‘Sunset’ starts where ‘Sunrise’ stops

ALLEN MacDONALD

In 1995, director Richard Linklater released a little film that I

still have never seen. It’s called “Before Sunrise,” and it

chronicles a single evening of a young couple meeting on a train,

deciding to jump off together and spending their few short hours

together in Vienna. Of course, they make intense physical and

intellectual connections and fall in love. And not your garden

variety “in love,” but more like the once-in-a-lifetime,

been-hit-by-a-bolt-of-lightning, will-never-find-this-again variety.

At the end, the lovers, Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke)

agree to meet again in Vienna six months later.

Did they? Nope. Nine years later finds Jesse on the last leg of a

book tour for his first novel, which is not-so-loosely based on the

events of the first film. As he fields press questions at the famed

Shakespeare and Co. bookstore in Paris, Celine appears in the

background. When Jesse sees her, you can feel the chill rocketing

down his spine. Turns out Celine frequents the bookstore often and

knew of his upcoming in-store appearance.

Unfortunately, the unexpected reunion will be short-lived as Jesse

must catch a ride to the airport in 90 minutes -- and only has time

to grab a quick coffee with Celine before returning to the United

States. So, for the next 90 minutes, the narrative unfolds in real

time. There are no jumps forward, no cuts that find our characters

have moved from one location to another. If they go somewhere, we

watch them walk there and go through the door. “Before Sunset,” now

playing at Edwards South Coast Village, is built on conversation, and

it does so in a way that rings with a natural authenticity. What do

you talk about when you only have an hour and a half to catch up with

the only person you believe you have ever truly loved?

Linklater, along with the help of stars Delpy and Hawke, clearly

ruminated on this question and settled on an organic style that

allows Celine and Jesse’s conversation to evolve in a believable

fashion: At first they’re guarded, polite and pleasant. They both

work hard to downplay that glorious night they spent together a

decade before, dismissing it as capricious youth, but as the sand

slips through the hourglass, and the protective layers over their

hearts get peeled away one by one. They express the dissatisfaction

they feel in their lives, how they’ve both wondered if they’d kept

their promise to one and other, that they would be happier now.

There are eruptions of anger and resentment, followed by

outpourings of empathy and understanding. And every time Jesse pushes

back his ride to the airport, you know he’s not just buying himself

10 minutes, he could be buying himself a new life. But have they

built up what they had too much in the intervening years? Was what

they remember real or the result of nostalgia-enhanced memory? In

other words, are they remembering a version of the past that never

happened? Or is the fear of mortality driving them to correct

perceived mistakes of the past?

A lot of questions, not all of them answered, but the film does

distill a lot of intensity into a surprisingly short amount of time.

I can tell you this: I will be going out to rent the DVD of “Before

Sunrise” tonight. But maybe I was right to wait, as taking their

journey back into the past may make the present more bittersweet.

This is a movie not to be missed, but if 100 minutes of conversation

bores you, you might want to buy a ticket for “I, Robot” instead.

* ALLEN MacDONALD, 30, recently earned a master’s in screenwriting

from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles.