Before Sunrise, Directed by Richard Linklater, Columbia Pictures, 1995.
Before Sunset, Directed by Richard Linklater, Warner Independent Pictures, 2004.
Those of you who listen to NPR or read the New York Times probably know already that a third movie in director Richard Linklater’s “Before” Series has been released recently: Before Midnight. In this installment Linklater picks up nine years after the second movie, Before Sunset, left off, and we finally see what happens when the ultimate fly-by-night romantic couple, played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, decides to go all-in and make a life for themselves together.
Unfortunately I can’t tell you much at the moment about Before Midnight. I live in an area of California, just over a hundred miles north of Sacramento, that the cultural powers-that-be viewed as essentially flyover country and therefore did not release it anywhere close to my neighborhood. It may have been a sound business decision, but it is still irritating that a geographical area larger than most states in the Union can be written off as just not worth the trouble. It’s the kind of thing that makes me understand, however briefly, the resentment that red-state inhabitants often feel toward mainstream culture.
Rather than nurse my grudge against the world, however, I did the next best thing to seeing Before Midnight and bought the first two movies of the series, grateful that the Internet makes such a choice possible nowadays. Having just watched them back to back during my recent vacation, I would absolutely recommend them to anyone interested in films that feature something other than explosions, one-liners, or tiresome visions of apocalypse, which seems to be about all that can be found in recent movie listings.
These are romantic movies, of course, but the main caution I would offer is not that they are strictly chick flicks, but rather that they demand a level of attention far beyond the expectations of most films. For a combined one hundred and eighty one minutes, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset give us virtually non-stop conversation between a man and a woman who think seriously about their hopes, dreams and struggles to find meaning in their lives, and if you miss even a few seconds of their dialogue, the connection you feel with them can disappear in an instant. Without getting into details as to what they talk about, I can vouch that it is worthwhile to make the effort to hear it all, even if it means pausing and backing up the DVD frequently to do so.
I only wish I could do that in real life, because as we all know, listening is hard.
