Before Sunrise

Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise (1995) masquerades as another entry in the cynical twentysomething quest for individual identity (see the embarrassingly bad Reality Bites (1994) for a further understanding of this archetype from the early 1990s). However, Linklater uses this conventionality to arrive at something more elementary than distaste for the bourgeois masses in that he attempts to understand how two strangers can interact and fall for one another amidst cultural, philosophical, and, often, ideological barriers.

Jesse (Ethan Hawke), an American college student coming back from a failed reunion with a girlfriend abroad, starts a conversation with Cèline (Julie Delpy), a Frenchwoman returning from a visit to Budapest to see her grandmother, in the middle of a train heading through Europe. They speak naturally but delicately around their affection for each other, and soon Jesse offers the proposition that Cèline get off on the stop in Vienna and spend the day talking with him before he heads back to America the next day.

Roaming Vienna, Jesse and Cèline talk and talk and talk some more. In this respect, the film tips its hat to middle era Woody Allen, creating a romance out of genuine intrigue for the other person’s thoughts. Moreover, the film never tries for slapslick comedy, but is always situated in terms of its natural romantic aura. We see Jesse’s initial over-reliance on his charm, but soon understand that this dependence actually masks his past insecurities of rejection. Cèline, for her part, allays all of Jesse’s fears, though she remains critical of his cynicism.

None of this brief description does justice to the breezy exchange of dialogue. There are fundamental ideas that Linklater is examining in Before Sunrise’s realism, questioning the nature of love and relationships as Jesse and Cèline work to understand one another. Having initially sworn off any future meeting, the two are unburdened of the constraint of a future rendezvous, which gives them the freedom to confront the stereotypes and worries that burden all relationships. Yet, can two young people who understand each other so easily really commit to never seeing each other again?

All good conversation yearns to be continued, just as all love yearns to be unending, and the scenario that Jesse and Cèline settle upon as they depart at the train station the next day is justifiably realistic, and gives them the opportunity to reunite in six months at the train station. Whether they will reunite is answered in the sequel Before Sunset (2004).

In terms of a film that understands young love and commits itself to understanding its characters vis-à-vis their dialogue, Before Sunrise is a very good watch, and deserves a viewing for all viewers interested in the exchange of ideas.

Before Sunrise: 8/10