BEFORE SUNRISE

US, 1995, 107 minutes, Colour.
Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke.
Directed by Richard Linklater.

Richard Linklater had established himself as a significant director in the early 1990s with such films as Slackers, Dazed and Confused, SubUrbia?. Audiences were not expecting the tenderness and insights of Before Sunrise. The film was screened to acclaim at the 1995 Berlin film festival, winning an ecumenical award.
Julie Delpy was emerging as a screen presence at this time, especially in Kieslovski’s Three Colours: White. Ethan Hawke had appeared as a teenager in films like Dead Poets Society. Both had very successful careers. They contributed to this film with a lively screen presence as well as contributing to the screenplay.
Vienna serves as a very attractive background to the afternoon and evening the couple spend together.
Because of the popularity of the film, Linklater and the stars decided to make a sequel, Before Sunset, in 2004. It was successful as well. And so the film-makers decided to make another sequel, charting the marriage of Jesse and Celine over the previous decade, the quality of their relationship, the personalities changing and unchanging, relating to children, Before Midnight, 2013. This third sequel has a very attractive Greek background.
The Before trilogy is quite a significant group of films about American relationships with Europeans, about relationships between 20 year olds, 30 or olds, 40 year olds.

1. Acclaim for the film, its popularity? Leading to the two sequels?
2. A film of the 1990s, young adults, their twenties, talking, relating, issues and stances, love and sexuality? The future?
3. The director, his slacker films of the 1990s? Going beyond them? The cast, their presence, communication, relationship?
4. The train, the Hungarian and Austrian countryside, the city of Vienna? In its ordinary moments, yet the parks, the river, the monuments? Clubs? An easy tour for the audience? The musical score?
5. The plausibility of the plot, an American, a French woman, the chance meeting, the incident that gave rise to Celine moving her seat? Books in common?? The verve of the characters? The quality of their talk, sharing, relating? Passing the night in Vienna, its effect? The speculations about the future? At the time of the film’s release? With the first sequel? The second sequel? The two as a long-married couple?
6. The night, the afternoon and its activities, activities during the night, into the morning?
7. The quality of the screenplay, scripted, improvised? the characters being established, developed, from friendship, to sharing, secrets, intimacy, issues of life and death, love and sex?
8. The setup, the bickering of the couple, Celine moving, reading, the introductions, going to the diner? At the station in Vienna, Jesse getting off, coming back, asking Celine whether she wanted to stay or come with him?
9. Julie Delpy as Celine? French woman, a speaking English, visits to America? Visiting her grandmother, the stories, the bonding? Living in Paris, her family, ideal, giving her freedom? The happy childhood? Her relationships, her staying, her fears, thinking of death, planes crashing? Telling the stories? The phone charade of each of them ringing a partner?
10. Jesse, American, his life, his parents and their divorce, his father saying that he was not wanted, his sister, going to Madrid, the girlfriend, the breakup? Communicating with his friend about what happened? The flight back? His asking secrets, his own reticence? His theory of the television show and 24 hours on a different character for every day of the year? The charade of the phone call and the self-revelation?
11. The incident of the fortuneteller, reading the palms, Jesse and his cynicism, Celine taking it as real? The payment? Encountering the young man asking for money, writing a poem? A poem for all seasons - and including the word milkshake? Yet a touching poem, Celine’s reaction? meeting the two actors in the street, their initial reaction, language, describing their play? Their not going to see it? Going to the pub, asking for the free bottle of wine, Celine stealing the glasses?
12. In the park for the night, the wine and the glasses, their talk, issues of sexuality, intimacy, commitment?
13. The revelations of the characters of the young man and the young woman, with humour, seriousness?
14. The end, the station, goodbye, leaving? Speculation about the future, the discussions about their marriage and what would happen? And the answers given in the sequels?