Comments on The House Next Door: Before Sunrise and Before Sunset: Laden With Happi...

Terrific essay--I love these films, and enjoyed re...

2010-01-14T19:55:56.942-05:00

Terrific essay--I love these films, and enjoyed reading your takes on the subtle differences in the characters personalities and outlooks between the films.

What stood out for me when revisiting these films many times over the years is that I think it is the most impressive display of "realistic body language" I have ever seen between two actors in a film. Everyone knows the quasi-famous listening booth scene in Before Sunrise, but how about the one a few scenes before in the trolley when Celine is confessing her "first sexual feelings towards a person". While she is talking, some of her long hair falls down from behind her ear in front of her face. Jesse then reaches to push it back behind her ear, then changes his mind (probably thinking that kind of intimacy is premature) and just gestures at the hair instead. All the while she is telling her story about "Jean Mark" at camp and notices Jesse's gesture and casually tucks the hair back behind her ear. There are about two dozen moments or sequences like this in these films and they are all captivating.

The quality of the dialogue combined with the naturalness of the performances makes for a cinematic romance for the ages.

Great appreciation of these two films. I enjoyed B...

2010-01-14T18:15:24.508-05:00

Great appreciation of these two films. I enjoyed Before Sunrise but really feel Before Sunset is the more complex and interesting of the two. I honestly don't want to see a follow-up. For good or ill, I'd prefer to let the remainder of the Jesse/Celine story play out in our collective imaginations, like the dream in Waking Life. I hesitate to consider what another ten years might bring, really.

Pretty good piece of writing, however I have one q...

2010-01-14T13:18:34.596-05:00

Pretty good piece of writing, however I have one quibble. Occasionally the Godfather parts I and II were evoked as being representative of the "of one piece" mentality that Before Sunrise and After Sunset have similar aspirations toward; which is fine and astute. However, there is a Godfather Part III with arguable quality, of which no mention was made. Then there was a call for a third Linkletter/Hawke/Delpy movie (I just realized I didn't know what to call it. "During Noontime?") without realizing just exactly was being asked for. Screaming "NOOOOOO!" arms cradling Sofia Coppola on the cathedral steps. Perhaps I'm just pulling a Jesse.

Though a third movie would be sweet (as in synonymous with tender, not awesome), its hard to imagine how the time would work in it. Before Sunset happened in real time, which was, to me, an amazing feat (and fitting with the evocative, swirling camera, as well as the urgency and need the two seem to be impressing on one another). Perhaps these two characters are just together and we see their normal Saturday? Or the whole weekend. Long and languid, with frequent edits so it seems like they're always getting ready for a meal. "Until Monday"?

Fantastic essay!

2010-01-14T02:01:47.899-05:00

Fantastic essay!

Great post. You really captured the feel of these...

2010-01-12T09:47:12.099-05:00

Great post. You really captured the feel of these two undercelebrated movies.

I've seen them many times, Before Sunset even more than the first. It occurs to me that Hollywood romances have trained us to think of endings in black-and-white terms, they're together and happy or not together and unhappy. I think it's possible though that for Jesse and Celine, the ending is more like, say, Casablanca -- "We'll always have Paris. We didn't have, we lost it. We got it back last night" -- and now free of the ghosts of nine years before (and knowing each other's phone number), Jesse can get back to his son and Celine can get back to her work, both free of the crushing sense that they missed out on the most important relationship of their lives. And if later they can figure out how to do all that together in the same place, well, that's icing on the cake.

I'll have to watch the pair of movies again and think about it some more. In the meantime, the dog has just reminded me it's time for her morning walk ...

Good work.

Thank you for your kind words. WJ, for the recor...

2010-01-11T20:06:48.505-05:00

Thank you for your kind words.

WJ, for the record, I see the Waking Life vignette as Wily's dream.

This article beautifully captures the experience o...

2010-01-11T17:19:09.471-05:00

This article beautifully captures the experience of watching these films,and especially of watching them back-to-back. If I often find myself revisiting Before Sunset more often than the first film, it is probably because I (at 24, no less) see that film as prescriptive literature; it's also far more accomplished, in cinematic terms (that cut from young Celine to 2003 Celine gets me every time).

One idea to consider, however, is the ambiguous status of the Jesse-Celine vignette in Waking Life. While the scene might most obviously be taken as a dream manifestation of the Wily Wiggins "Actually Did Stay at the Bus Station" character (who may have seen Before Sunrise and wonders what might happen next for those characters), I prefer to think of it as occurring after Before Sunset, either the next morning, or years later.

A beautiful, personal piece of writing that befits...

2010-01-11T15:07:09.565-05:00

A beautiful, personal piece of writing that befits such a romantic duo as these films. Thank you.

Great article. These two films deserve this sort ...

2010-01-11T09:01:16.316-05:00

Great article. These two films deserve this sort of praise, which they usually don't get, at least from folks I know. On a side note, I recently watched Zoe Cassavetes' not so good film, Broken English, which really tries to reimagine the moods, themes, etc of these Linklater films and does so really horribly. In fact, in the last scene of the film, the male character says "you are gonna miss that plane," the exact same line from Before Sunset, and I thought that was cheap.