The 10centwings Scrapbox

Before Sunset

Picture Credit: Wikipedia

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a movie as beautiful as Before Sunset.

Of course there are always those girl/boy-meets-soulmate-under-most-unlikely-circumstances kind of love stories (think You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle) that’ll make you go, Awww…And there are also those I-love-you-I-could-die-for-you type of epics (Titanic) that’ll have you blowing your noses into a whole box of tissues.

But none of these leave you entranced like Before Sunset.

This movie is in one word, surreal.

All we need are 2 charmingly talented actors (Ethan Hawke’s surprisingly endearing, and Julie Delpy’s absolutely brilliant), a dreamlike setting (Paris + an almost chance encounter), and above all, a skilfully crafted script which convinces you that such an encounter has happened, and can happen.

9 years after a brief but intense encounter in Vienna, Jesse and Celine find each other again in Paris, almost by chance. (To find out why I say almost by chance, go watch the movie.) Jesse is 20 minutes away from catching his flight home, and he decides to use whatever time he has left in Paris to catch up with this old friend/flame/fling of his.

And so they start talking.

About their jobs, their relationships past and present, about growing old, about the sexes, about their convictions, their religious, spiritual, philosophical and political beliefs, about their feelings for each other after all these years, and about sex (but of course).

Yes, this movie is All Talk, Lots of Walking, and Not Much Action.

But this is also what makes the movie tick.

All Talk, Lots of Walking, and Not Much Action. That’s how the magic between Jesse and Celine transpires.

Magic, that’s the word.

I wouldn’t even call it chemistry. To allude it to science would be blasphemy.

It’s difficult to explain this magic. But I shall try with my clumsy words.

This magic comes from a special ease and understanding which they share. The way they so comfortably picked up from where they left off 9 years ago is simply amazing. They talk about everything under the sun, in a totally honest, open manner completely without inhibitions. Differences do not lead to heated debates, just more questions to understand the other’s point of view. Each person’s words seem to feed the other’s. They communicate solely to seek a deeper understanding of the other. There’s no desire on either person’s part to impose his/her beliefs on the other.

That’s what I call mutual respect.

I can’t put a name to the kind of relationship they have. It’s way too special to be merely friendship.

But it definitely is not just love either.

It’s another plane higher than that.

For the lack of a better word, I call it Connection. But this word doesn’t do their magic justice.

After experiencing their magic, the typical Hollywood type of love that promises forever seems totally overrated. Maybe even crass.

Try telling me that The Notebook is romantic.

This connection that they have does not require empty promises of eternity made up of trite star-moon poetic proportions.

The beauty of their magic thrives on the uncertainty of not knowing whether they are ever going to meet again, and the knowledge that whatever it is, this is not going to last forever.

But yet it will.

And that’s what makes it so beautiful.

[Old post: 6 November 2004]