Look no further. This is THE movie about that true love, meeting the right one and hope. And it could be anybody’s story. Like they say, special moments come and go every day; you just need to be able to recognize them, that’s all.
I came across this movie by pure chance. Before Sunset had just been released and I had heard about it from a friend. So one fine day I go to the lending library and spot Before Sunset. I look at the back info on it saying it’s a sequel to Before Sunrise and there is Before Sunrise right next to it! Can you imagine my delight? And I am allowed to borrow 2 movies at a time! So I get home and realize between Before Sunrise and Before Sunset there was a gap of 10 years!
There was a class of audience who waited for 10 whole years to know what happened to Jesse and Celine and I was one of those chosen ones who was blissfully unaware of the first till the second came along and could actually watch one after the other with no time gap! Whoever said life is mean?!!
So with this initial euphoria I started watching this movie. And the rest as they say is history. This simple story of Jesse and Celine took my breath away. I was smiling and sighing with them, all the while marveling at the simplicity of the story. Two strangers meet in a train, sense a connection and impulsively decide to spend a day together. These two 20 somethings – young and almost single strike up a relationship with all naturalness and hold on the audience attention with amazing certainty. What follow are just conversations – ordinary and spontaneous, sometimes connected, sometimes random, yet developing all the while, with indications of a maturing relationship.
The movie does not shy away conventionally and covers the seemingly unimportant parts of the conversation, making it whole and all spontaneity. With time, you would marvel the way you get involved with the evening together of Jesse and Celine, for there is no Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy – this is about Jesse and Celine and the one night of their life that includes each other. Tomorrow do not exist for them, they are the adorable romantics who decide making the most of the moment and not worrying about tomorrow (and spoiling the ‘now’), oh the fools in love – always trying to find ways and means to make their relationship a special one, looking for a new word for love…
Snippet 1 -
Jesse: I feel like this is some dream world we’re in, you know.
Celine: Yeah, it’s so weird. It’s like our time together is just ours. It’s our own creation. It must be like I’m in your dream, and you in mine, or something.
Jesse: And what’s so cool is that this whole evening, all our time together, shouldn’t officially be happening.
Celine: Yeah, I know. Maybe that’s why this feels so otherworldly.
Most of the movie is shot in real time. In this set up, the conversations play a big role and the director Richard Linkletter manages the flow with absolute perfection. The lead characters should be given as much credit as the director for the simple reason that along with being the characters, they portray a chemistry that simply can not be missed from the very first stolen glance they take at each other. The beautiful city of Vienna in the evening, the Danube and the Ferris wheel provide an excellent background. Even with a simple subject like this, Before Sunrise strikes a chord with the mind as well as the heart and in both cases manages to get a positive response from each of these faculties.
Snippet 2 -
The street poet writes a poem from a word given to him by Celine – (it’s relevance to the moment is just perfect)
Daydream delusion, limousine eyelash
Oh baby with your pretty face drop a tear in my wineglass
Look at those big eyes, see what you mean to me
Sweet-cakes and milkshakes.
I’m a delusion angel I’m a fantasy parade
I want you to know what I think, don’t want you to guess anymore
You have no idea where I came from
We have no idea where we’re going
Lodged in life like branches in a river, flowing downstream, caught in the current
I carry you - you’ll carry me, That’s how it could be
Don’t you know me? Don’t you know me by now?
And of course there are many moments in the movie that can not be explained with the help of words, you just have to see them, feel them. One such is a sequence when Jesse and Celine decide on imaginary phone calls to their best friends explaining the chance meeting with each other. This conversation, by far, is the most beautiful part of the movie in terms of acting thru body language, expressions and spontaneity. (Oh, that look in Jesse’s eyes and the way Celine blushes!!) And once in the music booth when both of them are trying to avoid each others eyes – (‘I like to feel his eyes on me when I look away’) absolutely genius of a scene.
The movie ends with the parting of Jesse and Celine, with an on-the-spur promise to meet after 6 months at the same platform where they part. And even if I did not go thru it, I can imagine the lingering pain Mr linkletter must have created by taking 10 years to tell whether they meet again or not. And therefore, I, being a sensitive soul will not do the same and be back with the review of the sequel in no time!!
A must see for all those who believe in love or want to believe in love..