The one question that would have haunted all those who watched Before Sunrise is if Jesse and Celine kept their date with each other. Before Sunset, the sequel to Before Sunrise, gives you answers to this and many other questions. For some it’s the perfect sequel to the hopelessly romantic prequel, for just as unexpectedly the protagonists were drawn closer in that one fateful night, they feel that same old chemistry coming back all over again as they talk their way through the city of Paris. While for others it’s an unlikely sequel to 1995’s deliriously, swooningly perceptive Before Sunrise, a compact, self-contained brief encounter that asked for no further elaboration.
Refreshingly unsentimental in its approach, Before Sunrise saw Jesse and Celine depart each other without exchanging phone numbers and addresses with a solemn promise that they would meet again in six months time at the same platform in Vienna. That promise was in ways a test of the audience’s faith, their faith in the magic of romance, those who saw the couple return to meet were romantics while those who did not were cynics. The same unsentimental, no dogmas attached attitude permeates through to the sequel which unites them both again after 9 years in as unexpected circumstances as they had departed.
Plot Jesse is in Paris to promote his new book which is the story of his fateful one nightstand with Celine. Celine, now an environmental activist and amateur songwriter, shows up at the bookstore where Jesse is meeting the press, and they spend the next few hours reflecting, regretting, and romancing until, inevitably, Jesse has to fly back to New York. Time permeates the story with the same emergency as it did in the prequel. Linklater weaves his stories in real time, where today is always the day.
The contrast between the two movies is stark for as compared to Before Sunrise, the characters in this one are older more skeptical and perhaps more wiser and so is the film. The dialogue, mature and consistently invigorating is devoid of filler. The real-time storytelling and the impressions that time has left on both the characters are visible. We are shown honestly and intimately that the characters are older with different perspectives now on life and love, but equally as beautiful and graceful as their younger selves. Their maturity does not come as a rude shock for someone more used to their carefree abandon in Before Sunrise, it comes rather as a natural progression which is real and so earthly, something which could happen to any of us.
Before Sunset is ‘romance for the realists’. The quest for happiness and love is never so present as it is in Before Sunset, no matter how far removed the protagonists maybe from our day to day lives, we feel an instant connect with them, associating with the story making us feel it’s a slice of our own lives. It is embarrassingly emotionally intimate; it makes you squirm and twitch with the palpable tension, which is so evident between the two and one that permeates the entire ambience. At times, that tension peaks and our characters break down into fast-paced hysteria as they impart their neuroses on each other. The sexual tension is so intense at moments that we almost are pleading them to stop talking, embrace each other and get it over with. It is real and not reel romance, there is a certain familiarity about the whole thing, anyone who has ever been caught with a love affair after a long time would find it incredibly relevant.
Hawke and Delpy wrote the screenplay themselves and their rapport with each other shows right through the movie. What makes Before Sunset an ‘actor’s movie’ is the complete freedom which Linklater has given them, they have chosen their own nuances, their ways of walk and their moods and tone right through the film. They lead up to personal details very delicately beginning with abstract conversation and then easing to more personal questions, questions that have haunted both of them for a long time, one’s they have waited long to ask each other. That doesn’t mean the movie is confessional by any means. They are reticent and wary; they curb their instinctive spontaneity, which they had 9 years ago. They have responsibilities and their own lives beyond their love story, they are more mature and that reflects in their body language, mannerisms and conversation with each other, yet the undercurrent of familiarity and comfort is there to be seen.
The best thing about the movie is its realism. Linklater shows romance just as imperfect as it is. Before Sunset poses the question, ‘what if you had a second chance with the one that got away?’ Both Celine and Jesse are into relationships, have responsibilities and cannot chuck it all coz they have met again. They do not manifest their feelings for each other with outwardly open gestures, yet its there for us to see. The intensity of the dialogs, the oratory of their eyes and their body language all combine together to make it perfectly clear that they are meant for each other.
Performances Hawke puts in an inspired performance as the self deprecating author. Delpy seems to have picked up from where she left in Before Sunrise, subdued sweet and intelligent yet witty. Linklater borders on brilliance as he ensures great real life feel to the movie. He shoots long shots where the actors have to speak out their scripted dialogues in a slice of life tone but have also to walk through the city with an air of conviction to it. Technically the film is a marvel as the varying shades of the day have been captured with imagination and ingenuity. Screenplay shines through the movie, as the dialogs are intelligent, mature and very believable, yet they don’t bore you one bit, keeping you rasped in attention to their talk.
As the time for his flight comes closer and the sun is about to set, Jessie asks Celine to sing him the songs she has composed, where she does mention obliquely to the love of her life, Jessie himself. She also keeps reminding him of the fact that “Baby, you are gonna miss that plane”, but then what is life which cannot alter a plan.
The movie is not the kind of sequel, which would give you all the answers that were posed by its prequel. It does answer some questions, but it raises fresh set of questions as the movie ends on a note, which is ripe for a fitting finale, another sequel that sees the logical culmination of the story.
Questions
When love makes you strong and happy why do they say ‘Falling in love’. Why doesn’t any one ever rise in love?
Is being in love foolish, does it make one overtly sentimental?
Why do most films fail to capture the true essence of love and show love just the way it is?
Which for you is the best romantic movie ever made and what endears the movie so much to you? Make one choice in English and one in Hindi/Vernacular.