If there has been an over-riding theme to be found within the work of Richard Linklater; it would that of time and how to present it on screen. The most notable example of this and certainly the most critically praised would Boyhood, shot over twelve years in 10-20 minute segments, eventually being collated into a film perfectly emulating the growth of a child into the borderline of adulthood. Instead of makeup, or even nowadays CGI, Linklater removed any veneer of construction and simply let his actors (and in turn his characters) grow in real time and in real life. Linklater’s current ongoing project is stretching this 12 year shooting span to around 25 years to bring Stephen Sondheim’s glorious musical Merrily We Roll Along (a major decade spanning piece) to the screen. Even looking at his original masterpiece Dazed and Confused and then it’s “spiritual sequel” Everybody Wants Some, one can note an exploration of archetypes re-appearing and adapting over time, first the 70’s, later the 80’s. But for me the finest example of Linklater’s filmic obsession with time would be without a shadow of a doubt his Before Trilogy. Shot over 25 years, nine years in-between each feature, we drop in on three pivotal moments in the life-span of a romantic relationship between Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy), two amiable travellers who strike up a connection. Dazed is a flawless masterpiece, but for me this collection of three films is his piece-de-resistance.
Before Sunrise (1995)
The first of our three films is 1995’s Before Sunrise. We begin our journey with a simple argument on a train between a German couple that remains un-subtitled and leaves us in the lurch in regards to understanding a word that they’re saying. From the off-set Linklater has brought the theme of communication into the world of this movie. I bring up communication immediately because the crux of this film is really quite simply a series of conversations between two people who have just met and will unbeknownst to them embark on the great romance of their lives this night. The tagline posits the question that lies at the heart of the romance and heart of this film; “Can the greatest romance of your life last only one night?” Watching this first film in the context of it being the first part in a trilogy gives an entirely different vibe to it. I will unfortunately never understand the inner turmoil many will have faced following the ambiguity of this film’s ending, for I already know that they made two more. Perhaps it is the power of this first film and its overall atmosphere of liminality that I still feel moments of wondering whether or not Jesse and Celine will get together. An air of romanticism does pervade in the film, afterall by Linklater’s own admission, his three stars and he are all self-proclaimed romantics. As much as there is a free and easy nature to the film, there is also a repeated introduction of a weight about the circumstances, in both the relationship and the film’s artistic context. The film address the literary context of its set-up repeatedly, with an array of references to James Joyce’s Ulysses, with both pieces following an exploration of a city over a day (Vienna here, Dublin in Ulysses). The fact that both take place on June 16th, into June 17th, is for instance the most obvious allusion. But instead of making the film seem distant and overly literate, the Joyce allusions only further and enrich repeat viewings. For as much as Sunrise has it’s basis in that Joycian structure, it never once blends that into its own creative and seemingly boundless luster as it continually strives in its own simplicity.
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Before I go any further in this article I must labour the point that not a single one of these movies would work without the incomparably exceptional chemistry of Delpy and Hawke. This first film begins with a pretty ridiculous sentiment, but we truly never give it a second thought because Hawke is just so damn charming and believable and of course we believe that Delpy would go with him, for she is also so damn charming and believable, and we naturally never question why Jesse strikes up his perusing in the first scene, because Celine is so beautiful and intriguing and thoughtful a creature that she’s an ideal partner. We too never consider Celine’s carelessness, because Hawke is so damn handsome and charismatic as Jesse. I keep repeating and bringing up the concept of believability - for me this is the intrinsic heart of the entire trilogy. Perhaps the believability of the performances comes from the extensive re-writing that Delpy and Hawke underwent with Linklater, from the original script Linklater developed with Kim Krizan (who would not return for the later films). Delpy was privately annoyed by the lack of screen credit that the pair received, this was altered for the sequels with all three under the banner head of writer. It is a testament that the writing does feel so believable and in many ways improvisational. Sunrise is a perfect entryway into two lives that will affect us in viewing them, almost as much as they effect each others. A powerful and splendid romance with an Old Hollywood conceit at the heart of it told through a modern and semi-passive lens. We are observing now, but our proximity to the couple will only seem to grow as we go on. The film did terribly at the box office, but the sequels were also a deeply felt passion project for Linklater and his two stars. They got their wish 9 years later.
Before Sunset (2004)
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Before Sunrise starts with flashbacks. Without sound and intercut between a far less emotional re-telling from Jesse as he describes sort of without the power and romance of the first film the events of it, before segueing into the pitch for his next novel which also may have been influenced severely by Celine. For Sunrise takes place in Paris with Jesse on his book tour with a novel titled This Time, about a night spent with a beautiful French woman before... Well, you get it. It’s that night, just with a few flourishes of idealism, as Celine is urgent to point out. The two share a walk, then a coffee, then a boat, then a car, then a song, as they reunite and all those sparks from years ago immediately strike up again. The chemistry is so fervent in fact that it is still deeply felt despite our two romantic leads not once sharing a kiss on the lips in the entire film. This time their pre-occupation is not with making the most of the night, it’s making the most of an hour. That pained liminality haunts the film and is perhaps the main reason for the lack of spark in the third film – there is no ticking clock there, there is no stringent amount of time to make special, and so years pass by with haunting ease. This film too features a range of long takes, the longest in this film being around 11 minutes long, but is also the shortest of the three films at a very tight 80 minutes, being presented notably in exact real time to really solidify the ticking clock nature of the pressing plane journey that looms over the film. This film in many ways feels like a fleeting footnote in these people’s lives, despite it arguably being the second most important day in them, or rather one could argue the most important day in their lives. For this is not a day of romance, this is a day of action and acting upon what one feels. It is of course a day of romance too, for what the feeling that they are acting upon is of course love. But the point still stands.
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An addition for this film is the musical stylings of Delpy, with her writing and performing three songs for the soundtrack – one of which consists of a live performance to Jesse in the film’s beautiful and almost elegiac final scene, where the fact is revealed that Celine has herself too turned the incredible evening of the first film into art, a song here rather than a complete novel. For me this is the heart of this second film. Both Jesse and Celine have commented on through art there once in a lifetime experience, with foresight and almost nine years of thinking about it. There is a real meta nature to this film that doesn’t appear as overtly in the first or third. Here there are extensive conversations about the nature of standing back and examining an experience through rose-tinted glasses and the fog of time. It is only in the subtle and sparring mirroring’s of moments from that night that pure love can be commented upon, for love is a mystery and Jesse and Celine could have their entire lives to figure out what happened that night to themselves and that gut feeling they got, and with a year they still wouldn’t find an answer. Here, however they only have one hour. This film ends on a far more triumphant note, instead of the haunting ambiguity of the first film. But the beauty and hope of that ending can’t last for long, as we find 9 years later.
Before Midnight (2013)
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Spurned by the newfound inspiration of each of their children, Linklater, Hawke and Delpy returned to Jesse and Celine for one final time in Before Midnight. Originally conceived as an average day in Jesse and Celine’s current life, in Greece upon the invitation of a literary colleague of Jesse’s, a more pivotal day was chosen to be shown. We begin with Jesse sending his son off on a plane for his time with his mother, before spending some time with those they have lived with for this summer in Greece. The final extended stretch of the film is based around a brutal argument shared by Jesse and Celine in a hotel room, a gift of a romantic night together away from the kids from two of the people they were staying with this summer. What begins as sexual and romantic swiftly grows more and more revelatory after one possibly misjudged comment is brought into discussion. Resentments grow and are brought to light and like all extended arguments that aren’t quashed in those early minutes, the deepest and most painful of truths are eventually brought to light. Whereas the entire trilogy largely consists of extended dialogue scenes, this is the grandest and in my eyes most depthful. I also feel the following midnight cafe scene to be the finest and most desperate and urgent performances Hawke and Delpy ever gave in this series of films. This entire film works on the crux of brutal reality seeping into a grand romance, it’s a feature length version of the concept of The Graduate ending; what happens after the camera stops? The smiles fade. The romance fades. The love may not, as we explore in the final scene, but the Old Hollywood romance certainly does, as perhaps is the natural course of things. Time is discussed more in this film than in the previous two and I believe that to be down to that most brutal of contexts, that only rears its head later in life; death. Death haunts the film in its literal sense, and in its metaphorical sense in regards to the death of a relationship. But despite the darkness of this final entry, it also has some of the funnier moments of any of them. Especially when Delpy is concerned. Delpy does marvellous humour in the dinner scene, but then brutally undercuts it by bringing in the reality and truth of where those comedic observations came from. The comedic meta acknowledgement of the films continues here too with Jesse describing his other novels, aswell as a pitch scene shared with the three men he is staying with, emulating the populous pretentiousness of an auteur craftsman later in his life.
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There is of course the tragic story that looms over this trilogy until it’s final frame; her name is Amy Lehraupt, this final movie is dedicated to her memory. Some people don’t know that Linklater’s initial inspiration for the film was a real life night he spent wandering the streets of Philadelphia in 1989 with a girl he met named Amy. The chief difference being that some phone contact was kept, before it was lost in 1994. It is movie lore that Linklater made the first film partially in the hope to reconnect with her, he never had any contact from her however. The sequel came around and there was still no word from the woman. The tragic end to the story is that in 2010, Linklater was contacted by a friend of Amy’s who knew their story and put the pieces together. That friend told Linklater that Lehrpraut died in a motorcycle accident at the age of 24 a few weeks prior to the shooting of Sunrise. Although these films have their moments of true brutality, it is still a beautiful thing in my eyes that a piece of such tremendous art can be a dedication to this lost soul. For what may have began as a simple night in 1989 ultimately led to one of the finest cinematic trilogies of all time.
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Hawke has often described the trilogy as such; Sunrise is a film about what might have been. Sunset is a film about what could or should have been. Midnight is a film about what is. This degrading sense of hopefulness and loss of romanticism pervades the trilogy and it is truly shocking in many ways to return to the wistful love of the first film after recently viewing the third. But like all relationships; the trilogy is complex and contains multitudes. It is these multitudes that lead us to return to these films over and over and over again, without them ever losing an ounce of their immense power to effect.
“Here’s to passing through.”
- - Thomas Carruthers
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