Before Sunrise

31 December 2018

Before Sunrise 1995

• Director: Richard Linklater
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Ethan Hawke – Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Cymbeline, Before Sunset, Tape, Hamlet, Snow Falling on Cedars, Gattaca, Reality Bites, Waterland, Dead Poets Society
• Julie Delpy – Two Days in New York, Two Days in Paris, Broken Flowers, The Red Film, The White Film
• Why? Liked it the first time
• Seen: Once before. Now 28 December 2018      

       Romantic comedies are usually not our thing but this one has stayed with us. Will we like it again? Train journeys in Europe are always nice.

       Jesse (Hawke) and Celine (Delpy) meet by chance on a train to Venice. She’s on her way home to Paris. He’s leaving by plane in the morning.  He talks her into spending the day in Vienna with him.

       They talk. They walk. They look at each other. They do some kissing but they can’t afford a hotel room so they wander throughout the night. They’re very young. They philosophise about love, parents, childhood, rebellion, adulthood, men and women. They encounter some odd characters but mostly they walk, talk and kiss.

       Hawke and Delpy are very good, very believable, very real. It’s a pity they’re not completely likeable and that it’s a bit boring. Are we really going to watch the next one tomorrow as planned? Maybe not.

       An even more important question: why didn’t they go see the play about the cow?

3 * of 5 (Hal gave it 4)