Valentine's - Before Sunset
Friday, February 12, 2016 at 8:00AM Team Experience is citing favorite love scenes. Here's Chris...
Richard Linklater's Before... trilogy is the perfect love story for the hopeless-romantic-turned-cynic in all of us. The romance between Jesse and Celine (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy giving their flawless best) is the kind of pure human connection that we hope for in adulthood, and only the tiniest bit of the fairy tale we're promised in youth. Each of the series' three chapters were released nine years after its predecessor, with the years in between a surprise for the audience. [more...]
In Before Sunset, the middle chapter of the series, Jesse and Celine meet again in Paris after their post-Sunrise plans to reconnect have long since fallen apart. No longer the optimistic idealists they were when they fell in love in Vienna, they both have become jaded by life's unexpected compromises, especially in love. One of the thrills of the film (staged masterfully in real time) is that they don't just reconnect with eachother, but with a dormant part of themselves that still wants to believe in love.
The film's final moments are among the best and most subtly sexy of the trilogy. Over the course of the film, Jesse has been delaying the trip to the airport to squeeze in more time with Celine before flying back to his doomed marriage. By now, it's all out on the table what the night in Vienna meant to the both of them and Jesse takes a few final moments to come up for tea. Who needs Netflix And Chill when you have Nina Simone?
Though some have strangely called the moment ambiguous, isn't it obvious what comes next? The restraint in not showing the ensuing night of furious lovemaking makes this final moment sexy in ways that so few movies do - it's complete suggestion. However, what lingers longer is the quiet joy and relaxed ease both Jesse and Celine have fallen into now that they are reunited and reconciled, reclaiming something vital. In this love story, even with life's left turns, it was always meant to be.
Our Valentine's Series
A Room With a View (1986)
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
The Painted Veil (2006)
Love Songs (2007)
(500) Days of Summer (2009)
Beyond the Lights (2014)
Reader Comments (13)
I love the Before trilogy and I haven't even turned cynic yet, much to my friends dismay, lol.
The second installment is my absolute favorite of the three movies.
That ending scene is great ("you're gonna miss that plane" "I know"), but my absolute favorite scene is when they are talking about not showing up for the meeting years ago and Celine is explaining about her grandma and at first Jesse tries to act like he didn't come either, but then the lie falls apart, Jesse can't really bring himself to say it so he just smiles awkwardly and Celine is horrified as she realises that she stood him up. The acting is so true and so naturalistic it is hard to imagine they actually wrote and rehearsed those lines for so long before shooting. Some bits of dialogue are clearly moviespeak (that bit about disolving into molecules, for example), but the parts that feel 100% organic make up for it in spades.
Great right up, Chris!
Or great write up, if I ever proof read, lol
I love these movies SO MUCH - and, like Carmen, the second is my favorite, too, and that last scene is an all-time great.
Last year, when I couldn't decide who I most wanted to win supporting actor between Norton, Ruff and Hawke, I tended to lean Hawke, because him winning for a Linklater movie would have been a perfect tribute to one of the great actor/director collaborations.
But perhaps the fact that they he and Delpy get to be Oscar screenwriting nominees twice over for this series will have to be tribute enough.
I love that blink and you'll miss it moment in the end when Jesse says "I know" he sort of plays with his wedding band, and I have to hand it to Ethan Hawke, his expressions were like damn i cant wait to get into bed with her. You know the irresistible feeling of just having sex only to find your partner trying to delay it and toying with you yet at the same time having her make the first move, he nailed it, that grin, the fidgeting of legs. Sexiest scene with the clothes on.
Nice choice. For me, I can't decide whether I love Before Sunrise or Before Sunset more - but there's no question in my mind that this very last scene is THE best ending, and in fact best scene, of the entire trilogy. It's perfect.
Love this ending. Perfect for the story and those characters because of how easy it is. They've earned that lived in, this will be it for life rapport.
Beautifully written piece on my favorite film of all time. Thanks!
My favorite of the trilogy, probably because it IS the most romantic of them. Ah, that last line. Ahhhhh.
Yup, this is the best film of a very great trilogy, and the last scene really makes it. Thanks, Chris!
OK, Chris, I am going to have to take you to task for the sentence:
"Though some have strangely called the moment ambiguous, isn't it obvious what comes next?"
Because is ISN'T, and the reason i am taking you to task is for the dismissing of those of us who believe that it can be ambiguous. At the time of the movie, I had many discussions with friends about what comes next, and it became clear that what you thought was a window into your own experience and philosophy on true love, responsibilities and romance.
Obviously one can argue that MIDNIGHT cleared it up. But I believe that, taken in isolation, the second movie ends on such an existential note that, even if ti wasn't the director's intention, the end result supercedes that as a work of art.
However, despite your casual dismissiveness of something that is dear and true to my heart.... ;-) thank-you for a good write-up of the greatest film trilogy ever made. I might have to make watching one of these my V-Day tradition from now on
The best movie trilogy of all-time; here's hoping for Before Dusk (?? Maybe?) in 2022.
MDA - you are after my heart. I think the next potential entries would be lovely as "After..."
Travis - I think the lack of ambiguity is whether or not he leaves his wife, in my opinion is clear even if the fall out isn't. And that's another magic layer of the scene, everything else on the outside will be okay because here they are. Though I'm 1000% with you on how stimulating these movies are for conversation - uncommon for love stories!
I have to confess that while scene is the most romantic in my eye, MIDNIGHT stands head and shoulders above the others
Ahhhhhh,...Before Sunset is one of the most romantic movies ever!! & I oso felt it is the best in the trilogy. The ending is perfect....all the bittersweet, little details....the ex-lovers finding themselves fallin in luv again....
It is the Casablanca of the 00s