the two movies, but as I cannot recall Before sunrise completely.....and have seen Before Sunset, just yesterday....maybe i am a bit biased.....but i loved the sequel a lot......

.Before Sunset....has got a more hopeful ending, althought he movie keeps talking about how less hopeful they have become...........

I loved those moments.........it was beautiful, it looked beautiful, l..especially the way it ended..........

It was a more mature......and realistic one........

Totally loved it......

I plan to write a post on this too......soon...:P

Carson Lund said...

D Overanalyst:
Thanks for the comment. I have a hard time prying apart the two films, so I can't say which one is necessarily better. Sure, Before Sunset might be more mature, with deeper and sadder undercurrents of emotion, but the youthful romantic energy of Before Sunrise fizzles out and segues perfectly into the sequel.

Unknown said...

Hey Carson, you actually replied to my comment, that's so sweet of you...:)

Before sunset is picturised more beautifully.....the moments when they stand in the boat....n the wind.....makes her golden hair flow...n Jesse keeps watching her....
n the best scenes were towards the end were fab............
the way she danced to tht song.....n kept reminding him of his flight....
baby, u r gonna miss that plane..
n the way he leisurely smiled n said i know....

the ebst part being that both were together, they didnt part this time....n the whole movie actually becomes much less ambiguous....
although we do not know what happened, but we know for sure now, what shud happen.....

after 9 yrs,....we see...each day they have longed for each other, sobbed n cried.... like anything....

the marriage isnt workign, relationships arent working,.....they are just meant to be together....it was not a short term fling....

Unknown said...

hii, like i said i wrote a blog too...having my views and fav quotes from before sunset.

http://doveranalyst.blogspot.com/2011/05/before-sunset.html

check it out. :)

Unknown said...

365 movies - Before Sunset is the sequel to Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise, and is equally amazing. The on-screen chemistry between Ethan Hawke (as Jesse) and Julie Delpy (as Celine) alone makes them worth watching. In the first installment, the two characters meet on a train in Europe and end up walking around Vienna together for the rest of the day. At the end of the film they decide to meet again in six months at the same train station. The second film is set nine years later. Jesse has written a book about their time in Vienna, and is on the last day of his tour in France. Celine meets him after the book signing, and they spend the remaining time together until his flight leaves. Before Sunset retains the casual banter and romance from the first film, but it's more serious and less fanciful. It shows how the two have grown up, which is shown through their many conversations throughout the film.
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