Q:Build a movie plot around this: Who puts a Nina Simone CD on the stereo system? Jesse
A:
Nine years have passed since the events of Before Sunrise, when Jesse (Hawke) and Celine (Delpy) had met in Vienna. Since then, Jesse has written a novel, This Time, inspired by his time with Celine, and the book has become an American bestseller. To help sales in Europe, Jesse does a book tour. The last stop of the tour is Paris, and Jesse is doing a reading at the bookstore Shakespeare and Company. As Jesse talks with his audience, flashbacks are shown of him and Celine in Vienna; the memories of their night together have clearly remained with him despite it being nine years later. Three journalists are present at the bookstore, interviewing Jesse: a romantic who is convinced the book's main characters meet again, a cynic who is convinced that they don't, and a third one who, despite wanting them to meet again, remains doubtful they actually do. They represent the three possible ways a viewer might guess what the aftermath of Before Sunrise might be, according to his or her own personality. Celine appears in the audience and sees him, and he, in turn, recognizes her. Jesse has a short time before his plane departs and invites Celine to share it with him.However, once the presentation is over, the bookstore manager reminds him he's got a plane to catch and must leave for the airport in a little more than an hour, and so just like in Before Sunrise, Celine and Jesse's reunion is constrained by time. Just like in the prequel, the characters are thus forced to make the best of what little time they have together, and this makes it easier for their conversations to become ever more personal, starting out with the usual thirty-something's themes of work and politics and then, with ever increasing passion, approaching their love for each other, just as their time together is running out.As they talk, each reveals what has happened since their first meeting. Both are now in their early thirties. Jesse, now a writer, is married and has a son. Celine has become an advocate for the environment, lived in America for a...