STORY STUDY - CRITERION WEEK “856-859. The Before Trilogy”

You knew it was leading up to this. Minimalism and just two characters walking and talking around a city?

Directed by Richard Linklater and collectively written by Linklater & Kim Krizan & Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy, The Before Trilogy chronicles the lives of an American and a Parisian.

In Before Sunrise, Jesse meets Céline on a train. He convinces her to get off on his stop, and the two walk through the night, getting to know each other.

In Before Sunset, nine years have passed, real time and in universe. Jesse is on a book tour for his successful novel, his latest stop being in Paris. Céline is present in the bookstore, the first time they have seen each other since the events of the first film. Jesse has time to kill before he has to catch his flight, so the two walk around the city, catching up with each other’s lives.

In Before Midnight, another nine years have passed. Jesse and Céline is now a couple with twins, but their love life is now strained, like a mid-life crisis for their relationship: it’s at a crossroads.

Each of the films’ respective cities is beautifully captured through their environment and the people they encounter, but the standouts are Jesse and Céline. Their chemistry and their charming personalities is what truly shine on the screen. The fact that they have slowly evolved makes their relationship all the more realistic.

It all starts off as this cute meeting of two young people into adulthood dealing with parenthood, their own and Jesse’s son from a previous marriage (revealed in Sunset and Midnight), and responsibilities, all while trying to keep the relationship strong.

It’s through these obstacles do the films explore various themes of love, the human desire, what men and women deal with, parental problems, and just the prospect of growing up, which involves learning to deal with the world’s ugliness.

Before Midnight is the only film where a couple actually has a fight, which makes sense. They’ve been together since reuniting in Paris. The previous two is about establishing and re-establishing a connection.

I was aware of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset when I was in a bookstore in Taiwan, looking through their film/screenplay section. I was not aware of either films, but I still bought it because I’ve never seen it on sale in America, and just took a chance to see if I would like it. This was before 2013, when Before Midnight came out, so I was glad to see that it this tale was continuing/concluding.

Also, revisiting these films, I realized Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong and Before We Go weren’t isolated incidents to have fortune tellers. Before Sunrise has one too: a palm reader.

The Before Trilogy is a testament to real-time filmmaking (Though Linklater’s other film Boyhood takes that cake), telling an epic but simple story of two people from different countries meeting and connecting in such a fairy-tale way, and them dealing with real-world obstacles. It’s just charming and heartbreaking.