Before Sunrise (1995) USA/AT Richard Linklater
True love or not? Would you know it if you saw it?
Before Sunrise is considered a modern romantic classic. It certainly has its points but the main genius of the film is that for all intents and purposes at the end of the day (or should we say sunrise - ba dum tiss) Jesse (Ethan Hawke) is not the one for Céline (July Delpy).
I’ve gotten into a casual disagreement about this a few times throughout my life and this movie fell into my lap again. Against all better judgment (as I am wont to do) I decided to see what it had to say and if maybe with some time, age, and wisdom I would be able to put aside my own issues with it and agree with everyone else and their grandmothers.
I am sorry to disappoint, I come away with the same feeling I did all those years ago but I am better able to understand my own argument and so since I (apparently) have nothing better to do I wrote this blog.
The movie opens with classical music over scenic European countryside. As the primary mode of transportation around Europe, it has caused me to always opt for a train ride when I could instead take something shorter or more direct. Céline even mentions this herself, although her reason is “safety”. Something that I can relate to. Céline’s reason is that she always feels as though she is about to die and therefore constantly lives as if she is peering into the veil from the end of her own life.
I think this is probably common with people who have had NDE (Near death experiences). It’s hard to toot your own horn when it comes to having experienced an inordinate amount of death, but it is true in my experience that it changes you… and sometimes you have less control over HOW it changes you, although eventually, you begin to realize that you have more power over it than you thought. Céline’s spiritualized journey to live life with no regrets is the reason for her taking a chance on the romantic stranger on the train. I believe it as a way of testing the universe to see if it’s really out there listening and taking an interest in our small mortal lives.
I decided to watch the movie without subtitles. I don’t even know if the movie offers subtitles for the Austrian German we hear, but I enjoyed immersing myself in a simulation of when I was in a foreign place with little to no idea what was happening but finding great amusement in the “humanness” that we all have despite barriers. I found the German couple arguing over the newspaper in the train really funny, but I also know how to find German humor funny which is no small feat in itself. I related to Jesse’s immediate defensiveness with Céline about being an American and all the prejudices that come with that. It really does happen even in Europe which is known for being so much more lenient of others. In Potsdam, my friend and I have been turned away from a patisserie simply because we were American. In some way being the “dirty, uneducated, brutish” American was the small seed that instilled in me a great sense of patriotism for my country.
I struggle with “patriotism”. It seems to have become a dirty word that elicits shame… unlike words such as “shit hole” or “shit hole country”. I don’t see the connection… oh wait, yes I do. How can we be proud of ourselves when there is so much terribly wrong with us? In Europe, I felt that constantly. The only way I can describe it is to look at is as if we were on a losing team. If we are losing then I felt that I better do my own small part to help make us not lose at least NOT AS BADLY. Because of that experience, I’ve always been a defender of America and when push comes to shove find myself arguing for it to the dismay of many of my more polished and refined friends who just want to shut me up.
The conversation between these two is enlightening and I genuinely enjoy the idea of “National Geographic but for people” but I can see how many would not find that as interesting because we are too busy pretending we aren’t actually fuzzy animals because we wear fancy clothes and use deodorant. We learn that Céline feels she has no right to complain because she is in a good situation and while he -on the other side of the proverbial coin- is riddled with problems with authority that come from never being “wanted”.
There is an interesting moment where two Austrians are stopped to ask for the time and they push against the perceived American tourism that invades their homeland, but what I felt really interesting and validated my experience with Germans in particular is that once they enacted with each other on a real being to being level they were incredibly warm-hearted, quirky, smart, and funny.
On the tram, Céline and Jesse are able to continue their own exploration of each other and have a candid and honest discussion about sex, which I found fascinating because that subject is so taboo in today’s current climate. Everyone is defensive and worried about making a wrong move, so I found the scene riveting to see her give him an honest answer about her sexual motivations and feelings, and in the same move, I was disappointed with Jesse’s character because he did not give back to her what he got. This was my first initial division with the character. It was added to moments later because he evaded his answer and then spoke about playboy as some sort of power play but I couldn’t understand WHAT on earth he was trying to gain from it. I might have imagined it but in the frame, you can almost see her begin to pull away from him.
My favorite scene in the movie is when they move from a carnival environment to watching two monks walking through a church courtyard. Like two children in the back of a classroom, they make funny remarks as if they were drawing their teachers in a lewd cartoon. I loved that they could find fun in the two different worlds equally. At dinner they see a Roma woman offering palm readings. A metaphorical gong is struck when eye contact is made and the palm reader makes a b-line for Céline and Jesse. My teacher once did an experiment where he would take a photo of certain people but not others. The palm reader’s interest in Celine but not in Jesse was funny to witness after hearing about that exercise. Jesse reacts as if the woman is a fake but would he have gotten that same reaction if she had spent more time on him? Céline’s palm reading - both in depth and also generic - had difficult advice laced onto the end of it. It depended upon her willingness to take that advice along with the compliments and promises of “being a great woman”. Him trying to immediately belittle what had happened was my second division with Jesse and began closing the door on the idea that this was a true star-crossed love affair of the ages. My third and final chance for Jesse as a character was shut when he hands a homeless poet a handful of change and suggests that maybe he only writes the same poem for each person. I appreciated that Céline gave him more money because artwork’s value comes from what a person is willing to pay for it. In a sense, Jesse’s unwillingness to purchase the poem might explain why he is unwilling to “purchase” Céline. He might always be thinking that she is a fraud.
In the arcade, we learn more about Celine as a woman. She explains her last love interest after some hesitancy that she was with her last boyfriend out of some kind of favor to him because she thought that at least with all his problems he was stable and she had already come that far into letting him know who she was. She remarks later that she felt she could only fall in love with someone once she knows everything about them and not less. In the end, however, her love and kindness were used against her as a weapon to make her believe that it was her that ruined the relationship. She says that the trauma that caused made her obsessed with him (a move I wonder if was conscious on behalf of her ex - although I doubt it) and made her seek out a therapist who confirmed her worst fears about herself when she read a creative piece of art that had come from her experience. Such a breach of trust that my heart broke for her. We watch as the keywords begin to add up in Jesse’s mind:
“Trauma”
“Shrink”
“Obsessed”
“Murder”
We might also begin to pull away and it is an interesting tool for us as an audience to watch what we do. Previously we loved this character and now we begin to doubt it’s authenticity. Jesse reveals that he believes that women are out there who want to destroy men and Céline’s response is that maybe, but in our day and age it’s far more likely that men are capable of destroying women and even if a woman wanted to destroy a man, they usually aren’t even successful. It’s pertinent to today as we watch the hearing of Brett Kavanaugh. Interestingly enough we see her trying to be as transparent as possible with Brett in the restaurant under the guise of talking to her friend as if it was him. If she wanted to destroy him it certainly wouldn’t benefit her to do that.
Eventually, they talk about their predicament and lets him decide their course of action although it is very clear that she is masking her feelings of rejection. They decide one night because the situations prevent them from making a real commitment which would be required in order to make it work. She says nothing to the contrary and agrees and the night begins knowing that at a certain point it will “die”. Whatever is happening for Jesse is unreadable to me. Maybe he is afraid that she will grow tired of him and therefore won’t allow her in? I’m not sure, but it certainly feels like a waste.
In the end, she is left on the train right where she started and at risk for another handsome stranger to come and collect her. One wonders what might have happened in an age where instant worldwide communication was available but Jacques Demy’s Model Shop phrase “Maybe someday. Maybe never. Maybe.” pretty much sums it all up.
If you enjoy Before Sunrise, I urge you to watch Right Now, Wrong Then and Model Shop for a more well-done version of these events.
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