Before Sunset

The films of famed French New Wave director Eric Rohmer are often noted for their timelessness. If you, for instance, pop My Night at Maud's (1969) or The Aviator's Wife (1981) into your DVD player, you'll come across a thoughtful, enduring meditation on the complex workings of the human heart. This easy formula, however, does not always work for American films. The independent film boom of the 1990s produced an impressive array of talent, but one of its unfortunate side effects was the fetishization of Quentin Tarantino. The iconic opening scene of Reservoir Dogs (1992), in which a group of hitmen sit around a diner dissecting Madonna's "Like a Virgin," swiftly became a sort of template for aspiring filmmakers, who felt similarly compelled to litter their films with pop culture references. The degree to which they succeeded in this venture varied wildly; in most cases, it did little more than assure their films would date rapidly.

One filmmaker who appears to have emerged unscathed from this ill-advised trend is Richard Linklater. Based out of Austin, Texas, Linklater has spearheaded some of the past decade's more intriguing film projects, including the acclaimed animated feature Waking Life (2001), the claustrophobic character study Tape (2001), and last year's freewheeling Jack Black vehicle School of Rock (2003). In Before Sunset (2004), he returns to familiar territory, revisiting the lives of two of his most enduring characters, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy). The subject of one of his most romantic films, Before Sunrise (1995), the two lovers also made a brief cameo in Waking Life, and are now reunited nine years later on the streets of Paris.

Re-watching the original film recently, I was struck by how gracefully it had aged. Although Before Sunrise is full of dialogue, it is free from the incessantly chattering that marred other contemporary releases, most notably the Gen X films that Hawke made a name for himself starring in (Reality Bites, for instance, was released only a year earlier). The crucial difference here is that Jesse and Celine's concerns are universal ones – even as they look inward, they reflect desires and anxieties that reach beyond their respective time and place, much as the would-be lovers in My Night at Maud's and David Lean's Brief Encounter (1945) did.

Nearly a decade after their meeting in Vienna, Celine and Jesse find themselves face to face again, this time in Paris at a book-signing for Jesse's latest novel, which has a distinctly autobiographical bent. Upon seeing each other again, the two fluctuate between joy and hesitation, eager but also frightened to reveal too much of themselves. Hawke and Delpy, both of whom collaborated on the screenplay with Linklater, exhibit an understanding of their characters that transcends much of the work they've done on other films.

As Jesse and Celine wander down the beautiful streets of Paris, their mutual layers of anxiety and doubt slowly peel away, and their lives are laid bare before each other. Jesse, as it turns out, is married and has a small child, but has reached a point of extreme disillusionment with this relationship. "I feel like I'm running a small nursery with someone I used to date," he confides. Celine, on the other hand, is initially more guarded, but eventually breaks down and reveals that the string of romantic disappointments she has had since Jesse have caused her to become emotionally detached in her relationships.

Despite their pain and heartache, however, it seems to gradually occur to both that they may have a second chance at happiness. I won't reveal the film's ending, but suffice to say it is one of the most poignant and emotionally satisfying in recent memory. Taken together, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset should stand as one of the greatest achievements of American cinema in the past decade.