The character Celine is someone I had never seen before in a movie. She's like a female version of a young and paranoid Woody Allen. Julie Delpy has a peculiar way of delivering her lines with confidence and at full speed that make her seem like she actually has something to say, ideas that she absolutely has to convey. But then she ends her sentences with a question like "no?" or "wasn't that a horrible thing to say?" as if to challenge Jesse and the audience to argue with her, to contradict her opinions. then she laughs maniacally to show that she is confident and fully aware of her ideas (maybe even of their craziness) but she will continue to speak her mind anyway. French, good looking, confident, intelligent, neurotic and completely aware of it. She's irresistible.
Jesse (Ethan Hawke), has differing opinions on God, love, relationships and all the countless things they talk about, but he shares that same spirit of curiosity as Celine, that need to express his ideas to someone else and receive some feedback. Jesse wants to talk with Celine, exchange meaningful ideas, create conflict because, as Celine says, "There's a lot of good things coming out of conflict.'' People need to challenge their beliefs, to know why they hold them and how to defend them. Even when Celine and Jesse reach the wrong conclusions (in my opinion), at least they have the right attitude towards life. So, even though there is no melodrama, no sex, no violence, no artificial plot developments, Before Sunrise manages to be one of the most exciting movies I've ever seen. The reason being that the poetry of every day life, the poetry of a simple conversation (or as Celine put it "All those mundane, boring things everybody has to do every day of their fucking life") is so much more interesting than any crap Hollywood can come up with.
However, the thing that makes Before Sunrise truly special is the dialogue. With bad dialogue, this would have been a painful film to get through. Richard Linklater, the writer/director, has the rare talent of understanding the way that people talk. Jesse and Celine have conversations that I feel I've had in some form. It sounds simple, but some writers, no matter how good they are, or how great their story is, just cannot make their characters talk like real people. Quentin Tarantino, for example, writes hilarious dialogue full of pop culture references, but in real life, no one ever asks what a quarter pounder with cheese is called in France.
Verdict- 4/4
Before Sunrise (1994) R 1h 35 min.
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