Before Sunrise

Amazon.com

This romantic, witty, and ultimately poignant glimpse at two strangers (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) who share thoughts, affections, and past experiences during one 14-hour tryst in Vienna somehow remains writer/director Richard Linklater's (Dazed and Confused, Slacker) most overlooked gem. Delpy, a stunning, low-key Parisian, meets the stammering American Hawke, as the two share a Eurorail seat--she's starting school in Paris, he's finishing a vacation. Their mutual attraction leads to an awkward meeting (beautifully played by each performer), and Hawke suggests that Delpy spend his remaining 14 hours in Vienna with him.

Typically, this skeleton is as much plot as Linklater provides; as usual, he's more interested in concentrating his talents on observing the casual, playful conversations between his leads. His tight time frame allows the characters to say anything to one another, and topics ranging from politics to past romances to fears of the future flow with subtle finesse. The short time frame is also cruel, however, because beneath this love affair lies the painful reality that the two most likely will never see each other again and will be left only with memories--an idea Linklater drives home with an effective snapshot conclusion.

Hardly the trite Gen-X bitch session that many '90s films using this approach become, the film feels more like a Bresson or Rohmer piece, containing sharp perceptions--and flawed humans rather than stereotypes. The protagonists' frank revelations and heated exchanges flow in a stream-of-consciousness style, and its no accident that Linklater set the film in Vienna, where Freud invented and practiced psychotherapy. --Dave McCoy

Customer Reviews:

"Isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?".......2007-08-19

Sweet and charming, funny and poignant, plotless but meaningful, "Before Sunrise" (1995), the third movie of Richard Linklater, is dedicated to everyone who ever been in love, is in love, or never been in love but still dreams of it and hopes to find it. It is one of the very rare movies that is/should/will be equally interesting to teenagers, their parents and even grandparents. It seems a very simple little movie with no spectacular visual effects, car chases, or long and steamy sex scenes. Two young people in their early 20s, two college students (American tourist Ethan Hawke who is returning home after the summer in Europe and the French student Julie Delpy who goes to Paris to attend the classes in Sorbonne) meet on a train. They are attracted to each other instantly even before they start talking, they hop off the train in Vienna where they walk around exploring the city all night. They talk and fall in love. That's it, that's the movie. It could've been boring and silly but instead, it is a lovely, believable, clever, and moving romance that only gets better with each viewing (at least, for this viewer). High praise and my sincere gratitude go to the director and writers for delivering two charming characters, superb writing, always interesting and witty dialogs, two awesome performances, and the atmosphere of magic that falling in love is. Julie Delpy, who looks like a Botticelli's angel, is great in portraying smart, independent, and incredibly attractive young woman.

Before Sunrise.......2007-07-11

This intelligent and unconventional tale of talky romance borrows something from the work of French auteur Eric Rohmer, but "Slacker" director Linklater--a master of meandering conversation--puts his own stamp on the character-driven drama with searching, tone-perfect dialogue. As they wander the streets discussing love and sex, history and politics, Hawke and Delpy make attractive kindred spirits whose youthful, sometimes argumentative exchanges really seem to echo real life. Despite the R rating, "Sunrise" is an ideal film for teens, as it captures a sense of life's wondrous possibilities.

Lovely movie in charming Vienna! .......2007-03-10

This a lovely real-world love story where the characters meet on a train in Europe and decide to get to know each other better in a day and night stay in Vienna. They talk about interesting things, they stroll through beautiful places in Vienna and they fall in love!! It's so sweet how their relationship develops during the movie that you may think that the love of your life is waiting for you somewhere on an European train!!
I simply love this movie!

Been there, done that.......2007-01-10

I couldn't believe this movie when it first came out. I had a nearly identical experience in Austria (same as the movie) in 1971. The only difference was the gal was an American. It made me wonder who had been following us around. Sadly, i let her get away from me when we got back to the states. Mea Culpa.

I found it well done, and convincingly acted. The street scenes and infrastructure was as i remembered it.. Overall a top notch production - sadly ignored by the media and movie reviewers. Interaction between the two major characters was as i remember doing it.

Even Hawke's line about: "In a few years you'll be married... you'll wonder how things would have worked out with someone else you'd met.. look at this as time travel..". I actually used that line myself. Incredible parallelism. Basically i loved it..

Cheers

Last Box Step In Vienna.......2006-11-05

Richard (Artsy) Linklater, poet laureate of Gen-Nexters, is the kind of director who could be great - if he wasn't so lousy. He has a refreshing desire to take risks, defy convention, and flat out ignore devices that have served storytellers for millennia. In Tape he locked three people in a room and held them hostage, along with the audience. In Waking Life he merged morphing animation with stream of conscious dialogue to create a dream within a dream within a college freshman's philosophy term paper. In Before Sunrise he shows us a brief encounter, (characterized by the inappropriate illusion of intimacy frequently experienced when traveling), during which absolutely nothing happens.

Failure is commonplace, failing magnificently requires courage.

There are good things to say about Before Sunrise. Vienna looks lovely. Celine, Julie Delpy, looks equally lovely, and acts her part, what there is of it, beautifully. The film is replete with attractive train and trolley shots and even re-uses the marvelous Ferris wheel made famous in The Third Man, (a movie that actually had a plot). The Austrians on the bridge are funny, and the "milkshake" poem was wonderful.

Things crash quickly after that. Even the colorful street scenes, palm reader, belly dancing, etc. look blatantly staged, you can almost see the grips and gaffers stringing cables one foot out of the shots. Ethan Hawke needs to be told that his scruff does not give him that cool, dangerous Trotsky affect; it just makes him look like he sleeps in a culvert. Though his acting is workmanlike, he was the wrong choice for a film that depends entirely on the glossy superficiality and shared insanity of romance.

When two people speak and listen to each other, that's called a conversation. When interesting, well-developed characters talk to each other and do things to each other, thereby revealing themselves and being changed in the process, (and there's a cameraman on hand), that's called a movie.

When two-dimensional characters talk endlessly about whatever in a way that accomplishes nothing and only serves to explore the full extent of their two-dimensionality, that's called a Richard Linklater movie.

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Before Sunset
Walk me up when it's over, will you?
It grew with me
Beautiful Sequel Extends the Realism and Genuine Feelings From the First Film
Definition of Yummy, anyone?

Before Sunset
Starring: Ethan Hawke , Julie Delpy , Vernon Dobtcheff , Louise Lemoine Torres , and Rodolphe Pauly
Director: Richard Linklater
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B0002YLC24
Release Date: 2004-11-09

Amazon.com

In 1994, director Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Waking Life) made Before Sunrise, a gorgeous poem of a movie about two strangers (played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) wandering around Vienna, talking, and falling in love. Ten years later, Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy have returned with Before Sunset, which reunites the same characters after Hawke has written a book about that night. Delpy appears at the final book reading of his European tour; they have less than two hours before Hawke has to catch a flight to New York...and in that time, they walk around Paris, talk, and fall in love all over again. It sounds simple, perhaps dull, but it's written with such skill and care and acted with such richness that it's a miracle of filmmaking. On its own, Before Sunset is moving and wonderful; seen right after Before Sunrise, it will break your heart. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

Before Sunset.......2007-08-01

I enjoyed this laid back, walk through Paris, movie. It would not have been quite so meaningful if I had not seen "Before Sunrise" first. That should be a must for all viewers. It gives "Before Sunset" the needed depth.

Walk me up when it's over, will you?.......2007-07-15

I didn't care for the first one and could barely stand this one. I like movies with some excitement and fantasy in them. Where is the entertainment in this movie? If I want to see two people blabbing on and on, I could like see them in this movie. Maybe that's the point of this stupid movie. Sorry, I take the "stupid" part back. It's just a dumb movie. I am sure it works for people who might have failed in relationships, people who are lonely, or people can't communicate. The world is full of folks who actually find meanings in a movie -- any movie -- even this one.

It grew with me.......2007-06-08

I loved this movie. I remember watching the first one when I was a teenager and I loved it then. All the conversations where real and intimate. I hate movies where the two people fall in love and you can't really tell why because they hardly ever talked to each other. In Before Sunset you see how their words really effected the other person. I love the way they captured the realistic discomfort and timidness of meeting a lost love and through time seeing the longing of what could have been. Very realistic in its conversations and feelings. I loved it.

Beautiful Sequel Extends the Realism and Genuine Feelings From the First Film.......2007-05-16

I was a huge fan of Before Sunrise when it came out. I loved the simplicity and realism of two young people, who just met, walking around a beautiful European city like Vienna, and getting to know each other.

You might wonder what they have left to talk about in this film since they tackled so many subjects in the previous one. Believe me, they have plenty to talk about, and you wish that this film would never end.

The story takes place nine years after the previous film. Jesse is now a successful author who is doing a book tour throughout Europe. Paris is his last stop. He's sitting in a small book shop, answering questions from some readers, when he looks over his shoulder and sees Celine standing there. The film takes off from there as Jesse and Celine spend a few precious hours together before Jesse must be at the airport to make his flight.

Ethan Hawke (Jesse) and Julie Delpy (Celine) both co-wrote this screenplay along with the director. It's obvious that these two actors know their characters so well, that I'm sure that even they had spent those "nine years" wondering how it would end. Does Jesse come back for that six-month-later reunion? Does Celine? Do people, who really live so far away able to keep, what seems to be an unlikely promise?

I'm not going to relate anything else about the story here for those who have not seen the movie yet. This is a film where the thrill is in the journey, not the goal. Each step that Jesse and Celine make as they walk around Paris, is another step in that journey.

I recall telling friends about the first film and what it was about. They couldn't understand how a movie about two people walking around could be so good. But just like that first film, their conversations are so real and enthralling. I think part of the reason that it's so compelling is that when these two characters are together, they are themselves. There is no fakery or need to put on another face in order to impress the other. Perhaps because they are in a time crunch, they figure that there's no need to be anything other than genuine because they don't feel that they'll ever see each other again. There is a powerful scene in this film that is a recognition and a tribute to that "genuiness" and why they feel more comfortable with each other than with anyone else they've ever been with.

I've always said that sometimes the best stories are the simple ones. And this one is simple, yet again. These two simple, yet real characters, captivate the audience again with their genuine conversation that holds nothing back, and invites the audience to try and do the same.

Definition of Yummy, anyone?.......2007-05-08

This movie is a phenomenal collection to your movie library. It stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy who make the perfect match on screen. The movie is not meant to be fancy pants, but laid back and conversational.

It takes place on the streets of Paris, and Jesse and Celine meet by chance again after a nine year hiatus. They converse on topics broad and small. The denouement of the previous film, Before Sunrise, is worth the wait for the this sequel. I won't spill anything, but this is definitely a delightful, funny, and intellectual watch.

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Before Sunrise and Before Sunset: Turning A Diamond in the Light
We'll always have Vienna!
awesome

Before Sunrise/Before Sunset
Starring: Ethan Hawke , Julie Delpy , Vernon Dobtcheff , Louise Lemoine Torres , and Rodolphe Pauly
Director: Richard Linklater
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0002Z0ECC
Release Date: 2004-11-09

Customer Reviews:

Before Sunrise and Before Sunset: Turning A Diamond in the Light.......2006-05-25

It surprised me to read somewhere that Richard Linklater, who directed both films, did not actually have the experience of falling in love with a French woman on a train in Europe. Both "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset" benefit from a feeling of complete authenticity, as if the people responsible for delivering and interpreting the storyline must've "been there, done that..."

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy inhabit their roles to a point of perfection. Delpy creates such an indelible image of a young Parisian woman (with Left Bank leanings) that she could not be anything but. And Hawke incarnates perfectly the type of inquisitive, literary, and (romantically) self-centered young American male who stands a chance with a woman such as we find in Delpy. The 2nd film opens with Hawke doing a reading from his own novel on the second floor of Shakespeare & Co., wedding beautifully character and setting, as Hawke is exactly the type of young American who would be at home in George Whitman's Left Bank bookstore.

An American, I spent my youth and then some in Paris. In fact, I met my wife, who is French, on a train, which is the way Hawke and Delpy meet in the first of these films. And like our two protagonists, during our ride together we wrapped each other in words and our own special dialogue, which is the right word, as we were busy creating a moment which would have no place in real life: this was, after all, only a train ride.

We knew we would never see each other again, which meant time was both our prison and our liberator, confining the duration of our experience yet setting us free within it. And, that's how things stood for four or five years, until chance (nudged along) brought us together, again.

One more thing about the 2nd film. Linklater, Delpy, and Hawke create a paean to Paris, a song of enrapture for the city that succeeds like nothing else since Hemingway and Fitzgerald lived there in the early 1920's. Unstated, it's all in the afternoon and evening light, which seems to dissolve off the screen in total realness.

The film was like an exquisite French meal of the sort you can easily find when dining out in Paris with French friends. You leave completely satiated. What has satiated you, though, beyond the food and wine which have touched your palette, is the conversation you've had with your company, built over several courses and all the pauses between. It's the conversation that you share and create together that lifts a good meal and wine to greatness. This is a relevant note as this pair of films is carried on dialogue as much as it is on beauty.

Neither film could be better; they're as good as it gets.

We'll always have Vienna!.......2005-11-04

Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are atypical twists on the theme of "The one that got away". In the summer of 1994, Texas native Jesse meets a young Frenchwoman Celine on a train bound for Paris and both on impulse spend 14 hours in Vienna talking through the night like Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone De Beavoir (except they actually LIKE each other). It's an intellectual match and a chemical attraction between two early 20-something adults who still have the idealism of the moment that youth is known for. At the end of their long night of goodbye Jesse and Celine depart at the train station and promise to meet up in six months time for Christmas. Before Sunrise ends with a the question of whether they did in fact, reunite in Europe.

In 2004 we get the answer. Missed connection. Bad timing and the reunion in Paris a decade later. Older, into their 30's, and significant life events behind them, Jesse and Celine pick up where they left off. Jesse went to meet Celine in Vienna but she was stuck in Paris due to her grandmother's funeral. While Jesse and Celine repeat their Vienna moments in Paris, they discover all the times they missed each other over the years in New York City. Jesse is in a loveless marriage with a young son who keeps him there. Celine has her life in Paris and is still a singleton. Before Sunset makes you wish with an intensity that they met up in Vienna in 1994 and also that they don't blow this second chance.

Perfect for a lazy Saturday afternoon when you're in the mood to ponder "what might have been". Even though Julie Delphy wrote soundtrack songs for both films, one song really seems to summarize what the twin films key message seems to convey - Bad Timing, that's all by Blue Rodeo.

Bad Timing lyrics:

Hey it's me what a big surprise
Calling you up from a restaurant
Around the bend
Just got in from way up North
I'm aching tired now
And I could use a friend
Might be a fool
To think that you do
Want to see me again

I Know it's been awhile since I talked to you
Nothing wrong
Just nothing ever goes as planned
Many times I thought I'd call
Didn't have your number in my hand
I know it's true
You'd never do
The same thing to me

I never meant to make you cry
And though I know I shouldn't call
It just reminds us of the cost
Of everything we've lost
Bad timing that's all

And maybe soon there'll come a day
When no more tears will fall
We each forgive a little bit
And we both look back on it
As just bad timing that's all

Used to have so many plans
Something always seemed to turn out wrong
Never could catch up to you
Moving on and doing all you've done
I don't know why
The harder I try
The harder it comes

I never meant to make you cry
And though I know I shouldn't call
It just reminds us of the cost
Of everything we've lost
Bad timing that's all

And maybe soon there'll come a day
When no more tears will fall
We each forgive a little bit
And we both look back on it
Just bad timing that's all

We each forgive a little bit
And we both look back on it
Just bad timing that's all

awesome.......2004-12-03

for every true romantic, for every student whose gone abraod and met someone. sometimes it just works

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Before Sunrise/Before Sunset
Starring: Warner 2pak
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Before Sunrise [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Dual Reg.2/4 Import - Australia ]

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Before Sunrise [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Dual Reg.2/4 Import - Australia ]
Director: Richard Linklater
Manufacturer: Warner
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000B5R2I2

Product Description

Australia released, PAL/Dual Region 2/4 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. Languages: o English (subtitles) o English (Dolby Digital 2.0) Synopsis: Before Sunrise is a passionate and intelligent romance between a young American (Jesse) and a French student (Celine). A chance encounter on the train incites intrigue, and Jesse provocatively suggests that Celine postpones her return to France and embarks instead on a spontaneous expedition to Vienna. In the course of their 14-hour relationship, the two share in their love for the unrehearsed and their appreciation for the unexpected as they explore in a powerful meeting of hearts and minds. Dawn breaks. Sad in silence, they make their way to the station. As they bid each other farewell, Jesse is seized by another impulse - another encounter ? - Richard Linklater's third feature -- set, like his other works, over the course of one 24-hour period -- Before Sunrise is a sweet, intelligent romantic comedy filmed primarily in Austria. It stars Ethan Hawke as Jesse, a young American travelling through Europe. On a train he meets Celine, a French student portrayed by Julie Delpy. Together they leave the train to begin exploring the city of Vienna, walking and talking into the wee hours of the night and slowly falling in love as the minutes before Jesse's return to the U.S. tick away. Special Features: o Interactive Menu o Scene Access

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