Film Illiterate, wherein the proprietor records movies seen, and sporadic progress through assorted lists of the "best". Originally started after regretfully renting something forgettable for the third time. I've forgotten what, but never again! A tedious endeavour since 2005. Hello. 🙂
Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) meet on a train from Budapest to Vienna and start to talk; an hour and a half later the movie ends. The general plot is telegraphed early on when Ethan describes his idea for the ultimate reality television program: a 24-hour, unedited feed of someone doing whatever it is that they do. Before Sunrise is his and Celine's episode, their one day and night together wandering Vienna.
"Boring and pretentious" is not an unreasonable criticism, but I think it rather misses the point. What the film perfectly captures is the kind of glorious conversation that starts at a party or and is still going the next morning; the kind of conversation that convinces you that your companion is the most wonderful, fascinating creature in all the world, that gets you drunk on life and them. You might call it falling in love.
Most of what Jesse and Celine say strikes me as naïve, inconsequential or obviously false, but so it goes. Real people cherish stupid ideas; if it seems strange to see them here, it's because Hollywood isn't usually trying to be real. Where are the ums, ahs, false starts and awkwardness? It's the clumsiness that makes Before Sunrise so beautiful. They steal glances at one another, then look away; they hastily stifle disagreements before they blossom into fights; they seem sometimes to talk at cross-purposes. They don't seem scripted: they seem real.
There isn't really much to it, but it's beautiful, and I think I could watch it again and again and again.
Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) meet on a train from Budapest to Vienna and start to talk; an hour and a half later the movie ends. The general plot is telegraphed early on when Ethan describes his idea for the ultimate reality television program: a 24-hour, unedited feed of someone doing whatever it is that they do. Before Sunrise is his and Celine's episode, their one day and night together wandering Vienna.
"Boring and pretentious" is not an unreasonable criticism, but I think it rather misses the point. What the film perfectly captures is the kind of glorious conversation that starts at a party or and is still going the next morning; the kind of conversation that convinces you that your companion is the most wonderful, fascinating creature in all the world, that gets you drunk on life and them. You might call it falling in love.
Most of what Jesse and Celine say strikes me as naïve, inconsequential or obviously false, but so it goes. Real people cherish stupid ideas; if it seems strange to see them here, it's because Hollywood isn't usually trying to be real. Where are the ums, ahs, false starts and awkwardness? It's the clumsiness that makes Before Sunrise so beautiful. They steal glances at one another, then look away; they hastily stifle disagreements before they blossom into fights; they seem sometimes to talk at cross-purposes. They don't seem scripted: they seem real.
There isn't really much to it, but it's beautiful, and I think I could watch it again and again and again.