I was a bit surprised when I learned a sequel to one of my favorite films of the nineties, Before Sunrise. Before Sunrise wasn’t exactly the kind of film screaming for a sequel, but I have often wondered during sleepless nights if Jesse and Celine met up again in Vienna sixth months later like they promised or if they let the possibility of a lasting relationship and connection slip through their fingers.
Before Sunset answers this question and raises a few more. It would be no stretch to call Before Sunrise the thinking-man’s romantic film. The kind of film college students still on the quest for their first great love experience can debate while sipping large cups of coffee, in between talking about philosophy and the nature of time. Before Sunset is a more refined, more mature. The kind of film thirtysomethings can debate over a finely aged glass of red wine while waiting for a table at a French restaurant.
Both films explore the connection between people in conversation, the way words say everything and nothing at the same time. More importantly this film explores moments. We can be so profoundly caught in a moment that it paralyzes us for the rest of our lives. Whether we like it or not, we are ultimately the sum total of these moments of connection, however fleeting.
Ten years later, Jesse and Celine aren’t that different. Life has made them older, wiser version of the people they were in their early twenties. Jesse, still quick with sarcastic observation, has settled into his skin. The slight insecurity of his youth has been replaced by an intellectual charm. He has published a fictionalized account of his one night in Vienna with the woman of his dreams. Celine, still wondering, still searching, has settled into her skin. Her questioning nature has matured into a fighting spirit. She works as an environmental activist. She relishes the victories, large and small as she still searches, still questions. As they wander through the streets of Paris in one long, uninterrupted conversation, Jesse and Celine slowly reveal the divergent path their lives have taken over the last decade might have lead them to exactly the same place.
Like its predecessor, Before Sunset does not wrap its story up in a nice, little bow at the end which is why it is the most romantic movie I’ve seen since Before Sunrise.
I’ve often said, to nobody in particular, that my most profound relationships feel like one, long conversation. We pick up right where we left off as if no time has past, as if nothing has changed. These are the relationships I cherish and the relationships that have changed me the most.
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