And they fell in love

Rating: 9/10 (4 April 2020)

'Before Sunrise' is a love story like no other. To classify it as a 'rom com' would be to do it signal disservice. It is an exquisite montage of beautiful moments, over the course of a single evening and night, involving just two people, over which ... it cannot really be said that they 'fall in love'. They are in love from the very first scene; that's apparent, but, over that unforgettable night, they realize what it means to both of them. Their love, as it were, acquires form and takes shape. Which is why I say that this is a love story like no other - I have not seen another film which, instead of relating how the lead characters FALL in love, relates, instead, how they understand what their love means to each of them.
Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, she as beautiful as he is handsome, essay these characters (Jesse and Celine) with warmth and empathy. The film is bound to remind you of Audrey Hepburn-Gregory Peck's unforgettable day in Rome, and is, in a way, a modern take on that classic. There is, however, a lot more conversation here - meaningful and poignant in equal measure, dealing with everything from reincarnation to relationships, to love and childbirth, to politics and poverty. We immediately relate to it and, over the course of said conversation, the relationship between Jesse and Celine acquires contour and colour. There are ever so many scenes which you take home with you and which cannot be forgotten, of which my two personal favourites take place in a music hearing room in a record shop, somewhere during the first twenty minutes or so, when they listen to a record (and during which, as admitted by Delpy in an interview, she almost fell in love with Hawke), and later, when they declare their love for each other, in a telephonic conversation ACROSS a dinner table (you have to see the film to know how THAT happens).
Rewardingly, the film ends on a note which, though bittersweet, is more sweet than bitter, and closes with a smile.
One of the most incisive studies of first love (though Jesse and Celine both confess to having been in earlier 'relationships') possibly filmed, 'Before Sunrise' is a film made clearly with the heart, rather than the head. Richard Linklater handles each scene in the film with the delicacy of a Ming vase, allowing, even while his lead characters prattle on, so much to remain unspoken between them. These unspoken feelings are, I suppose, what we know as 'love'.
Or so 'Before Sunrise' would have us believe. And I, for one, am persuaded to.