Watched Before Sunrise about 10 minutes before I watched Before Sunset because I so wanted to watch this two movies consecutively. Loved the way both were filmed in the similar impossibly straightforward styles. Both basically consisted of the two people who met on a train ride strolling about European cities, talking to each other about their feelings, their views and their lives and doing it again when they meet again 9 years later. The connection between them as they wandered about Vienna in Sunrise seemed so real, the way they can talk about seemingly everything under the sun, the communication that's missing in so many of our lives. The night seemed like a moment suspended in time.
The dialogue was amazing, several lines remaining in my mind long after the movies. "After tomorrow morning we'll probably never see each other," one says. "Well, who says relationships have to last forever?" I liked the way Sunset picked up 9 years later, with the regrets and changes between them. They have changed, and yet have not changed. I love the reflections between the both films, the way Sunset showed the places the couple will go before the film vs. the way Sunrise showed it after the film, the tram ride mirroring the boat ride on the Seine... I loved the glimpses of Vienna and Paris through the films, both cities I visited before (I've actually spent a lot of time in Shakespeare & Co. in Paris!). And both characters seemed so real, the way they argued and joked, the way they talked about the problems they faced, the look on Jesse's face when Celine asked if she had changed being so male and female..
I didn't like the tagline for Sunset. It didn't felt like a second chance with the one that got away. That line seems so... cliche for such a lovely film. I don't know what will have happened if Celine showed up at the platform of December 16th, but the sense of loss and hope renewed definitely would be missing... I complained about the lack of ending when Sunset ended, but when I think about the smile on Jesse's face when he said "I know" to Celine's "You're so going to miss that plane"... perhaps.. that's ending enough...
A image of Celine and Jesse walking down the streets of Paris in the sunlight keeps recurring in my mind after watching the film, both so comfortable with each other... "I like to feel his eyes on me when I look away"...Both films felt like shafts of sunlight.. films of hope and light...
