Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset picks up nine years after the twentysomething protagonists of Before Sunrise (1995) said their final goodbyes on a train platform in Vienna after spending a romantically and intellectually intoxicating night together and pledged to meet back in that same spot six months later. Linklater ended that film on a note of sublime ambiguity. The characters had talked extensively about how relationships can sour and about how they feared any attempt to keep in contact over the phone and through the mail (he being American and she being French) would just lead to a gradual fading away. Thus, we had no idea whether they would ever see each other again, and how one read those final moments worked as a kind of litmus test for either one’s romanticism (“Of course they’ll meet up again in six months!”) or cynicism (“Of course they won’t! Empty promises!”).

This is almost exactly what Jesse (Ethan Hawke), the American who is now in his early 30s, says at a book signing at the Shakespeare & Co. bookstore in Paris, where he is on the last stop of a 12-city tour promoting his first novel, which is, not incidentally, based on his experience walking the city of Vienna nine years early with Céline (Julie Delpy), a Parisian student he met on the train that afternoon. At the very end of the discussion, he catches out of the corner of his eye the arrival of Céline, who saw the advertisement for his book signing and decided to show up, thus reuniting them for the first time in a nearly a decade (when they parted at the end of the earlier film, they did not exchange contact information or even know each other’s last names). It is a moment they had both been anticipating for years, but couldn’t be sure would ever actually happen. After all, as one of them puts it, “What are the chances?”

Unlike Before Sunset, which unfolds over a roughly 18-hour period, Before Sunset plays out in something close to real time, as Jesse has to catch a plane in less than two hours, but is drawn away from his plans by the opportunity to reconnect with Céline. For those of us who loved Before Sunset and were deeply moved by the connection these two characters shared, the prospect of seeing them reunite and rediscover each other is an intoxicating premise, and one that the film often makes good on. As when they first met, the opening moments of their time together is somewhat awkward and unsteady while they try to find their grounding as adults who once shared a passionate night together. Some ambiguities from the previous film are finally answered, including whether either one of them returned to that train platform in Vienna as originally planned and whether or not they actually made love in the grass in the early morning hours before Céline had to get on her train to Paris. But, answering those questions is infinitely less interesting than watching them reconnect after all these years, sharing what has been happening in their lives and how they have and haven’t changed (interestingly, they seemed to have swapped positions, with Jesse being more romantic and Céline being more cynical).

Spoiler alert! The following paragraph contains what might be considered a spoiler, so proceed with caution if you haven’t seen the film.

Unfortunately, some aspects of the film simply don’t work the way they did earlier, and not just because the characters are now older and have more life under their belts. Hawke’s portrayal of Jesse follows very much from the younger, intellectually curious self we saw in Before Sunrise, but something about the way he has aged comes off as a bit unseemly. Much more so than the previous film, both he and Céline are obsessed with talking about sex, at one point even joking about what “perverts” they’ve become. One of the magical aspects of the previous film was how their sexual connection was deeply interwoven into their fascination with each other’s and minds and spirits. Now, even though Jesse professes a kind of romantic abandon that would be more suited to his younger self, he also constantly and vulgarly interjects his own sexual desire into the conversations, to the point of coming off as somewhat leering and creepy (Hawke also looks strangely gaunt in the film, perhaps because the mid-2000s was a difficult period for him personally and saw him taking an increasing number of dark, twisted roles). Jesse jokes about it, but those jokes feel like thin cover for not just his physical attraction to Céline, but a kind of lecherous need to possess her physically (note the way he pulls her onto his lap on a park bench at one point, which plays as an uncomfortable counterpoint to the scene in the early film when they are sitting on a fountain together and she rests her head comfortably on his lap). He seems to be pushing things in an aggressive manner that is unbecoming, and it weighs down significant portions of the film (it doesn’t help when it is revealed late in the film that he is married—unhappily—and has a four-year-old son, which makes him seem like even more of a self-absorbed jerk).

However, even with those characterological problems, Before Sunset often works beautifully, conveying the strange, uniquely intoxicating nature of reconnecting with someone after years of absence—without even a photograph to aid in one’s memory. Hawke and Delpy have some of the same intense connection they had in the earlier film, and there are passages that cut right to heart of what it means to be a young adult, no longer in the thralls of emerging adolescence, but also not fully established in the world. That the film ends on yet another note of extreme ambiguity only underscores the complexity of their relationship and the impossibility of predicting just how one’s life might turn out.

Before Sunrise Criterion CollectionBlu-ray
Before Sunset is available exclusively as a part of the three-disc “Before Trilogy” boxset, which also includes Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Midnight (2013).
Aspect Ratio	1.85:1 (all three films)
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 surround (Before Sunrise English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround (Before Sunset and Before Midnight
Subtitles	English
Supplements	Video discussion featuring writer/director Richard Linklater and actors Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, moderated by critic Kent Jones Behind-the-scenes footage and interviews from the productions of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset Audio commentary on Before Midnight by Delpy, Linklater, and Hawke Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny, feature-length 2016 documentary by Louis Black and Karen Bernstein After Before, a new documentary by Athina Rachel Tsangari Video conversation between scholars Dave Johnson and Rob Stone Episode of the radio program Fresh Air featuring host Terry Gross, Linklater, Delpy, and Hawke “Linklater // On Cinema & Time,” video essay by filmmaker :: kogonada Essay on the trilogy by critic Dennis Lim
Distributor	The Criterion Collection
SRP	$99.95
Release Date	February 28, 2017
VIDEO & AUDIO
Both Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are making their high-definition debuts in Criterion’s new “The Before Trilogy” boxset. Both of those films have remained untouched since their initial DVD releases (in 2001 and 2004, respectively), so their new, restored 2K digital transfers (both made from 35mm interpositives and approved by director Richard Linklater) are much appreciated. Both films look quite a bit better in high definition, with better detail, slightly more robust colors, and an increase in brightness that, while not substantial, still impacts our overall experience watching them. The images are clean and clear, with a subtle presence of grain that attests to their origins on film. The image for Before Midnight is the same as the one that appeared on the 2014 Sony Blu-ray, which is a direct port of the 2K digital film. All three films have DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks; Before Sunrise is presented in its original two-channel mix, while the latter two films both have 5.1-channel mixes. Of course, the majority of all three films is heavily dialogue-based, which leaves little room for surround activity outside of ambient effects and atmosphere, although I noticed that the forlorn piano score on Before Midnight sounds particularly rich.
SUPPLEMENTS
The previous home video editions of the films in “The Before Trilogy” were largely lacking in supplementary material, especially Before Sunrise, which had only a theatrical trailer, and Before Sunset, which had only a short making-of featurette. Criterion, whose release of these films has been long rumored and highly anticipated, has rectified that with literally hours of supplementary material spread across three discs to contextualize and deepen our appreciation of Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy’s unique cinematic achievement. Before Midnight is the only film with an audio commentary, this one featuring director Richard Linklater and stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy that was previously available on the Sony Blu-ray. It’s a good listen and attests to how comfortable the three feel with each other (listening to them laugh and joke through the horrors of the lengthy fight scene is highly entertaining in its own right). However, there is also plenty of new stuff. First up is “The Space In-Between,” a fascinating 45-minute video discussion featuring Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy, moderated by critic Kent Jones. They discuss all three films, although Delpy doesn’t join the discussion until about 20 minutes in (she is also not physically present with the others, but rather joins them via a satellite feed). After Before is a 30-minute documentary about the production of Before Midnight by producer and actor Athina Rachel Tsangari, who shot all the footage during the film’s production in Greece. “3x2: A Conversation” offers some academic and scholarly analysis of the trilogy courtesy of two Linklater scholars, Dave Johnson (author of Contemporary Film Directors: Richard Linklater and Rob Stone (author of Richard Linklater: Walk, Don’t Run), who spend nearly 40 minutes discussing the interconnections among the three films and their various themes and preoccupations. The interconnections among the films and their emphasis on the nature and perception of time are the subjects of filmmaker :: kogonada’s quite moving 8-minute video essay “Linklater // On Cinema & Time.” For a truly in-depth look at Linklater’s career, you can turn to Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny, an 86-minute documentary by Louis Black and Karen Bernstein produced in 2016 for PBS’s “American Masters” series. It includes interviews with Linklater, Hawke, Delpy, actor Matthew McConaughey, director Jonathan Demme, editor Sandra Adair, and members of Linklater’s family. There are also a few bits from the archives, including short promotional featurettes that include behind-the-scenes footage and interviews from Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. There is also a 40-minute episode of the radio program Fresh Air featuring host Terry Gross, Linklater, Delpy, and Hawke recorded after the release of Before Midnight.

Copyright © 2017 James Kendrick

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