Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are a rare case of two movies that rightfully demand yet another sequel.
Before Sunset (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:38
Fresh:37
Rotten:1
Average Rating:8.4/10
Consensus: Filled with engaging dialogue, Before Sunset is a witty, poignant romance, with natural chemistry between Hawke and Delpy.
Theatrical Release:Jul 2, 2004 Limited
Box Office: $5,563,693
Synopsis: When Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) met on a Eurail train, the connection between them was immediate and profound. The 14-hour relationship that followed, as the pair explored the... When Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) met on a Eurail train, the connection between them was immediate and profound. The 14-hour relationship that followed, as the pair explored the spontaneous and unexpected in Vienna, ended on a train platform where they swore they'd meet again six months later. Nine years have passed since that morning. On the last stop of his book tour, at the tail end of a reading in a Paris book shop, Jesse finds Celine watching from the back of the room. She lives in Paris now, he in New York. He's flying out that evening and they utilize every moment, finding their human connection no less vital, inspiring or real than it was in nine years ago in Vienna. In a stimulating and revealing journey through Paris, in real time, these two individuals explore the inner workings of their hearts and minds and rediscover their rare yet powerful love for the unexpected, the unrehearsed, and each other. Warner Independent Pictures and Castle Rock Entertainment present a sequel to the acclaimed 1995 film Before Sunrise. Directed by Richard Linklater, the visionary behind such films as Dazed and Confused and Waking Life, BEFORE SUNSET tells the timeless romantic story of two questing hearts and minds whose powerful bond defies time and place. -- © Warner Independent [More]
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Director: Richard Linklater
Director: Richard Linklater
Screenwriter: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater
Producer: Richard Linklater, Anne Walker-McBay
Studio: Warner Independent
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Reviews for Before Sunset
Mr. Linklater and his two creative leads have managed a miraculous transformation of the characters from once-callow lovers into grown-ups teetering on the edge of eternity.
The chemistry between Jesse and Celine --- and Hawke and Delpy and, for that matter, Linklater --- is as immediate as it is appealing.
Allows you to watch two deeply engaged and engaging performers moving verbally through delicately negotiated layers of delight, apprehension, desire and surrender.
Hawke and Delpy are credited with writing some of the dialogue, presumably as improvisations. They manage to be both natural and intense, and their characters feel real, even if the situation does not.
A simply amazing film -- touching, sexy, smart, sad and, beyond all, passionate about the value of time and love.
How often does a visual medium make such an elegant argument about the beauty of language, even as it asserts its right to tell a story and move us with its vision?
For my money, Sunset tops the first installment because it involves characters who have more life under their belts. Nothing like a few years to clarify a personality.
For all its modesty, lingers in the mind like an unresolved relationship or a life-altering, if random, moment.
A fictional romance with a factual feel, a near-documentary quality that makes it difficult to distinguish the actor from the role.
If you didn't like Before Sunrise, filmmaker Richard Linklater says, you'll hate Before Sunset. But if you treasured the original, you're sure to prize the 'romance for realists' sequel.
A savvy sequel that should speak to anyone who's let that one great love slip away.
Having seen Before Sunset twice, and Before Sunrise again in between, I can't say which film is better. Both seem to fulfill an ambition Jean-Luc Godard expressed in the 60s -- to achieve 'the definitive by chance.'
Before Sunrise captures the exhilaration of connecting with another person; Before Sunset moves forward from there, burrowing into territory that's more complex and dangerous, but also perhaps more vital.
The incessant jawboning of Before Sunset is all foreplay and no climax.
Before Sunset has an easy, unforced air about it, mostly because of what seems to be a real rapport between the two lead actors.
It has earthy (and therefore sexy) urban locations, a splendid originality of voice, a loose and distinctive visual style, and it sends audiences out humming with the realness and beauty of it all. ... But it should have been twice as long.
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