Directed by Richard Linklater.
Written by Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan
Ethan Hawke: Jesse
Julie Delpy: Celine
Basic plot:
Jesse and Celine meet on a train. He’s heading to Vienna to catch a plane home to America. She’s going home to Paris. He convinces her to get off the train at Vienna. They then walk around Vienna all night.
And thats it. They walk. And talk. And sit on a tram. And talk. And walk some more. And talk some more.
This film has less going on in it than any other film I’ve seen. But for all that’s not going on, there is a lot going on.
Linklaters direction is amazing. Plenty of long takes, not hurrying things or jump cuts just for the sake of it. I wish more directors would take a leaf out of his book and realise that sometimes you can tell a story without jumping all over the place.
The script, too, is amazing. It concentrates, as you would expect, on Jesse and Celine. But that’s not to say that the people they encounter are not interesting. It’s just that the script does not allow them to encroach too far into Jesse and Celines world.
Nor do we find out too much information about their lives back home. We are given some information, which helps to flesh out the characters, but the only world we are given is that of Jesse and Celine together.
The relationship between Jesse and Celine is also brilliantly scripted, but it’s acted superbly. Hawke and Delpy really manage to give the impression of the relationship developing from first akward meeting on the train to the painful goodbye at the end.
This film blew me away when I saw it. I can find many great things to say about it. But I will leave it at this.
Before Sunrise is the film that Lost In Translation is desperate to be.
Will
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