DVD Discussion: Before Sunrise

[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]

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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.

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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.

[fyodor]

I would hate to have to rewatch this to dig out more. That's the impression I was left with though and when I thought of why, those are the examples I remembered.

Perhaps it was also the fact that he was so ready to express his negativity when the situations arose. It's obvious he wants to sleep with Celine and perfectly natural. When she was so charmed with the poetry, his immediate attempt to discredit it for her bodes poorly for his chances.

Maybe it goes more towards showing a conflict in his character, or his inexperience or something, but given it happened more than once, I read it the way I read it.

[gusmahler]

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I liked Lost in Translation a lot more than this. I think Coppola did a much better job of relating to me the magic, wonder and beauty of those infrequent moments when we connect with another peson.

Before Sunrise seemed like an honest attempt at aspiring to something, whereas Lost in Translation actually succeeded. The connection made between the characters in Sunrise was much more trivial than the connection achieved in Translation. Sunrise seemed more about a physical need for company in life, Translation about a spirtual need.

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I'll disagree totally here. I think Translation ultimately failed in showing any kind of connection between the two main characters.

As Dom implied, once you've seen the sequel, Before Sunset, it's nearly impossible to separate the two movies.

I originally thought that Before Sunrise failed to show the connection also. But one viewing of Before Sunset will turn that belief around. I don't want to spoil it, so I'll just say the following in white: <font color="white">The second movie shows the profound effect their 16 hour encounter had on each other and makes the movie, when considered together with its sequel, work a lot better. </font>

For me, I guess that's why Before Sunrise succeeds--because I view it as just the first half of a really long movie.

[fyodor]

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I originally thought that Before Sunrise failed to show the connection also. But one viewing of Before Sunset will turn that belief around.

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You'll get the connection in Lost in Translation when the sequel comes out in 7 years. Meanwhile just trust me on this. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[JuntMonkey]

Just want to say that I have the movie in my possession and have not yet read the thread...I'll be here within the next two days.

[gusmahler]

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I originally thought that Before Sunrise failed to show the connection also. But one viewing of Before Sunset will turn that belief around.

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You'll get the connection in Lost in Translation when the sequel comes out in 7 years. Meanwhile just trust me on this. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

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I guess I deserved that. My thoughts in brief: LiT was maybe a 4 or 5 on the IMDb scale. Before Sunrise, as a standalone movie, was maybe a 5.5 or 6. It was OK, but it could have been a lot more. The sequel was a very good movie, maybe an 8. So when you view Before Sunrise as being part 1 or 2, it becomes part of a successful movie that is about a 7.5 or so.

This isn't a LiT thread, but I didn't see any connection at all between the stars. It also could have been because I though Scarlett's character was incredibly boring. Delpy's character was great and I could easily see why Hawke's character would fall for her. They just seemed to click.

[lastchance]

IMHO, sunset was better (and it's not close, jadedness ftw).

Edit: Also, I thought Delpy was a lot, lot better the second time around. There's no scene that compares to her breakdown in the car. Genius.

[diebitter]

I liked this film a lot. The two leads were effective and totally believable as their characters, and the film really felt like we were eavesdropping on a really cool date (and appeals to the Nosy Neighbour inside all o us for this reason).

Not only do we get to really know about these two characters as they slowly reveal more about themselves, we also see the seeds of what might cause problems in their relationship (he's sharply and vocally cynical and hasn't learnt the wisdom some of us old guys have of shutting up when we see our woman happy in something we don't think much of, just happy that she's happy; she's maybe gullible, and a little obsessive), and wish our dates were all like this one.


This is absolutely the perfect date movie, btw. Not only does it set the perfect mood, it gives you a ton of subjects you can spin your own conversations from, and allows you to catch the mood of the movie.


And the man's a fool for letting the girl go (which he will, you can just tell. I haven't seen the sequel, btw, so no idea what actually happens).


Favourite part: The music booth. She's happy how it's going, waiting (but not impatiently) for him to kiss her, and he's not sure of his footing. Such a beautiful little moment.



I will be watching the sequel sometime soon.