Came out hungry from the cinema

Rating: 6/10 (31 August 2004)

I haven't seen the first part, Before Sunrise (1995), but many around me had and did not stop telling me how a beautiful movie it was. So I went after Before Sunset with the feeling that I will see a nice romantic movie. Well, I did not get it. This can be a nice movie for some, but for me, it is not something I would take my girlfriend with me to have a night out.
The film tells about Jesse and Celine meeting in Paris after their romantic night in Vienna 9 years ago. Jesse wrote a book on their romance and gives a small talk in a local bookshop where he meets Celine. They start talk and they go on talking.
Basically, the movie is about their conversation, which is very authentic. Jesse has the man type "jump in where we left off" style, immediately starting at the intimate level, while Celine starts from the distance and slowly warms up to the intimate level they had before. At the beginning they go along the more superficial themes, what has happened during the nine years, what is life about at the moment, then they pass on to tell their feelings, motivations, their memories of that night they passed together.
You see 90% of the movie Jesse and Celine talking to each other in premier and second frames (only the face or the face with upper body). The movie presents the story "real time", the 80 minutes you spend in the movie is actually the 80 minutes of their conversation in Paris. Therefore the camera never leaves them; you always see Jesse and Celine on screen. On the top of that, you are given very long runs between cuts. Like when you see them from the front talking to each other walking along a small street - you get it from entering the street to the corner, with the same fram, without any cut. For me, it was just too much of the same image - although they walk, so the background changes - and felt quite uncomfortable in my chair. It was not boring, but made me feel somehow anxious. In fact, after the first 30 minutes, I changed my place 2 rows back in the cinema, because I felt "to close to the screen".
The end of the movie was the major disappointment to me, as there was no end. In the middle of a special moment suddenly the music and the picture fades out and the black screen with the list of the actors come up. We all stayed silent in the hall looking at each other with the face "what's up, is that a joke?". But it was no joke, the lights turned on, so slowly we decided to get up and go as the film is really over. I came out from the cinema mentally still hungry, as the story did get neither a sad nor a happy - or whatever - end, it just stopped. I wanted to see a nice romantic movie with some happy end, but I did not get it.
If I consider this movie in itself, as it is, without any expectations, this is a great film, that breaks in something unusual to nowadays' action-romance-thriller movie with all the bells-and-whistles style pictures you get used to. Before Sunset gives conversations, feelings, situations and atmosphere, that you usually only get from independent European directors. It gives you time to digest and makes you consider whether you ever were in such a situation.
However, when you go to watch this movie, you do it after hearing how beautiful the first part was and how romantic it was. So you sit in "I will see a beautiful romantic movie tonight" in your mind, but this is not a romantic movie. This is an unusual film of an original idea. I think that editor Richard Linklater should have filmed this story on its own, not as a second part of "Before Sunrise". Like that, it would get a 9/10 from me. However, like this, I can only give a 6/10.
To answer your question, whether should you watch it or not, yes, you should, as I plan to watch it once again myself. However, you should do it without the romantic-movie expectations in mind.