Before Sunrise/Before Sunset

I rented both these films from Amazon because they were directed by Richard Linklater, an interesting director, and I was intrigued by the concept. I didn't know too much about them, only that they both starred Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, and they played the same characters in each film. But that was about all.

Anyway, I was enchanted by them both. Before Sunrise is the first; released in 1995. Two young people, Jesse, an American (Ethan Hawke), and Celine (Julie Delpy), a French student, meet accidentally on a train, somewhere in Central Europe. They form an instant connection, and spend a magical night together, wandering round Vienna, talking, and making love in a park. They promise to meet again in 6 months time.

Before Sunset takes place nearly 10 years later - Jesse's become a successful writer, and is doing a book signing in Paris which Celine attends. They re-establish their connection almost right away, but they've changed and a lot has happened. Jesse has a wife and son, and Celine has become a fiercely independent political activist. Jesse has an hour before he leaves for the airport to catch his plane back to the US and the film is played almost in real time as they wander around Paris. They end up at Celine's flat and the film ends abruptly, so we never know whether Jesse catches his plane.

Before Sunrise brought back vivid memories of nights when I'd gone with friends to a gig in London and ended up wandering round empty streets, or sitting in deserted Golden Eggs, killing time waiting for the milk train back home. In your late teens/early twenties life is experienced vividly, viscerally, and when one remembers, one re-experiences, feels again. And this is what I experienced when watching this film - I re-felt my feelings, if that makes sense. It wasn't that the film described my experiences, but it made me feel the ones I'd had over again. The joyful. heady experience of meeting someone, making a connection so strong you feel you'll never have that again was there in this film. That's another thing I know about. That there's something intensely pleasurable as well as heartbreaking about parting from someone with whom you've had a brief but intense experience, when you know that you will not, cannot, meet again. When Jesse and Celine arrange to meet again in 6 months they don't quite do enough to make sure their relationship will endure. They don't exchange phone numbers or addresses, so when Jesse turns up, but Celine can't because of the sudden death of her grandmother (so she says) they have no way of getting on touch. it's as if they have arranged for their encounter to remain perfect, preserved in time.
So when they meet again in Before Sunset, it's again accidental (sort of), and it's clear that the connection is still there, but things are more complicated now, as they are in one's 30s. Jesse's marriage is failing, and Celine, while leading an active, busy, committed life has what is clearly a semi-detached and confusing relationship with a photographer. The walls are closing in on them, and this is what life does to you as you age. The absence of resolution at the end is absolutely correct, that's what life is like, and the film makes much more of the simple pleasures of things like having a coffee in a cafe. Their brief sexual relationship is less important than their conversations; about love, loss, loneliness, memory. In the first film they meet a street palm-reader who tells Celine 'You must resign yourselves to the awkwardness of life'. Sometimes we meet the love of our lives but we cannot spend our lives with them. And we spend our lives with people who disappoint.
The thing about the films is that they tell the truth - few of us are writers or activist, or live in Paris, but they are about life as it is lived - messy, complcated, uneven, full of joys, sorrows, pleasure and disappointment. The ending is perfect - Jesse picks out a CD from Celine's shelves. It's Edith Piaf, and he puts it on the player. Celine starts to sing along, impersonating Piaf. I can't really do proper justice to the scene - it's just beautiful.
These are two films I know I'll watch over and over again - I don't often find many I'm prepared to actually buy, but these two I will.