Sunrise, Sunset, Midnight

An American man called Jesse meets a French woman called Celine on a train in 1994, they spend a night walking around Vienna, fall in love a little 'Before Sunrise'. They part wistfully, agreeing to meet again a year from the day, and the last haunting glimpse we have of them is them smiling - perhaps at how silly that idea seems... Nine years later, Jesse has written a book about that day, and Celine walks into a book signing event in a quaint Parisian bookshop. They spend the time 'Before Sunset' walking around Paris, before Jesse has to catch a flight back to the States. They leave you, the viewer, wondering if at the end of that evening Jesse boards his flight back, or actually stays...

The latter apparently, because here they are, vacationing in Greece as a family another nine years later, and spending an all too rare date night away from real life and its cares and concerns. Or perhaps not, because although in keeping with the tradition of this brilliant now-trilogy of movies, 'nothing happens' - a lot does happen 'Before Midnight'...

Now let me say up-front that I'm an unabashed fan-boy of this phenomenon that Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, and Julie Delpy have so lovingly crafted. I've been dying to watch this movie for some time now - so I'm saying this is not a review. This is a rave, a reaction, a salute; one last, longing look at the swirls of chocolate mousse still in the bowl when you know you cannot possibly eat a lick more... this is the satisfied burp that tells you, oh no, you're too full!

Anyone that calls themselves a cinephile or a romantic must needs find a way to watch this movie; if you haven't yet watched the first two entries in the 'series', I'd suggest you watch those first. I suppose this movie stands well enough alone, but watching the first two movies will give it an extra dose of magic. I for one couldn't imagine watching this movie and not the others; or for that matter write about this latest movie without referencing the prior ones - yes, this will be a long post.

I shall do my utmost to avoid spoilers. That said, the fact that the movie exists is itself a spoiler for the end of the second movie, and some of the 'plot' has been revealed in the trailers, so those bits I will reference. And all of that is below the fold...

What came before...

Before I can talk about the latest movie, I must drag you dear reader through a self-referential flashback. Bear with me.

'Before Sunrise' was a pleasant surprise that I happened upon without expectation or warning, back in the days of yore when I was still a teen. It was a non-event movie that played in the daytime on Star Movies that I happened to watch (I missed the beginning) and just fell totally in love with. The concept that so took me at the time was the fact that the entire movie was about a conversation between two people, and the obvious connection between them. I thought it was very brave that the movie ended with you wondering whether or not they act on the infatuation, and whether 'anything comes of it'. Finding out recently that it was based on a real experience the director had had makes me even fonder of it, and I think it fully deserves the 100% rating it enjoys on Rotten Tomatoes...

'Before Sunset' was naturally a movie I couldn't wait to watch. I think it was one of the first few DVDs I bought on landing in the US in 2005 as well as one of the first few I was compelled to blog about, on my old blog. I cringe a little when I read that entry today, as perhaps I will cringe when I read this entry another ten years down the line, but here's what I'd thought about it:

"I guess these movies have come to symbolize everything about me that isn't cynical and over analyzing and, well, grown up."

Here was a pair of movies that had not only kept pace with real world time in terms of plot, but that also spoke to me rather poignantly about where I (thought I) was in my own struggles with romanticism. I'd gone from being a dreamy eyed kid living in a bubble to being a job-holder living on my own that pined for (and created several) ephemeral comfort zone bubbles. Not for me a life of drudgery and false achievement - give me the romance of day-dreaming any day!

What comes...

'Before Midnight' takes the bones of the first two movies and makes something completely different out of them that while still recognizably of the set, is actually a very different beast. If the first movie was solidly about infatuation, and optimism, and possibility, the second was an argument for romance in a more realistic light, and made by slightly jaded characters (and authors). This latest entry is (naturally) the most grown-up of the lot, and is an extended argument for mature (not just romantic) love and companionship - despite evidence to the contrary.

It is simultaneously a lament for lost innocence in an age of pervasive porn, and online relationships, and use-and-throw love and so on, as well as a condemnation as unrealistic of the 'soul-mate' idea (damn you, Richard Bach). It paints the assumption that two people can or will belong together forever and ever no matter what in a most ludicrous light. It is then, about marriage, and the hard work thereof.

It has all the elements of a 'Before' picture. Starting with some brilliant dialogue that posits scintillating if only briefly explored ideas, like ye many fireflies winking at you... One that stood out in particular for me was a conversation between two authors, discussing a book Jesse is writing, that felt simultaneously like a nod to Proust, and a comment on the movies themselves. Then there are the long, long, tracking shots that must have been incredibly difficult to rehearse, let alone film - by my count, most of the movie 109 minute movie is made up of less than 10 shots! There's the usual, very compressed in-story timeline - the first movie happens over a roughly 24 hour period, the second is over in the space of an evening, and this latest over roughly 18 hours.

Through the trilogy, through time via Google Images (unknown source)

Of the three movies, I think this is the one that'll elicit most "but... nothing happens!" reactions from the ignoramuses that demand plot in every bit of creative fiction (the second movie probably has the most 'plot' of the three). There's also the tongue in cheek meta-commentary that was introduced in the second movie, as in-story, characters react to the movies themselves (by reacting to the two books Jesse has now authored about the events of the prior movies).

A nod to 'Before Sunrise' that I am glad I caught was a somewhat forlorn montage of scenes showing the setting for events earlier in the movie - sans people. In one of the closing flourishes in the first movie we revisit in the morning the setting for some major scenes through the night - they all look empty and different in the sun, and their romance is somewhat diminished. In this movie, we get another look at 'places' - all within a room - that were the setting for a major sequence literally minutes before. That to me like nothing else established how much more sped up time itself feels to these characters - and to viewers like me that have aged with the movies... and in this one there is a sense of urgency to it that feels right.

This is clearly the most adult of the movies both thematically and content-rating wise. There is some casual (not full-frontal) nudity during an intimate scene, and much swearing and explicit talk about sex. None of it is cheap however and felt justifiable and warranted.

It also seemed like this movie is the end, as in a departure from tradition, it did not close on a cliffhanger. Yes - it leaves the characters firmly at a crossroads, but it seemed like the most important tensions in the plot were resolved - if not completely, certainly satisfactorily enough.

What makes this movie shine, for me, is how it manages to air the nasty (nastiest?) bits of a relationship, but like a skilled chef working with leftovers from a carcass, manages to make a sublime treat out of them. I must recommend that this movie be watched with your significant other, not alone, and certainly with no other. I may be over-selling it here, but this is a date movie if there ever was one, if one made exclusively for the long-term committed (if not married). There are parts of the movie that call for such a shared, intimate experience - we were laughing aloud in some rather serious parts of the movie when nothing funny was happening on-screen, as it treads on all too familiar relationship territory.

After the Trilogy

There was never any doubt I was going to love this movie, but that doesn't take anything away from the fact that I did! I think Linklater, Delpy, and Hawke have more than earned their auteur cred in each entry in this 'series', and have created another movie that makes you feel smarter for having liked.

This is a movie that will have a long tail, and I will be hungover with it for days to come. I feel certain I will be watching it again, and again... several times to savor the little things, and any nuggets of brilliance I missed in this first much delayed gratification of a viewing. I am dead certain to buy a DVD/ BD collection if they make one, especially if it contains the mountain of 'making of' material these movies deserve.

I should also say I don't particularly care if they make a fourth movie in another decade or two - I'd love it if they did, but I'm a satisfied viewer that can't imagine what another entry in this series could possibly be about. (Maybe a version of Amour, as the three joked about in an interview, to be made once they are octogenarians!). Then again, I hadn't been able to imagine they would make the first sequel, let alone a trilogy, when I watched each of the earlier entries in the series.

I don't think I'm a good enough writer to think of more exaggerated expostulations that explain how much I loved this movie, and how much it made me love the trilogy all over again. Therefore, I shall pen down.

Peace... out!