Latest news with #BeforeMidnight
The Guardian
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Before Sunrise review – Richard Linklater's brief encounter defies romantic convention
Not a romcom, not a romantic drama, but just … a romance, a brief encounter on a train without heartache, a strange and wonderful moment-by-moment miracle that never seems cloying or absurd. Richard Linklater's film from 1995 is now re-released for its 30th anniversary, a stretch of time that gives us a chance to ponder the characters' time-travel musings about their future selves. The two sequels Before Sunset (in 2004) and Before Midnight (in 2013) famously reunited the leads and gave us an episodic study of their growing old as a couple welded together by that amazing moment in Vienna; it was an ambitious approach which Linklater brought to its fullest success with his time-lapse portrait Boyhood, which he was working on around the same period. The goateed and sweetly conceited twentysomething Jesse, played by Ethan Hawke, is on a train to Vienna when the smart and beautiful Céline, insouciantly played by Julie Delpy, sits down opposite him and they start talking. Everyone is reading books and even newspapers in 1995, not looking at phones, or posting Instagram selfies – so striking up flirtatious conversations is not quite as difficult, but still a gamble; you can feel Jesse's heart-thumping nerves as he suggests to Céline that she forget about her plans to go to Paris and instead get off the train with him to hang out in Vienna for 24 hours – with no money for a hotel, literally wandering around with him all night, never revealing their surnames. Of course, the comical or cynical or commonsense worldview can see a thousand ways in which this would probably or, rather, definitely go wrong. But it doesn't – and that itself doesn't seem wrong. They never have a serious row and then make up, there are no serious personal revelations which emerge, nothing that catches either of them in a lie which then demands a cathartic apology and moment of self-knowledge. Before Sunset refuses to conform to screenplay-seminar rules. And they have a long scene up in Vienna's Riesenrad ferris wheel without at any time mentioning The Third Man. In fact they just talk … and it isn't insufferable. I can hardly think of a single film which sports so elegantly with the idea of unresolved sexual tension over such an extended stretch of time. When they are in the record shop listening booth (another amazing period touch), smiling, trying not to catch each other's glance, you can see the thought in the face of each. Do we kiss? Do we leave it till later? Would kissing now spoil everything? They actually kiss up in the ferris wheel, and then carry on walking and talking down at ground level, with the unresolved sexual tension taken up a notch. Sex al fresco would be a challenge. Again, you can each see each having the same thought: is what we have right now actually better than sex? It's a pleasure to notice again, or for the first time, all the incidental details. Jesse has a sister, for example, a character destined to be Céline's sister-in-law. Maybe Linklater was considering a film about her. It is the lightness of this film which is still charming; Jesse and Céline are free from everything, free from work worries or family cares, but they are also free from the gravity of cause-and-effect, the world of consequences and responsibilities. They bounce and float around the streets of Vienna like astronauts of love. Before Sunrise is in UK cinemas from 31 January.
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ethan Hawke Remembers 'Before Sunrise''s World Premiere with Julie Delpy 30 Years Ago: 'Great Night'
Ethan Hawke is throwing it back to Before Sunrise! Hawke, 54, shared three images of him, filmmaker Richard Linklater and actress Julie Delpy to Instagram on Monday, Jan. 27 as he recalled in a caption that Before Sunrise premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 30 years ago in 1995. Hawke's post featured an image of him, Delpy, now 55, and Linklater, now 64, on the movie's set and at its world premiere in Utah. "This time 30 years ago our movie Before Sunrise debuted at Sundance. Redford himself introduced it," Hawke wrote in caption, referencing actor and Sundance founder Robert Redford. "Great night." Before Sunrise marked Linklater's fourth film as a director. The movie follows American 20-something Jesse (Hawke) and a young French woman named Céline (Delpy), who meet on a train in Europe and impulsively decide to spend one night together roaming Vienna before Jesse flies back to the United States. Related: Ethan Hawke Hated Being the Gen X Poster Boy After Reality Bites Came Out: 'Now I Love It' (Exclusive) Many Instagram users left comments on Hawke's post celebrating the film's 30th anniversary by noting their love for Before Sunrise, including Topher Grace. "Best trilogy of all time," Grace, 46, wrote in a comment, referencing Before Sunrise's two sequels, 2004's Before Sunset and 2013's Before Midnight. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. The Before trilogy meets Hawke and Delpy's characters several years apart in each installment. In Before Sunset, Jesse and Céline encounter one another again by chance in Paris, where they spend an afternoon together and muse on their decision not to reconnect after their original meeting in Vienna. Before Midnight meets Jesse and Céline after they have been in a relationship and started a family together as they wrangle with the realities of a long-term partnership and their own career paths. Related: Julie Delpy Says She Was Paid 'About a 10th' of Costar Ethan Hawke's Fee in 'Before Sunrise' Delpy, Hawke and Linklater have considered continuing the romance series beyond Before Midnight, but Delpy most recently stated in 2021 that the group had agreed they did not have a pitch for a fourth installment that they were creatively satisfied with. 'What happened was that we — all three of us — agreed that we couldn't come up with something good for a fourth one. It's that simple. We didn't fight. We're not on bad terms. Everyone's happy… It's so much drama for nothing," she told Variety at that time, after reports suggested Delpy had declined to participate in a fourth Before movie. "We just didn't come up with a good idea.' While Delpy clarified that she, Hawke and Linklater had discussed ideas for a new installment, she described the conversations as "basically an idea that none of us liked. That was the end of it. It was half of a bad idea that went around and we were like, 'Let's not do it.' ' Read the original article on People
