My girlfriends and I came out of the cinema last night wishing we were sipping coffee at a cafe along the streets of Paris and having intellectual conversation with an Ethan Hawke lookalike. We were in a dream-like mode after watching Before Sunset.
The opening seconds of the film draws you in with the streets of Paris and the sounds of jazz and the slightly raspy but soothing female voice (I think it’s Julie Delpy’s). You can just feel the Parisian charm working its way into your psyche.
So Jesse and Celine meet again in Paris after nine years at his bookreading in her favourite bookstore. He has a plane to catch that evening back to New York where he now lives with his wife and young son.
They pick up where they left off and clearly their chemistry still sizzles. They catch up with each other lives, talk about world issues, and then veering into minuscule things that affect us in our daily lives, and their conversation is peppered with little jibes and jokes at each other. It’s the sort of conversation one would have on the perfect date….you can talk about anything and everything under the sun.
The prequel, Before Sunrise, was sweet and ended on an optismistic note. But I think Before Sunset is a lot more poignant and wistful as we learn about how that chance encounter nine years ago affected these two individuals. Evidently, each had never forgotten the other. And so many What Ifs…
Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are perfect in their roles and deliver perfectly believeable performances as two people having a good conversation with a long-lost friend. One almost feels like a voyeur and an eavesdropper while watching the film.
Maybe it’s because I’m still somewhat idealistic and hopeful when it comes to love, so that’s why I love this film. Definitely one of my favs of this year.