Before Sunset

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Before Sunset
Before Sunset film poster
Directed by	Richard Linklater
Produced by	Richard Linklater
Written by	Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy Kim Krizan
Starring	Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Music by	Julie Delpy
Cinematography	Lee Daniel
Distributed by	Warner Independent Pictures
Release date(s)	2004
Running time	80 minutes
Language	English, French
Preceded by	Before Sunrise

Before Sunset (2004) is an American film, the sequel to the film Before Sunrise (1995). Like its predecessor, the film was directed by Richard Linklater. However, this time Linklater shares screenplay credit with both actors from the original film, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Linklater also shares story credit with the original Before Sunrise screenwriter Kim Krizan.

Delpy also wrote two songs featured in the film. A third was included in the closing credits and movie soundtrack.

This film is noted for its use of the Steadicam for tracking shots and its use of long takes, with the longest of the Steadicam takes at about 11 minutes.^[1] Noteworthy too is that the film takes place essentially in real time, i.e. the time elapsed in the story is also the run time of the film. Furthermore, the sequel was also released nine years after Before Sunrise, the same amount of time that has lapsed in the plot since the events of the first movie.

Hawke had suggested the possibility of further films in the series. He said that it would be nice to develop further the course of their relationship.^[2] The film appeared in the wake of Hawke's divorce from Uma Thurman, and some commentators drew parallels between Hawke's own life and the character of Jesse in the film.^[3] Additional comment has noted that both Hawke and Delpy incorporated elements of their own lives into the screenplay,^[1][4] such as the fact that Delpy lived for several years in New York City.

The movie was filmed in 15 days, on a budget of about USD $2 million. Hawke commented on the reason for making the film:

"It's not like anybody was begging us to make a second film. We obviously did it because we wanted to."^[5]

Contents 1 Plot 2 Awards and nominations 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Plot

Nine years have passed since the events of Before Sunrise, when Jesse (Hawke) and Celine (Delpy) had met in Vienna. Since then, Jesse has written a novel, This Time, inspired by his time in Vienna with Celine, and the book has become an American best-seller (Jesse belittles this, arguing that Americans are uneducated about literature) with Jesse doing a book tour. The last stop of the tour across Europe is Paris, and Jesse is doing a reading at the bookstore Shakespeare and Company. As Jesse talks with his audience, flashbacks are seen of him and Celine in Vienna; the memories of their night together have clearly remained with him despite it being nine years later. Three journalists are present at the bookstore, interviewing Jesse: a romantic who is convinced the book's main characters meet again, a cynic who is convinced that they don't and a third one who, despite wanting them to meet again, remains doubtful they actually do. They represent the three possible ways a viewer might guess what the aftermath of "Before Sunrise" might be, according to his own personality. Celine appears in the audience and sees him and he, in turn, recognizes her. Jesse has a short time before his plane departs, and invites Celine to share it with him.

Once the presentation is over, Jesse's editor tells him he's got a plane to catch that very day and so just like in Before Sunrise, Celine and Jesse's reunion is once again constrained by time. Just like in the prequel, the characters are thus forced to make the best of what little time they have together and that makes it easier for their conversations to become ever more personal, starting out with the usual thirty something's themes of work and politics and then, with ever increasing passion approaching their love for each other, just as their time together is running down and their separation is coming nearer.

As they talk, each reveals what has happened since their first meeting. Both are now in their mid thirties. Jesse, now a writer, is married and has a son. Celine has become an advocate for the environment, lived in America for a time, and has a boyfriend, a photojournalist. It becomes clear in the course of their talk, both are dissatisfied to varying degrees with their lives. Jesse reveals that he only stays with his wife out of love for his son. Celine says that she does not see her boyfriend very much because he is so often on assignment.

As they recall their prior meeting in Vienna, they slowly approach the subject of why they did not meet as promised, six months after their first encounter. It turns out that Jesse had returned to Vienna, as promised, but Celine did not, because her grandmother had suddenly died before the scheduled date of the meeting. Because Jesse and Celine had never exchanged addresses, there was no way for them to contact each other and so avoid their missed connection.

Their conversation as they traverse Paris places them in various venues, including a café, a garden, a bateau mouche, and Jesse's hired car for his stay in Paris. Their old feelings for each other are slowly rekindled, even with tension and regret over the missed meeting earlier, as they realize that nothing else in their lives has matched their one prior night together in Vienna. Jesse even admits that he wrote the book in the distant hope of meeting Celine again one day. She says that she felt pain from reading his book. At one point, in the hired car, during a tense moment when Jesse is angry, Celine reaches her hand out to touch Jesse, but pulls back just as he turns to her.

In the concluding scene, Celine and Jesse arrive at her apartment. Jesse learns that Celine has been playing guitar, and persuades her to play a Waltz song (written by Julie Delpy herself), with lyrics about their first encounter.

Jesse plays a Nina Simone CD on the stereo system. Celine dances by herself to the song "Just in Time" as Jesse watches her. As Celine imitates Nina Simone, she slowly says to Jesse:

"Baby ... you are gonna miss that plane."

As the camera slowly pans in, Jesse smiles while nervously fidgeting with his wedding ring and ambiguously responds

"I know,"

leaving the viewer to guess whether he stays or leaves, just like the three journalists interviewing Jesse at his book's presentation in the bookstore where he meets Celine at the beginning of the film.

[edit] Awards and nominations

Awards

• 2004 Boston Society of Film Critics Award - BSFC Award (2nd place)

Nominations

• 2004 77th Academy Awards - Writing Adapted Screenplay for Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, and Kim Krizan.
• 2004 Independent Spirit Awards - Independent Spirit Award for Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, and Julie Delpy
• 2005 Writer's Guild of America USA - WGA Award (Screen) for Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, and Kim Krizan.
• 2004 Berlin International Film Festival - Golden Berlin Bear
• 2004 Gotham Awards - Best Film

[edit] See also

Missed connection is a term that describes the kind of failed meeting the two main characters have 6 months after their original meeting in Vienna. Ways now exist to help people reconnect when this happens.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Before Sunset

• Official website
• Before Sunset at the Internet Movie Database
• Before Sunset at Allmovie
• Before Sunset at Rotten Tomatoes
• Before Sunrise/Sunset Yahoo Group
• Reverse Shot essay on the last shot of the film
• Peter Bradshaw, Review from The Guardian, 23 July 2004.
• Philip French, "Brief re-encounter". The Observer, 25 July 2004.

v • d • e Films directed by Richard Linklater 1990s Slacker (1991) • Dazed and Confused (1993) • Before Sunrise (1995) • subUrbia (1996) • The Newton Boys (1998) 2000s Waking Life (2001) • Tape (2001) • School of Rock (2003) • Before Sunset (2004) • Bad News Bears (2005) • A Scanner Darkly (2006) • Fast Food Nation (2006) • Me and Orson Welles (2009) 2010s Boyhood (2013)