A few weeks ago, I watched a mini-series called The Good Lord Bird, which stars Ethan Hawke as abolitionist John Brown. Even though Hawke looks like a batshit insane old man in that show, it sparked an interest/horniness in me re: Ethan Hawke. I've seen a lot of his movies over the years, but never really appreciated him. Also, he was (is?) kind of a dick--he cheated on Uma Thurman and then apparently gossiped negatively about her afterward in some very public ways. So, I pretty much ignored his existence...until now.
I decided to watch some of Hawke's other movies, and I found myself revisiting Richard Linklater's transcendent "Before Trilogy". These three films: Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight follow the relationship between Jesse (Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) over the course of 18 years. To say that the films are, collectively, one of the greatest love stories ever committed to film, is not quite right. There is something bigger, grander, and more existential than a "love story" here. These films are about the passage of time and about the struggle to not regret choices made and not made. But...it's a pretty great love story too.
The film is Before Sunrise, the time is the mid-1990s, the place is Vienna. Jesse and Celine, both in their early 20s, meet on a train traveling through Europe. They strike up a conversation and when Jesse reaches his stop in Vienna, he invites Celine (who is headed for Paris) to get off the train with him and spend the night walking around the city. Jesse has a plane to catch to take him back to America in the morning and since he doesn't have the money for a hotel room, his plan was to just wander around all night. Celine agrees and they spend all night talking and drinking and falling in love.
The chemistry between Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy is B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Everything about it is so natural and unforced. They keep looking at each other when the other isn't looking. It's obvious that Jesse is smitten with Celine from the first moment he sees her, but Celine is more skeptical and cautious about Jesse (a dynamic that continues into the second and third films). Hawke plays Jesse as, like, 10-20% a creep. He sometimes tries to steer the conversation towards sex, he looks at Celine like he wants to eat her--that kind of thing. But because he's charming and, frankly, hot, it doesn't come off as too creepy. But it's just enough to help us understand why Celine would be a little skeptical.
Director Linklater co-wrote Before Sunrise with a female screenwriter, Kim Krizan, in a conscious attempt to make sure the film felt equal between the sexes and it really is a very egalitarian film. Both Jesse and Celine have flaws and quirks. They come together in a beautiful way where neither one pushes the other too quickly. Linklater continued this approach with Before Sunset and Before Midnight, which are both co-written by Delpy and Hawke. Heck, the movies even incorporate some details about Hawke and Delpy's real lives, such as their star signs. This teamwork really gives each film a sense of intimacy and realism you don't often see in romance movies.
After a night of possible lovemaking in a park (the movie is ambiguous about whether or not they have sex), Jesse and Celine part ways at the train station and promise to meet again at that very platform in 6 months...
...cut to 9 years later. The film is Before Sunset, the time period is early 2000s (post 9/11), the place is Paris. Jesse is married with a son and is a successful author. He is on tour for his bestselling novel This Time, which is inspired by his night with Celine. During his final book signing in Paris, literally an hour before he has to leave for the airport, he spots Celine watching him. She sought him out, knowing he would be in town. She, too, is in a relationship.
Since Jesse has an hour or so to kill before heading to the airport, the two walk to a cafe and talk about their lives. The film, which is 80 minutes long, takes place in real time. The more they talk, the more they open up to each other about how much they regret not meeting again at that train platform in Vienna six months after the night they met. Turns out, Celine's grandmother died and the funeral was on the very day they were supposed to meet. At first Jesse says it's not big deal because he didn't show up either...but soon confesses that he did indeed fly from America to Vienna to meet Celine...only for her to not show up. And since they didn't exchange phone numbers or even last names, there was no way to get in touch.
These confessions culminate in a scene in car where both Jesse and Celine reveal that they are not happy in their relationships. It's both cheesy how much they romanticize the other, but also gut-wrenching. The "Before" trilogy does an amazing job of capturing the ridiculous ideas we humans have about relationships (e.g. that soulmates exist, that in a happy relationship nothing will ever go wrong, etc), but also showing how those "ridiculous" ideas can tear us apart and cause genuine pain.
Before Sunset has an ending to make your knees weak: Celine and Jesse go up to Celine's apartment and she makes tea for him and he puts on a Nina Simone record. As she dances to the music, Celine says "Maybe you are gonna miss that plane" and Jesse says "I know"...
...cut to 9 years later. The film is Before Midnight, the time period is 2013, the place is southern Greece. Celine and Jesse have been together for years and have twin daughters. It's their last day of vacation in Greece before they travel back to Paris. Jesse puts Hank, his 13 year old son from his previous marriage, on a plane back to Chicago, where Hank lives with his mother. It's clear Jesse hates that he can't be closer to his son, especially since it will only be a few more years before Hank is grown up and at college.
Jesse and Celine are living the life of a married couple--squabbling, reminding each other about small chores and daily life maintenance. Even on vacation, they find it hard to relax--Celine especially since she's considering a career change and feels that Jesse is subtly pressuring her to move the family to Chicago. After a meal with their friends, Celine and Jesse walk to a hotel--they've been gifted a room for the night away from the group they are vacationing with and, crucially, their kids.
As things start to get sexy, Hank calls Celine (whom he opens up to more than his own father) just to let her know he's landed in Chicago, which leads to an argument between Jesse and Celine. The argument snowballs into a list of resentments the couple doesn't hesitate to air to one another. But unlike many movies in which couples argue, there is still a sense of love and respect between the two lovers. Again, it's obvious that Jesse is 100% crazy about Celine and always has been, where Celine seems resentful and angry at Jesse. However, her resentments are legitimate and understandable--especially to anyone who is a mother. It would be easy to see Celine as the "bad guy", but having watched these movies, we know that Jesse is no walk in the park either (even though they did, in fact, walk--and fuck--in a park).
By the end of the film, the two make up tentatively. One wonders whether they'll "make it" or if they will be split up by the next time we check in on them (which, sadly, might not happen...especially since 2022 is 9 years since the last film. I feel like that window of opportunity is closed). I like to believe that they'll make it work, but that's the romantic in me. I have to wonder if the combination of their passionate first meeting and the agony of their years apart followed by their *extremely* passionate reuniting (they mention in Before Midnight that after Jesse missed the plane in Before Sunset, the two had sex for a week straight and never left the apartment) created enough momentum to push them together for a lifetime. Or, alternatively, if the passion and longing of the first 9 years only served to make the second 9 years pale in comparison. I guess it all depends on your perspective.
A review of the trilogy I watched said that Before Sunrise is about "what could be", Before Sunset is about "what should be/should have been" and Before Midnight is about "what actually is". At the climax of their fight in Before Midnight, Celine tells Jesse she doesn't love him anymore. But later, Jesse tells her "if you want true love, this is it. It's not perfect, but it's real." The mature among us know that love isn't just a feeling--it's an action. But the romantic among us know that the feeling of love is, well, kind of important. You can be completely devoted to someone, but if you feel nothing--or worse, feel contempt--for them, your relationship is dead in the water. Actions be damned.
Taken together, the Before trilogy is a beautiful meditation on time--how it's both short and long--and on how we change and don't change throughout our lives. It's also about relationships and both the power that love has, but also the power that love doesn't have. The films offer no easy answers about love or how to avoid having regrets...and I think that's what makes the trilogy so good. Time, change, and love are concepts that don't have easy answers. The Before trilogy is honest enough to face that fact, but gentle enough to show that maybe it doesn't matter if we ever figure out the answers. Maybe just embracing the moment and embracing love is enough. Perhaps, in the end, it doesn't matter if Jesse and Celine stay together or break up: the fact that they loved and were loved is all that matters.
Before Sunrise: A+
Before Sunset: A
Before Midnight: A
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