Production Companies Castle Rock Entertainment (a Turner Company), Detour Filmproduction, Filmhaus Wien Universa Filmpro, Sunrise Production, Columbia Pictures Corporation
Director Richard Linklater continues his streak of films that take place over the course of one day (after SLACKER and DAZED AND CONFUSED) with this romantic tale of two twenty-somethings who meet each other on a train headed to Vienna. Jesse (Ethan Hawke) is a self-involved American with a Eurorail pass, and Celine (Julie Delpy) is a beautiful French student who is headed back to Paris. After spending time getting to know each other in the lounge car, Jesse takes the plunge and asks Celine to spend the day with him in Vienna, since his plane doesn’t leave for the States until the next morning. She consents, and the couple spends the next 24 hours walking the gorgeous streets of Vienna, becoming even closer as they share stories from their pasts and hopes for their futures.
Linklater and Kim Krizan’s script unfolds at a leisurely pace, giving the characters’ bond time to develop more deeply and much more genuinely than in other films of this genre. By the time their rendezvous has ended, their realization--that this wasn’t simply a one-night fling--triggers them into making a bold declaration. Hawke and Delpy’s attractive presences combine with a lush background to produce a romance that is genuine and lasting.
(44 votes)
2.
This romantic, witty, and ultimately poignant glimpse at two strangers (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) who share thoughts, affections, and past experiences during one 14-hour tryst in Vienna somehow remains writer/director Richard Linklater's (Dazed and Confused, Slacker) most overlooked gem. Delpy, a stunning, low-key Parisian, meets the stammering American Hawke, as the two share a Eurorail seat--she's starting school in Paris, he's finishing a vacation. Their mutual attraction leads to an awkward meeting (beautifully played by each performer), and Hawke suggests that Delpy spend his remaining 14 hours in Vienna with him.
Typically, this skeleton is as much plot as Linklater provides; as usual, he's more interested in concentrating his talents on observing the casual, playful conversations between his leads. His tight time frame allows the characters to say anything to one another, and topics ranging from politics to past romances to fears of the future flow with subtle finesse. The short time frame is also cruel, however, because beneath this love affair lies the painful reality that the two most likely will never see each other again and will be left only with memories--an idea Linklater drives home with an effective snapshot conclusion.
Hardly the trite Gen-X bitch session that many '90s films using this approach become, the film feels more like a Bresson or Rohmer piece, containing sharp perceptions--and flawed humans rather than stereotypes. The protagonists' frank revelations and heated exchanges flow in a stream-of-consciousness style, and its no accident that Linklater set the film in Vienna, where Freud invented and practiced psychotherapy. --Dave McCoy
(35 votes)
3.
Yesterday stranger, today inseparable soulmates. But separate they must in just a few hours. Jesse and Celine are making every moment count, pouring as much living as they can into time Before Sunrise.
From Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused) comes another smartly observed tale of young people at a crossroads. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy play twentysomethings who meet on a train in Europe, sense a connection and explore after-hours Vienna together. The people, places and allure of the city become their sudden itineraries. Love is their destination. On the way there's the mutual sharing of hopes, jokes, dreams, worry and wonder. It's day to linger in their memories. And a valentine to younger love forever.
(39 votes)
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