Before Sunset (2004)

This is simply one of the best movies I've seen, with very few qualifications. Maybe I should say that this is one of the best "simple" movies I've seen. Perhaps it is a bit like cooking, use fresh and quality ingredients and you can make something great without a lot of unnecessary stuff. Unfortunately, Hollywood just doesn't seem to have the ambition to make these type of movies anymore.

In any event, this is one of the few sequels that matches the intensity and integrity of the original. First, it has many simple, yet stylish and honest shots. Perhaps the Scorcese shot is used too much (i.e. following the actors on a long walk without cutting a la Goodfellas kitchen scene), but I don't think so because it makes sense in the context of the movie. Second, many of the shots have interesting emotive effect. For instance, towards the end of the movie, after these "lovers" are fighting the clock (because Ethan Hawke's character needs to catch a flight) and are cruising down the river, they are so engrossed in their conversation and the fact that they are trying to get so much out of the last few minutes they don't notice their ride is coming to an end. However, we the viewer can see what the characters either don't see or don't want to see, that the boat is crossing over the river to its destination and the departure no one wants to deal with. The viewer is given a wonderful sense of dread as the bank approaches in the background, because we know what is going to happen when the ride ends, and like the characters, we don't want it to end either. Even if the film borrows heavily from other great movies (e.g. My Dinner with Andre) it is independent of those influences.

Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke were great per usual. Making the dialogue ring true is difficult, but they pull it off. As before, they completely capture the nature of the intimate and friendly conversational style of friends or lovers that is normally edited out of most movies. When people talk, things are not always sequential or rationale, and unlike most movies this movie doesn't try and correct that. Not for a moment does the audience find themselves thinking that this is some sort of charade and no one would ever talk like that. The dialogue is intelligent and insightful, but that is because the characters are intelligent and have a knack for being brutally honest with their thoughts and feelings.

This is movie excellence, and I'm glad some film makers are still trying to make art. Despite the romantic themes this isn't a date flick, so be prepare to deal with the difficult and often unresolved issues of love and relationships that arise.

Fmovies: Nine years on Celine and Jessie meet in Paris not entirely by destiny or sheer force of circumstance... Nine years ago I loved Before Sunrise so much! And identified with it even though I was far from home not out of choice - and a war of the kind that bothered Celine in Bosnia was going on in my own country... But I was young. I was 24, actually, very romantic and innocent. Now I Know how things work a little better. The world, relationships. But I'm still plunging into causes for their own sake. And I'm still a reasonably normal person. Just like the characters in this film. Paris has never looked simpler in its casual elegance. Dialogue has never seemed more natural. A script never touched real life like this one so effortlessly. I'm in love with these characters - and with the ending... This is how European Cinema used to be - and Hollywood, too for that matter. Naturally real and magical in the details.

I had not seen the prequel to this although my date had and she filled me in on many details. While the experience of this film would be enriched by having seen the preceding film first, it certainly stands satisfactorily alone.

In many ways, this reminded me very much of one of my most favorite movies of all time, "My Dinner with André," in which just 2 characters talking comprised the whole movie. In that movie, the friends had been close, drifted apart, and then had a brief reunion at a dinner at which they caught up with what the other had been doing. The two principals, André Gregory and Wallace Shawn, played themselves and each represented one side of a dialectic, say the side of romanticism vs. a conventional reality. "Before Sunset" is parallel in many ways.

At one level we have a romantic story -- two people who'd briefly been lovers nine years before and lost touch meet again. They spend an afternoon together. Will they try to fulfill what they'd started?

At another level, we have the charm of conversation and exploration, of reminiscing, of gradually feeling out and discovery of how much do I have in common with this person now? -- where has this person been? -- what are they capable of now? -- how much freedom of choice do I have, does this other person have -- to make decisions? Etc.

While Celine and Jesse have a capacity for relating and talking, they also have somewhat opposite ways of viewing the world and relationships -- Celine is more cynical and reserved; Jesse is more open to settling for the "not-perfect-but-good-enough."

There are possibly a few people who have not had the personal experiences that at least somewhat relate to the premise in this film -- a relationship in which one wonders, "what would have happened if I'd pursued that relation?" but probably most people have. And the other dilemma, of meeting again that someone but by now being involved in relationships of responsibility -- my family, my children, my present life. What would it do to them if I were to pursue my own happiness at the expense of them? Can I do that? Can I value the chance of my own happiness above theirs? Etc.

The film, fortunately, gives us no answers to these essential questions but it does pose them in a way that makes us consider them.

Delpy and Hawke are given screenwriter credits and I feel sure that they must've contributed a great deal to the feeling of seamless, natural dialogue.

GREAT movie. No movie satisfies everyone, of course, but at the time I wrote this, slightly over 50% of the voters gave it a 10/10. For those of us in that group, it's a great film.

Before Sunset fmovies. I will be the first to announce that I was not a huge fan of the original film. While I thought that it was interesting to see as well as an untapped concept in Hollywood, I felt that the characters were too forced coupled with a very amateurish and repetitive moments. It was an average film that seemed to be lacking bits of the human element. It needed something more. At the time I couldn't put my finger on it, but after seeing Before Sunset, I could see what it was. Maturity. This may sound strange, but I felt that Jesse and Celine were too perfect in the first film. They lacked connectiveness to the average person. I couldn't see myself in this situation. Perhaps if I would have seen the original film in 1995 instead of a couple of years ago, it would have been closer, but I just couldn't capture the moment. In Before Sunset, I feel head over feet for both Jesse and Celine.

They seemed to have grown and experienced a life that was all their own. They seemed more passionate, more powerful, and especially more human. From their first meeting in the bookstore until the finale in Celine's apartment, I was fully immersed in their conversation. I wanted to know everything I could about both of them, and I did. I loved hearing about Celine's passion for the environment, and Jesse's distraught marriage. It brought these two characters out of the screen and into our lives. Whether it was a scripted story or if Hawke and Delpy were playing off each other, it worked. I witnessed in this film two people who were made for each other. It was more obvious in this film than in the prior outing.

What made this film work on such a higher level than the first were the actors. They have grown and emerged as two important commodities in the Hollywood community. This is probably Hawke's greatest performance in years. His relaxed actions made us feel relaxed around him, yet quietly pushing for him to be closer to Celine. His pushy sexual advances seemed less forced and instead more like honest love. He looked and felt like a man that has been dreaming of this encounter all his life, and it finally happened. You could see the excitement in his eyes to see Delpy again. It was more than just acting, he put so much heart into this performance that it was clearly displayed for all to see. The same goes for Delpy. At the beginning of this film, I didn't like her character. She seemed rough and rigid around the edges, constantly giving off that feeling that she was harboring a secret that she didn't want Hawke to know. As her character grew in this film, I understood why. She had a different life after the encounter than Hawke did. While he still longed for Celine in his heart, he did move on. She longed for Jesse in her heart, and to this day could not find anyone to replace his purity. I loved Celine much more in the sequel because she kept us guessing. Did she remember their night together? Did she really loose her grandmother, or did she just not show up that day in Vienna? Was the song just for Jesse? So many questions left me wanting more and more and more.

Finally, I would like to say that Linklater is growing with his films, and this was a crowning achievement for him. He powerfully and delicately built a sequel that was for superior than the original. He continued with a similar format as the first, but gave us stronger characters and another beautiful city. The language in this film is intense. Listen to the words that come from Ethan and Julie, they embody so much of our culture and our

"Before Sunrise" was one of the most beautiful independent love stories of the 90's. Part of its appeal came from the open ending. We didn't know how the lives of these two young people would continue and what would become of them. The whole movie was like a snapshot that left the rest to our imagination. A sequel to such a story seemed to be unnecessary, but apparently director Richard Linklater himself couldn't stop thinking about these two intriguing characters and had to envision their lives after this one fateful day in Vienna.

Here it is now, the most unlikely sequel I have ever seen, "Before Sunset" - made not for money but for pure artistic purpose only. Much of the magic of part one could have been destroyed, but somehow Linklater and his two main actors managed to pull it off. "Before Sunset" takes place nine years after Jesse and Celine first met and as soon as the movie starts you feel like you meet old friends you haven't seen in a long time. You know these people and immediately feel at home with them. I was afraid that "Before Sunset" might give answers to questions that shouldn't be answered in the first place. If "Before Sunrise" was a dream that two young people had, then this movie could only be the rude awakening, the confrontation with reality. And somehow it is just that. It's a bit disillusioning to hear that all did not turn out as well as one might have imagined. We learn that Jesse and Celine are not particularly happy in their lives and that they are not really the romantic persons they used to be nine years ago. The soothing thing to see, however, is that they are still here. They both have passed their 30th birthday, they have jobs and their future is more or less decided, but they're still longing for passion in their lives and as soon as they meet each other, it's there again. They might have given up a lot of their dreams and beliefs but one thing remains true: their feelings for each other. While they're talking it's like they turn back time and become the young, hopeful people they once were again. I'm getting a bit carried away, but that's the beauty of these two movies, "Sunrise" and "Sunset". The story sucks you in and you're not able to stop thinking about it for a long while.

Another thing "Before Sunset" did, it made me reflect on my own life. How have I changed in the past nine years? What has become of my dreams? Obviously, I have gotten more cynical, because at times I was irritated by Celine's talk about environmental problems and her emotional outbursts. It took me way longer than last time to "bond" with her character this time around.

Anyway, the performances by Hawke and Delpy are wonderful once again. Their acting is as natural as can be, and thinking of Hawke's recent divorce in real life you wonder how much of his character in the movie is based on his own personal experiences.

Unfortunately, the movie is over way too soon. After about an hour you have already arrived at the final scene - a scene that is just amazing. It makes you hope that somehow everything will work out for Jesse and Celine and that maybe they will stay together this time. As part one, "Before Sunset" doesn't have a definite ending, though.

It's sure nice to see that apparently Linklater cares about Jesse and Celine as much as I do and made such a good sequel. He could probably even make a third part. &quo

Before Sunset is one of those movies, you either love, or you hate.

Personally, I loved it.

Now, I recommend watching "Before Sunrise" first, however it isn't necessary. Before Sunset does a good job of reviewing what had happened, therefore if you decide to watch it Before watching "Sunrise" you have nothing to worry about.

Some scenes are extremely well done. The characters are picture perfect, and the movie itself, is breathtaking. The aura of the movie is so spectacular, that it will inspire young directors out there, to pick up their video cameras are start filming.

An 80 minute movie, about two lovable characters and what they have to say, may sound boring. But the way it's done in Before Sunset, will sweep this impression right off your feet.

Julie and Ethan play two of the most honest and true characters I have ever seen, they are known as Jesse and Celine. And while much of the credit must go to the characters themselves, you musn't forget the actor and actress who played them.

Julie is perfect as Celine. The young french actress is so natural in front of the camera. Definitely, has potential.

Ethan is also very very honest, he seems so comfortable character that that you forget your watching a movie, and not a home-made video.

Both play with such honest expression, and such trueness, that they are so natural, Before Sunset becomes no longer a movie. It feels as if you are eavesdropping on two extremely developed people. It's such an intimate environment, that you never want to leave.

Before Sunset... 9.901/10*****