It all happens again...

Rating: 9/10 (19 February 2005)

It's true that when we are watching a romantic movie we're always expecting something. I don't know how to call it. Maybe the name has been said sometimes. I mean endings like the ones in "Nothing Hill", "How to loose a guy in ten days". Cheesy maybe? I really can't tell. But there's a thing that people who make these films like to do (and it works). They manipulate a little bit things just to end them that way. It is lovely to see those endings. But what if they couldn't be, right? What if we could have the chance to watch something real? "Before Sunset" gives us that chance.
We know the story and what has happened to the characters. Even if we haven't seen it, we suppose it, because it is really obvious. They show it with their actions, with of course, are normal actions. What would someone do in the situation this two persons are involved? Not anything different to what they're doing. Sitting down on a "café", talking a little bit, maybe a lot. Nine years have since the last time they saw each other, and they were in love. The thing is that they could have not felt "love" again. They planned to see each other in Vienna after they said goodbye. Celine couldn't go: "It was my grandmother's funeral", she says. And asks Jesse if he was there. He says he wasn't, but five minutes later he takes it back. He was in Vienna, and put posters around the city, to find Celine, because she could have arrived later. These types of things are happening to them in their encounter. They don't say things because they don't want to offend, or be offended. But they know those things. They tell the truth, they lie. They don't know how to act because they have probably thought this would happen again and they are probably in love. Jesse has written a book that tells the night they spent together nine years before. Celine has read it and tells him: "You idealized that night. We didn't make love". Jesse can't believe it. He's sure they did: "It was in the park, at night". Celine says they didn't do it because they didn't use a condom. Jesse remembers the condom, and tells her. They feel embarrassed, but the truth right there is, that Celine remembers the night perfectly, and she was wrote a song. A waltz. She plays the song for Jesse in an occasion and he is convinced that she wrote it for him: "Do you play that song for every guy that comes here and say his name?", he asks. She says: "Of course, did you think that I had written that song for you?". The truth, again, is that she has really written it for him. Many of these situations occur as the day passes by, and they're walking and walking, and talking. Talking real words written on a real script about real people. They tell each other what they have been doing, their jobs, romances...Jesse is married, but he can't be sure of being in love. He sees the love he has for his wife as respect, admiration, and his kid. He has a son, and loves him, so? It doesn't really matter for him if he's in love with his wife or not. He even tells Celine in an occasion, the dreams he has every night, about her: "In one there's a train. You're in there and you keep passing by. In the other one, we're lying in bed, you're pregnant, I want to touch you, you don't let me, but then I touch you and I wake up sweating". Celine asks him later: "Did you really dream that or you just said it to have sex with me?". Jesse answers: "No no, I just said to get into your pants". But darn! He has really dreamed it! The truth is that they can't do much about these situations, there's little time, and Jesse's leaving.
Ethan Hawke makes his character perfectly. It all comes naturally from him, he doesn't need to make an effort. Even the laughs, which can seem forced (or I wanted to see it that way), come off naturally also. He enjoys working with Delpy, they have chemistry. And Julie Delpy is one of those fighters. She wrote this script, and she really want it to do this film, she just acts with passion. It shows.
Then there's the passionate Richard Linlklater. I haven't seen all of his works, but the movies I have seen, well, are directed with that passion. The kind of passion that shows the director really wants to do what he's doing. This movie is so personal for him, that he makes it personal. His camera, in some occasions, seems to be following the characters from behind, when they are walking, joining them; as if it was walking too. Then the camera moves, not much, showing the characters from all the angles, and letting us see their emotions. They're two characters only. It's fantastic, and intimate.
In one occasion, Celine and Jesse are talking (because they're always talking, amazing) about what would they do if the day they're living was the last one of their lives. They should really think about it. Because it could be their last day. Or not.