Can't quite seem to shake it...

Rating: Null/10 (30 June 2004)

Good day to you all,
Having read all 129 comments on this fine little film, i finally decided to post my own random ones concerning it. It's been a recurring (if increasingly rare) escape in my life for 8 years [confessional sigh].
First off, i saw this when it came out on video in late 95, and loved it straight away. i was a pretty day-dreaming European-obsessed 18 year-old (whereas now I'm older. ha!), and probably disturbingly romantic (at least in mind if not execution), so pretty much i was/am the bullseye audience. I was always a little suspicious of being a sucker that I should like a film because I wanted it to happen to me, but, anyhow, you don't choose these things.
The next summer, in a van-driving trip around europe with friends, i took a lone 3 day detour to visit vienna whilst my road-buddies made a break for the czech border (dreaming of cheap beer and czech ladies). Not just because of the film, but i might not have made the extra effort, otherwise. I spent 2 wonderful days walking around vienna, until my feet and legs were aching to a satisfied exhaustion. I stayed in a cheap youth hostel and spent very little money, ate bread and cheese, but had a perfect 'ghost in a beautiful unknown city' time. I even found Cemetery of the Nameless, which is frigging miles out of town, but worth a saunter. These are the things I wish I could do all the time....gets harder as you age (ahem, not to suggest i'm mature...).
So now I've probably, over the years, watched it about 15-20 times. Its good to leave a couple years between viewings, I've found (hardly surprising, i shamefully admit), and I'm not gonna buy the DVD unless one with commentary or such is released [side point: the school of rock commentary richard did is brilliant, hes just an honest and interesting guy; something like that would be ace]. I love the cinematography, though, so errrr might buy it anyway.
I've experienced a few connections a la jesse & celine, but ultimately what is so refreshing about this film is the breeze of possibility - that clear rush of excitement for the future. The point where insecure confusion becomes limitless potential; its exciting when you sense it in other people. I felt it years ago when talking to this beautiful Greek girl about what she was going to do after her college exams: she looked down smiling soft with bright eyes, shuffled her feet, looked up again and said "i'm still waiting for it to fall from heaven".
I watched this film for the first time in years last night and it still leaves me feeling the youthfulness of anything being possible (if not in one's control!); soaking up a beautiful day in a new city, meeting interesting creative people, falling in love with someone you'd never expect to meet, expressing very personal things in a relaxed way, discovering wonderful new things, basically. It is at heart a real humanism, and the older i get, the more i believe life is about seeking out and sharing with good people.
2 negatives: 1.) sometimes a lot of the conversation between Jesse and Celine strikes me as cringe-inducingly middle class, self absorbed and a little smug. not surprising, given the situation i suppose. i often strike myself as such, minus the smug. 2.) I am sure, even if i cant prove, that this film injected its sweet-early-summer-viennese world irreversibly into my sweet-craving forlorn 18 yr old psyche, and with the aid of top-ups over the last 8 years has had a significantly destructive influence in encouraging a romantic idealism that leads inevitably to disappointment and low self-esteem. its as if i refuse to compromise to certain things, yet have no confirmation the things i am looking for actually exist.
Still: i love trains, i love traveling in europe, i love vienna, i love trams, i definitely "have a thing" for french women (well, continental women in general), i love cafÃ©s in old squares, places without cars, i love sitting and watching people in unfamiliar cities/countries overhearing a few insights; people of all ages talking about books/films/gossip/music/existentialism/the price of donuts/love/why the other person shouldn't have slept with someone/a dog/can i get the check? etc., i love (good(?)) buskers, i love cobbled streets, i love candles outside, i love hearing languages i only vaguely/partially understand (often including English...), i love cellos and harpsichords and bach's sonatas...[mercy! i daren't bore you further!]. i also suspect i love all of these things even more because of before sunrise; it sort of validated and unified these ethereal things, even if it seems (as it should) a little more immature to me now. i guess you build on the things you identify with; its a shame its only a film...
viva linklater!