Suave sequel: a new genre is born

Rating: Null/10 (30 July 2004)

"Before Sunset" is one of those movies that look superficial, romantic, weepy, crowd-pleasing, but really is original, smart, analytical, and challenging. It stands by itself but is richer seen in relation to "Before Sunrise," made nine years earlier, of which it is the sequel, and besides that it's richer and subtler than the original. The characters and the actors are older, more experienced and more sophisticated. It's got a documentary element, reminiscent of Michael Apted's wonderful "7 Up," "14 Up," series. Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, who also stared in "Before Sunrise," don't have to pretend to be nine years older in this sequel; they are. They're only thirty-three now, but Hawke has the ravaged gauntness his breakup with Uma Thurman seems to have imposed on him. Delpy is more mature, less angelic, more businesslike, but still beautiful.
"Before Sunset" is a leaner film than "Before Sunrise." It's real-time, and without frills. Venues or backgrounds are simpler. Jesse and Céline largely just walk and talk.
Hawke and Delpy are more accomplished actors; less self-conscious people. The talk flows more effortlessly. The continuity of the scenes is a seamless tour de fource almost as if this were all a single take like Sokorov's "Russian Ark."
There isn't flirting or a developing attraction, a growing physical intimacy, as in "Before Sunset," because Jesse and Céline spend most of the film talking about that earlier meeting and how it has haunted them and dominated their lives. Gradually it comes out (particularly during the car ride that leads to where Céline lives) that her current relationship is limited and his marriage is largely sexless, redeemed only by his adoration of his four-year-old son.
She pretends not to remember that they made love that night in Vienna nine years before. Maybe that means their sudden passion never really was consummated, because their affinity wasn't something one night's sex could fulfill.
The premise is this: Jesse has published a novel that's a bestseller in the US and he's doing a signing in Paris. (Hawke's real life identity fits here, since he's published several books.) Suddenly as he's coming to the end of his talk, Céline appears outside the window of the bookstore (which is one every American in Paris knows: Shakespeare & Company). He's supposed to go to the airport in a couple of hours, but his bags are packed and a car is ready, and he and Céline agree to go and talk. She leads him to a café called Le Pure. (This is real time, but not real space: the places where they go are far apart.) Then they take a boat ride on the Seine; finally they get in the car and wind up at Céline's apartment which turns out to be a lovely enclave where her neighbors are together outside having a party.
A movie in real time consisting mostly of conversation is impossible to summarize: it would take twenty pages. But it does emerge that both still think about each other a lot; that meeting nine years before has remained important. The flame still burns bright. Jesse did go back to Vienna six months later in the station to meet Céline as they'd promised, but her grandmother was buried on that day and she couldn't be there. Later he says that perhaps his dream of romantic love was shattered forever by her failure to appear. They rue the fact that they didn't exchange addresses or phone numbers.
There's little touching or kissing but there doesn't have to be. It's obvious that this is a climactic reunion for both of them and the attraction is as strong as ever, probably stronger  except that there are obstacles. They're not young and free any more. They have lives, commitments, involvements. . .
What will happen? As the film ends, its obvious Jessie is quite happily going to miss his plane. But while Linklater & Company keep us guessing, the partial answer that comes is quite charming.
"Before Sunset" is a superb sequel. It's touching but surprisingly unsentimental. And it's as graceful a piece of film-making as you could ever see, with the gracefulness of art that conceals artifice. Richard Linklater is one of the most interesting younger American directors. His work is authentic and personal, but has real range, from the slacker movies through the romantic encounters of Delpy and Hawke and the tight theatrical drama "Tape" to the inspired philosophical musings and fresh use of animation of "Waking Life," and Hawke has been involved in four of Linklater's movies. Linklater and Hawke are soulmates and brothers, and Delpy is the other essential collaborator in the "Sunset"/"Sunrise" sequence, because she too is a writer and wrote her own dialogue and the chemistry between Hawke and Delpy is too obvious to mention. It's obvious also the audience would like another sequel, and so would the actors. It's only a question of when. The inventive Richard Linklater has created a new genre: the real time sequel.