The reality of middle age romance

Rating: Null/10 (9 July 2004)

I think I understood the difference between this and "Sunrise" is that "Sunrise" is meant to be a precious experience, a journey, but "Sunset" is more of an aftermath piece, it's less exciting, it's full of undermining dread because of the pathetic plane to catch and the regret. The 2 characters cannot escape their reality whereas in "Sunrise" all they want to do is escape it. I guess the only regret for the viewer is that you'd wish they at least kissed or made love, because they would've allowed themselves to escape and feel better, though they're obviously extremely cautious and scared of such consequences. With Jesse and Celine, I've always enjoyed their conversations about their relationships more than the other topics they talk about, especially with "Sunset", since they have serious unfinished business, and you'd wish they get to the romance quicker. A lot of things about their personal life are always really tragic but not that tragic, a kind of tragedy that too often renders with too much time feeling lonely, and that makes the most bittersweet characteristic of "Sunset". Jesse and Celine have really changed, believably. They're not the same and you can understand how they'd change from that night 9 years ago, and they're still resonant people to us. I think "Sunrise" works as a more significant film than "Sunset", but the most significant thing about "Sunset" is letting Jesse and Celine be truly real by showing their place in reality, not their "best self" nor their spontaneous "young self". Also, the reason why they didn't meet 6 months later in Vienna works out perfectly. In a way, that's kind of enough. I only wished they had that passionate soap opera moment.