'Before Sunset'
The Ringer's Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Mallory Rubin have one day to find out if they should pod together forever after rewatching Richard Linklater's 2004 romantic drama 'Before Sunset.'
Cast
Ethan Hawke as Jesse Wallace
Julie Delpy as Celine
Directed by: Richard Linklater
Written by: Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Notes
- Budget of $2.7 million, grossed $15 million. Runtime: ~80 minutes.
- Shot in Paris over 15 days during one of the hottest summers on record (~100 degrees).
- Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay – competed against Eternal Sunshine and 'Sideways'.
- The final apartment scene was written at 3 AM the night before filming.
- Hawke was going through his divorce from Uma Thurman during production; both actors infused personal experiences into the script.
- Bill calls it his second favorite movie sequel ever (behind Godfather Part 2).
- Delpy's real-life parents appear in the courtyard scene at Celine's apartment.
Categories
Quote from Rog's review:
“Before Sunset is better because the characters are older and wiser with more to lose or win.”
Ebert gave it 3.5 stars. Said it was better than Sunrise. Predicted it could become a lifetime project like the 7 Up series.
- Bill: The Waltz – Celine singing to Jesse in her apartment.
- Mallory: The limo/car ride scene.
- CR: The limo scene (the almost-touch of his head).
- Sean: The car ride is one of the best scenes of the 2000s.
- Also: The bookstore opening (Jesse seeing Celine, flashback intercutting).
- CR: Celine's 'freedom fries' joke and globalism talk.
- Bill: No Facebook – two years later they'd have found each other easily.
- Mallory: Linklater's fascination with time; the real-time structure; the restraint (they never kiss, only a hug).
- CR: Callbacks to Sunrise (cemetery walk, 'mental picture,' Notre Dame prediction that it would be gone one day).
- Sean: The primacy of bookstores.
- 'Even being alone is better than sitting next to your lover and feeling lonely.'
- Almost nothing. CR: Jesse's second novel idea is not good.
- Craig: The characters seem like a 'weathered 32' – modern 30-somethings age slower.
- CR: The boat scene where the sun illuminates Celine's hair like a halo while Jesse watches.
- Bill: The final fade-out as she dances.
- Sean: The 5-second shot of the courtyard/BBQ at Celine's apartment (her real parents) – the only time the camera leaves the two leads.
- Nina Simone's 'Just in Time' (recorded June 16, 1968) – the only needle drop in the film.
- Celine's original song 'A Waltz for a Night.'
Bill: They should have tried harder to find each other; by 2004 there was email and Google.
- CR: Jesse kind of screws over his wife and Celine screws over her boyfriend.
- Mallory: Celine is a terrible cat mom.
- Sean: The car ride scene is one of the best scenes of the 2000s, on par with the truck flip in 'The Dark Knight'.
Victor Dobchef (Jesse's French handler). Also: the limo driver Philippe.
- Julie Delpy: Probably her Apex Mountain.
- Paris in movies: No (too much competition).
- Romantic sequels: Maybe.
- Movie couples: Mallory says yes for the trilogy.
Mallory picks Cruise in the Jesse role.
Mallory: Spielberg. Bill and Sean lean Scorsese.
The limo driver.
- Jesse volunteering his second novel idea to strangers at the press conference.
- The 45-minute walk compressed to ~8 minutes.
- The European book tour itself is implausible for a 'minor bestseller.'
- When did Jesse actually get on a plane? How many days did he stay?
- Did they exchange last names in Vienna?
- Would Celine have tracked Jesse down if he hadn't come to Paris?
Jesse's signed copy of 'This Time.'
- 'Memories are a wonderful thing if you don't have to deal with the past.'
- CR: 'Sometimes you got to miss that plane.'
'Before Sunrise' (unanimous).
Delpy. CR and Bill agree. The first movie is Hawke's; this one is Delpy's.
Craig loved both films. Called the limo scene 'the most captivated I've ever been watching two people talk.' Refused to watch Before Midnight, wanting to live with the hopeful ending.