DVD Discussion: Before Sunrise

[diebitter]

Okay, the doors are open on the discussion. I'll comment more later, but will say I came to this movie not knowing anything about it except I thought it was a LA Cop movie (I've no idea why), and really enjoyed it a lot. It's a beautiful little film.

Okay, GO!

[KDawg]

this is in my top ten films of the 90s and is generally a go to for me anytime I just want to see something enjoyable. What I really like about it, is how it is a romantic comedy, without all of the trappings of the genre. It's just two people walking, talking, and getting to know each other over a 16-18 hr period of time

What is also interesting is their outlook on life. Both Jesse and Celine are very wide eyed and think that a lot of great stuff is going to happen to them. maybe it will, but its also refreshing to see these people really capture the positive mood of the mid 90s when most of the western world was in a big economic boom. We also see that both of the characters are much more learned then one would give credit to a 23 year old, and its also kind of sad to see how most mid 20 somethings today crave to be a reality TV celeb compared to how both Celine and Jesse just want something more meaningful with life

[pryor15]

db,

you thought it was an LA cop movie?

[pryor15]

so...yeah...KDawg pretty much just knocked it out of the park

[diebitter]

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db,

you thought it was an LA cop movie?

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I did. Confsed with Tequila Sunrise maybe?

[fyodor]

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Both Jesse and Celine are very wide eyed and think that a lot of great stuff is going to happen to them.

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I didn't get this impression at all. Especially from Jesse. I know he just got dumped by his gf in Spain, and has reason to be upset after flying over to be with her, but he seemed more bitter and for deeper reasons than that scenario would justify.

His reaction to to the poet (he probably uses the same poem with everyone and just plugs in the key word), the palm reader (she only tells you things you want to hear), the waiter on the train (service is too slow - although this may have been a slam on American impatience and the I want instant gratifacation syndrome as it was rehashed later by another American couple in a restaraunt)... these things and probably some others I just don't now recall, led me to believe Jesse was a sceptical, untrusting, pessimistic character who is going to lead a very lonely life.

[pryor15]

fyodor,

despite all that, he's still a generally optimistic character. or, at least when it comes to love. he's a cynic waiting for a hot French chick to steal his heart. he's an idealist and a cynic at the same time--take that final scene on the trail platform, for example. they won't write, b/c then all the romance and magic will be taken out of it, but they still plan to meet back there 6 months later. a "sceptical, untrusting, pessimistic character" would never do that.

[fyodor]

On the train platform he's caught up in the moment. He's just spent a night in a foreign country with a foreign girl and she's helped him temporarily forget his troubled life. 24 hours later he will know they won't be hooking up again in 6 months.

[pryor15]

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On the train platform he's caught up in the moment. He's just spent a night in a foreign country with a foreign girl and she's helped him temporarily forget his troubled life. 24 hours later he will know they won't be hooking up again in 6 months.

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even without seeing the next chapter, I'd doubt that very much

even so, even if he did "know" that (b/c, really the odds are pretty astronomical), that wouldn't prevent him from taking steps to make it happen (like, heading across the ocean again). there's a diffence between being a realist and a cynic. Jesse is a realist, but that doesn't mean he's a cynic. if he were really a cynic, i very much doubt he would have even gotten her to get off the train in the first place.

there's a decent amount of optimism in that first few minutes.

hell, i'm a pretty big cynic, and i never once in the years between Before Sunrise and Before Sunset that Jesse didn't get on that plane 6 months later, unless something happened beyond his control that prevented him from doing so.

[Enrique]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Both Jesse and Celine are very wide eyed and think that a lot of great stuff is going to happen to them.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't get this impression at all. Especially from Jesse. I know he just got dumped by his gf in Spain, and has reason to be upset after flying over to be with her, but he seemed more bitter and for deeper reasons than that scenario would justify.

His reaction to to the poet (he probably uses the same poem with everyone and just plugs in the key word), the palm reader (she only tells you things you want to hear), the waiter on the train (service is too slow - although this may have been a slam on American impatience and the I want instant gratifacation syndrome as it was rehashed later by another American couple in a restaraunt)... these things and probably some others I just don't now recall, led me to believe Jesse was a sceptical, untrusting, pessimistic character who is going to lead a very lonely life.

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I don't think your examples really make a person cynic. He is sceptical, but not entirely pessimistic. It could be that on just those three subjects he has deep ingrained beliefs by the way he was raised. I am usually wide-eyed about life, but there are things where I am very sceptical, like things like palm-reading or people that see ghotsts and stuff. I don't think saying that palm-readers say what you want to hear gives any information on you. Saying that you believe in palm-readers would give a lot of information but not the other way around.
With the impatience, that could just be, as you mentioned, american impatience with service.

The one about the poet is the only one that seems pessimistic, but just one example, doesn't give much. Every person in the world has its contradictions, you can be very optimistic about most things but pessimistic about some.

I agree with pryor's view as realistic different from pessimistic.