Do you remember... Before Sunrise?

OK, for a moment let's forget about all the romantic comedy rubbish starring Kristen Bell or Katherine Heigl that Hollywood likes to crap out for a quick cash grab and let's look at something much more sincere and honest than that. Let's look no further than 1995's Before Sunrise.


A film so simple in its core idea, yet so brilliantly and down-to-earth honestly executed that every second of it oozes with pleasure - pleasure of recognition, pleasure of sincerity and, put simply, of a very very good movie.

The film stars Ethan Hawke as Jesse, an American tourist in Europe, and Julie Delpy as Celine, a French student. They both meet on the train from Budapest to Paris and they start talking. Right from the get-go there's chemistry between the two. It's his last night in Europe before he gets off the train in Vienna to catch a plane home the next morning. Against all odds he convinces her to get off the train with him, wander the streets of Vienna for a night and just talk.

And that's what the film mostly consists of, Delpy and Hawke talking, talking about their lives, their feelings, their ideals, always with the backdrop of the gorgeous city of Vienna on a midsummer night. From a narrative point of view this shouldn't work as a film. There are no major revelations on a storytelling basis, all we see and hear is what the characters allow us, the audience, to perceive and that's what makes it so utterly compelling. By way of talking we get to know Jesse and Celine and they emerge to be more than just characters in film, the boundary of movies as a medium is passed and we as an audience are given the opportunity to dive into the minds of two characters that feel more real than some folks in actual real life.

That is all thanks to the wonderful script by Richard Linklater, with heavy influences by the two stars of the film, Delpy and Hawke. Drawing inspiration from a real life encounter just like in the movie that happened to director Linklater in the late 80s there is no flashy distractions from the couple at the core the film, no unnecessary sidekicks, no wannabe-hip soundtrack that's pushing itself into the foreground.

Instead we get the most skeletal of movies, two people, one night, lots of dialogue and the result is a movie romance unique in its approach and universal in its appeal. This one is highly recommended for anyone who has never heard of it and also for everybody else to rediscover, especially now that the second sequel Before Midnight is about to be released (after 2004's also brilliant first sequel Before Sunset).