Chapter Two: Before Sunset
By Brett Beach
May 5, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
The sequels that work the best often do one of two things: continue the story of characters we care about in a satisfying way; or take the best elements of the original film and give us another round of those with less fat in between (think of William Goldman's novel The Princess Bride and how it was slyly sold as a fairy tale with all the boring bits cut out). This latter scenario most often applies to action and horror films with bigger ‘splosions, a greater number of gruesome® death scenes or more mind-blowing special effects. Occasionally, sequels opt for the story before the story (i.e The Beginning) and become prequels. Even rarer still are those sequels that appear to disregard entirely what made the first film work and branch off on their own crazed path. Chapter Two will consider them all: the heralded, the unheralded and those that time may have passed by and deserve a second glance. I am always thankful that (so far) James Cameron has resisted any attempts to make Titanic 2. But a part of me wonders as well – Wow, what the hell would that be like? And in that vein of inquiry...welcome to Chapter Two.
Before Sunset (2004)
Richard Linklater's follow-up to his "lovers for a night" comic romance Before Sunrise (1995) marks the only sequel the idiosyncratic Austin filmmaker has delivered to date. It garnered him his first (and so far sole) Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, shared with co-writer Kim Krizan and the actors playing the couple at the center of both films - Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. It received near-universal critical acclaim and wound up grossing in real dollars more than the original. Sunset now proudly sits on my list of all-time favorite movies, but in the summer of 2004 I approached its release with ever-increasing anxiety and trepidation. Why? It marked the first time I was genuinely concerned that a sub-par sequel to a film that I adored would tarnish my affection for the predecessor.
Before Sunrise is one of those films that hit me (as I am sure it did many others) at the right point in my life to be swept up in its romantic idealism. At the time, I was in college, girlfriend-less and had never traveled abroad. The story of Jesse (Hawke) and Celine (Delpy) meeting cute on a train traveling through Europe and deciding to spend the night hanging out in Vienna before going their separate ways had it all: attractive and quirky leads, smart intelligent banter and the ever-ticking clock to add suspense to what would otherwise be a plot-free movie.
When the end rolls around and the pair make the last-second decision to meet again six months down the line, it is both satisfying and bittersweet. As the film fades out on their parallel journeys home to Texas and France respectively, we wonder if they will show up for their rendezvous. We would never know of course, because this is the kind of film that doesn't get a sequel made...
Nearly a decade later, Linklater, Hawke and Delpy reunited for Sunset, another cinematic capturing of a very small slice of time in the lives of Jesse and Celine. (Yes, I do acknowledge that Linklater's 2001 animated head trip Waking Life did feature Hawke and Delpy playing a couple who seemed very much like Celine and Jesse. But since the whole film is really only Wiley Wiggins' dream, it doesn't count). While Sunrise focused on a single evening and night (about 12 hours), Sunset unfolds in near real time over the course of 75 minutes. One of Sunset's many strengths (and joys) is how it plays off our memories of the lovers in the first film.
They are now ten years older and the actors who play them have aged right along. The youthful passion is still there, but now it has crows feet under the eyes and worry lines etched along the forehead to complement it. The failed relationships and stagnant marriage of the characters mirrored and were informed by what Delpy and Hawke had been through in their lives in the interim in a way that a sequel made one year or even five years later would not have so effectively portrayed.
We discover that Jesse and Celine, through the vicissitudes of fate, did not get together. And with no way to contact one another - remember, the first film took place before cell phones, the Internet, et al had come into daily prominence – they might never have found each other. But Jesse has written a novel, a thinly veiled account of his night with Celine, and on the last night of his book tour, at a bookstore in Paris, she appears. With a flight to the States only hours away, Jesse attempts to reconnect with Celine. Down the side streets of Paris, in a coffee shop, along the waterfront, onto a tour boat and ultimately a van heading back to Celine's flat, the pair pick up where their last conversation left off and poke warily around how their feelings have or haven't changed since Vienna.
Chemistry between movie couples is as inexact a science as ever there was. Consider Warren Beatty and Annette Bening verbally sparring and sexually combusting on screen (and off) in Bugsy. Three years later, in their remake of Love Affair, that distinct spark had vanished and the film suffered terribly for it. Hawke and Delpy have been charming on their own in many films, but nothing that can account for how perfectly matched they are in Linklater's films. There is the physical attraction yes, but there is also the meeting of the minds (as Roger Ebert has referred to it "that greatest of erogenous zones") that adds ineffably to the sexiness of what goes on between Jesse and Celine. Hawke and Delpy understand these characters inside and out and there is a playfulness and gravitas that comes from that level of comfort. It's intoxicating and, when push comes to shove, a lot hotter than when Delpy took off her top and pressed Tom Everett Scott's hands onto her breasts in that classic love scene from An American Werewolf in Paris.
Linklater's skill is in keeping this carefully rehearsed film from seeming rehearsed. His presentation feels as spontaneous and natural as the couple's conversations. The way the camera captures Celine's hand tentatively reaching to caress Jesse's neck or the tired look on Jesse's face as he talks about being unfulfilled in his marriage – "I feel like I am running a daycare with someone I used to date" – speaks to Linklater's skill in capturing the off-hand moment and making it feel like a major discovery.
Some may quibble with the ending as too abrupt but really, it's Linklater's own sly joke on the theme of time running out that runs through both films. Once again, the audience has been given just a window's peek into the lives of Jesse and Celine. Their time isn't up and they now know they must make the best use of what amount of it they have left. The original title of Before Sunset - If Not Now, reflects this as well. Where once I approached the idea of revisiting Jesse and Celine with reservation, I now hope that Linklater and Hawke and Delpy will continue returning to their creations' lives. If only to see where they are at, and perhaps gain insight once more into where my life is as well.