The movie Before Sunrise had ended in an uncertainty and left us wondering if Jesse and Celine ever met again. The question in our mind remained unanswered for 9 years. Nine years is a very long time; and lots of things happened in those nine years. In 9 years time, Richard Linklater made 6 more movies, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy acted in a dozen other movies. And after 9 years the three finally sat down together to write a screenplay which would be a sequel to Before Sunrise.
The trio kept in mind, the growth of the characters Jesse and Celine, the age and the maturity factor, and they came up with a beautiful screenplay. The movie was titled Before Sunset and it released in 2004. This movie was again shot with a steadicam, just like the prequel; and had those long shots, only this time the venue was Paris.
The movie starts in a bookstore in Paris called Shakespeare & Co. Bookstore where Jesse is addressing a small gathering of journalists who have come to interview him on the promotion tour of his newly written book This Time. When asked if the book is autobiographical, Jesse cleverly quotes Thomas Wolfe and begins “…he says that we are the sum of all the moments of our lives, and that, uh, anybody who sits down to write is gonna use the clay of their own life, that you can’t avoid that“. But when the journalist is adamant on knowing if he actually met a French woman, about which the book is, he says …Yes. Just when he is answering those queries he spots Celine and he wants to be done with the questions soon so he can catch-up with her after 9 long years.
I recalled that Kunal Kohli’s movie Hum-Tum had the same opening sequence. I cross-checked the release dates of the two movies and it turns out that Hum-Tum released just 3 weeks before this movie. Is this ‘book launch interview’ sequence a mere coincidence or what?Anyways, after the interview Jesse has a flight to catch and he has time only until 7.30pm to spend with Celine. Celine clearly has lost weight, while Jesse looks a lot mature with his moustache and goaty. They start walking to a coffee shop and Celine tells Jesse that the bookstore was her favourite one and she frequents it, thats how she was aware of his visit. When Jesse asks if she has read the book; Celine says that she has read it twice and she found it really very romantic and compliments him on his wonderful writing.
Now comes the awkward moment, Celine asks Jesse if he had come to Vienna after 6 months, as promised before parting. This was just like An Affair To Remember … though I will not reveal anything more, all I can say is things don’t remain the same hereafter.
The two move on to talk about other things as they have a lot to catch-up with…like how is life and how things have changed in the past 9 years. Celine informs Jesse that she works for Green Cross which is an environmental organization and they work on issues like clean water, disarmament of chemical weapons and that she had been to India a year ago working on a water treatment plant and she mentions how the cotton industry is a major source of pollution. That felt good, India being referenced in an American movie set in Paris, albeit not a good picture. She goes onto say “we’re moving all our industry to developing nations. We can get cheap labor free of any environmental laws. OK, the weapon industry is booming. Five million people die every year from preventable water disease. So, how is the world getting any better?“
I love such conversations, I mean, why do they show in every other movie how boys and girls discuss only relationships, sunsigns, horoscopes, looks and make-up. Grow up, show some real conversation as above.
Jesse and Celine reach a coffee-shop and make themselves comfortable. Thats when Celine reveals that she was in New York University from ‘96 to ‘99. And Jesse is just shocked to hear that because he has been in NY since ‘98 and was wondering how they never crossed paths. That’s destiny for you. Two lovers who were supposed to meet in Vienna after 6 months of their first meeting, they don’t meet even in NY[though Jesse mentions that a few days before his wedding he did feel that he had spotted Celine in a Deli] and finally they see each other again in Paris.
In the coffeshop they discuss about how their personal appearance has changed, about Celine’s life and studies in US and how Jesse was a drummer in a rock-band. Jesse mentions about how he doubts the Buddhist viewpoint on desire … “its what all those Buddhist guys say, right? You know, liberate yourself from desire and you’ll find that you already have everything you need“. While still on topic of religion and Buddhism, Celine talks about one of her boyfriends who visited monasteries of Asia because “each time he went to one of those monasteries, a monk offered to suck his cock. True story!“. This had me in splits.
They pay the coffee bill and are back on the streets, in a garden. Jesse reminsces about the night that they had spent in Vienna, and they just mess with each other on the question of whether or not they had made love that night; because they both recall the night differently. Celine then speaks about her complicated relationship with her mom and granny and how its been difficult for her to cope-up with her granny’s death. She says “Memory is a wonderful thing, if you don’t have to, uh, deal with the past“.
They finally come down to discussing about their personal lives. Jesse tells her about his wife who teaches and a 4 yr old son named Henry. Celine tells him that she is seeing a photo-journalist who covers wars and that keeps him out-of-town most of the times. They realize how they have not just grown apart, but also grown old…mature and responsible.
Celine and Jesse take a small boatride and she tells him things about Eiffel tower and cathedrals. He confesses that he wrote the book so that he could record every detail of their meeting and the wonderful time they spent together. Celine is happy to hear this because she herself is not the kind of person who can move-on with the snap of a finger; she lingers around old memories. Towards the end of this chat they exchange phone numbers so that they can keep in touch and they wonder why they did not do this nine years ago.
Time is running out, Jesse calls for his car and since he wants to make maximum use of time, he suggests that they go to her apartment. While they are in the car Celine gets emotional talking about all her ex-boyfriends who walked away from her life …”But what does it mean the right man? The love of your life? The concept is absurd; the idea that we can only be complete with another person is…EVIL! RIGHT?“. To pacify her, Jesse says “You can’t do that, you can’t live your life trying to avoid pain“. The car halts at her apartment.
What I truely love about the movie is the fact that the characters remained true-to-life; Richard Linklater did not try to make it a happy-ending. He has shown a real-life situation about how people meet, drift apart and how things between them change; how they handle the change. The conversation is crisp and the dialogues are excellent, worth quoting from. As usual, each shot blends into the next one without any jitters; and the camera focus is excellent. Since its shot in real-time, it gives us the feeling of moving along with the character, always attached; it’s to the credit of writer/director Richard Linklater.
In the last few scenes, in Celine’s apartment, she seats him and sings him a waltz and Jesse wonders if she has written those lines for him. Later they put on some music and she dances to the song; she reminds him about his flight. The movie again ends in ambiguity because we don’t really know what happens next, whether Jesse takes the flight or not!
This post was first published on PFC
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