[Movie Review] 'Before' Trilogy : Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight | sillyandordinarygirl
By Lasmarya Hadi Purwanto - January 03, 2018
The "Before" trilogy: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013) were written by director Richard Linklater, and the two main actors in the movie Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. In which both of the sequels earned widespread acclaim, positive reviews, were nominated to a numerous amount of awards and even won some of them. All three movies gained the minimum rating of 8 in imdb and the average 95% in Rotten Tomatoes.
Soooo, I spent my year-end holidays binge-watching lots of movies, but this trilogy struck my mind the most. I actually have this "Before" trilogy in my "to-watch" list for quite a while now, ever since it's mentioned in the K-drama "It's Okay, That's Love" (episode 11, guys, if you are wondering!), and when I searched the information about it (yes, I'm that curious!, don't worry! I'm not a stalker, guyss!), I was intrigued. It's claimed as "the longest love story in film", because the story continues within the span of 18 years. And, finally during this holiday, I got a chance to watch the trilogy. On top of that, I'm happy that I watch all three of them consecutively, because I'm just that person who can't wait for the next episode to come out, especially 9 years? Come on! Haha I can't even wait for another week, yes, I prefer to wait until some dramas or series ends, then start watching back to back. But seriously, if you watch all of them in a row, the sensation is awesome, it kinda feels like you're being thrown over time, forward to 9 years later to each sequel, just like you're riding that spaceship and go through a wormhole. It's really FUN. So, let's get started, shall we?
ATTENTION: May include SPOILER!
Soooo, I spent my year-end holidays binge-watching lots of movies, but this trilogy struck my mind the most. I actually have this "Before" trilogy in my "to-watch" list for quite a while now, ever since it's mentioned in the K-drama "It's Okay, That's Love" (episode 11, guys, if you are wondering!), and when I searched the information about it (yes, I'm that curious!, don't worry! I'm not a stalker, guyss!), I was intrigued. It's claimed as "the longest love story in film", because the story continues within the span of 18 years. And, finally during this holiday, I got a chance to watch the trilogy. On top of that, I'm happy that I watch all three of them consecutively, because I'm just that person who can't wait for the next episode to come out, especially 9 years? Come on! Haha I can't even wait for another week, yes, I prefer to wait until some dramas or series ends, then start watching back to back. But seriously, if you watch all of them in a row, the sensation is awesome, it kinda feels like you're being thrown over time, forward to 9 years later to each sequel, just like you're riding that spaceship and go through a wormhole. It's really FUN. So, let's get started, shall we?
ATTENTION: May include SPOILER!
as credited from onfoodandfilm
There are a lot of dialogues that I love in these three movies, quotes that are soooo beautifully-written, but I guess there's no point in quoting them in this blogpost, (apart from making it even longer), if you don't watch the movies, experiencing firsthand the feeling they share through them,
which will let you understand and "connected" to the quotes even more.
"From Before Sunrise to Before Midnight,
the movies have given us major lessons on love, togetherness, separation, and life. " - scoopwhoop
But if you're curious about the quotes, click the link above ↑
Overall, I'm glad I took this roller-coaster ride, hitchhiking all through Jesse and Céline's 20s, 30s, and even 40s. It's really well-written, I love that it's simple but splendid at the same time, that it is somehow surreal but also realistic. It's been a great movie-marathon with the trilogy. ❤
BEFORE SUNRISE (1995)
It tells the story of a young American man, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and a young French woman, Céline (Julie Delpy) who meet on an Eurail train and get down together in Vienna, where they spend that night walking around the city and getting to know one another before Jesse's flight back in the morning.
That's all! It's really all, I mean, the main plot is really simple, the two main characters mostly talk while casually strolling around Vienna, sharing their thoughts about life and love as the night goes. It's really interesting how their "simply-talking" hooked me through the entire of the movie, and surprisingly, it's not boring at all (for a "romantic" me), their insights are so realistic and I love the way they interact, in which they both totally open up, and they can just talk about anything, there's not even a room for dead air. Their interaction is also not the kind of "trying to seduce for one night stand", but it's purely two strangers communicating through the night in a foreign city, being their true selves, because they know that it may be their last chance to see each other. And, the one that I love the most, is that the main actors play so so so so WELL, that it doesn't even look like they're acting, it looks like they're just being themselves, with all the witty dialogues seemingly unscripted, the words just flow from them, and it's as if we're not watching a movie, but like we're there with them in Vienna, following their stroll, listening to this couple of youngster talking and eventually finding attraction to one another.
Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke were once asked "How do you guys get into character?" in an interview with the Oscars, she answered, "We can't act, because if we act, it doesn't work, this film has to be..it's not that if we act, it doesn't work. If we sense we're acting, it just becomes fake."
It's really amazing how something so simple is developed into something so beautiful, and so real, I understand that maybe it is because the two actors are also involved in the script-writing(although they are not credited in the first movie), and I really love the idea that the director let the actors take part in it, but honestly, I do think that a good relationship between man and woman should be like that, it's where you can have a long conversation, you can talk about everything, staying awake the whole night, getting to know your partner better through communicating, instead of just the "get-laid" part. Oops, did I just say that?
taken from blu-ray.com
BEFORE SUNSET (2004)
continues the story in Before Sunrise, where Jesse and Céline meet nine years later in Paris, as Jesse has become a successful best-seller author, who writes a book called This Time, based on the one night he spent with her in Vienna. He is stopping by Paris as a part of his book-tour around Europe when Céline comes to visit him in a bookstore where he's having a book reading with a bunch of journalists.
This time, their encounter is supposedly brief, as Jesse has to (again) catch his flight just after sunset, so they only have a couple of hours "before sunset" to do the catching up, and the cool thing is, the whole movie is taken in "REAL TIME", so it feels even more REAL as we follow their rendezvous while walking around Paris, talking about how their lives have been all those years, how Jesse has been married with one son, but still feeling empty, how Céline becomes an environmentalist, and how lonely she feels, that she won't be able to fully love anyone, which leads back to that one summer night they spent together, and the heartbroken, (SPOILER!) as they foolishly decided not to exchange number, that made them lost contact for 9 years, which resulted in a stronger longing for each other.
I need not to say, (but I still want to say it!), that the two actors "again" showcase a very wonderful chemistry in this sequel, and I'm enthralled in their "another" casual conversation. OMG, how can they make something as simple as walking-and-talking become something so enchanting?
BEFORE MIDNIGHT (2013)
is set another nine years after Before Sunset, in which Jesse and Céline spend a summer vacation together with their twin girls in Greece. It is apparent that Jesse and Céline have been together since the event in Before Sunset. The movie begins with a scene where Jesse drops his teenage son, Hank, off to the airport for his flight back to U.S, after spending some summer time with the couple. On the way back to the place they stay, they start discussing their concerns about Hank having to grow up without enough "presence" of a father, and Céline's issue with her career, having to decide on a job that she doesn't like.
A little bit different from the first two movies, is that there's no clock ticking, a time limit in which Jesse has to catch a flight, and it includes some interactions between the couple with some friends, who are staying with them and also who pay for a hotel room for them to have a night alone. And it is in the hotel room, where they had the most fierce arguments, which they argue about their kids, parenting, familyhood, their present life and even their future together.
It is through this third trilogy, that we're hit by the reality that life is not always a bed of roses, that problems come and go in our life, there's no such thing called "love conquers it all", or maybe just like what Jesse said in the end of the movie,"If you want love, then this is it. This is real life. It's not perfect but it's real."
from amazon.com
Before Sunrise, is more about two people in their 20s who met by chance. both looking for that meaning of life, existence and love; Before Sunset is more about two people in their 30s who are yearning for that true love, realizing what they want in their life, and making decisions; while Before Midnight is totally a mature-up version, two people in their 40s with kids facing the kinds of problems that couples deal with in real life, about knowing that life is not always perfect.
which will let you understand and "connected" to the quotes even more.
"From Before Sunrise to Before Midnight,
the movies have given us major lessons on love, togetherness, separation, and life. " - scoopwhoop
But if you're curious about the quotes, click the link above ↑
Overall, I'm glad I took this roller-coaster ride, hitchhiking all through Jesse and Céline's 20s, 30s, and even 40s. It's really well-written, I love that it's simple but splendid at the same time, that it is somehow surreal but also realistic. It's been a great movie-marathon with the trilogy. ❤
2 comments
Me here watching the trilogy because of the third part mentioned in It's okay that's love too. The movies were such a rich feast to ones loving the tiny things that makes the love. I love many things in these movies, the natural acting, the real-life dialogues, the chemistry between the two actors. And even when the movies were filmed long ago, I don't feel them outdated at all.
ReplyDeleteHi, there! Me too. I watched them because it was mentioned in It's Okay That's Love too hahaha I totally agree with you. Their acting was soooo natural, it did feel like we're watching a real relationship filmed :D and I love how the scene was shot as if we're walking with them along the way throughout the movie. :D
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