History Film / BeforeSunrise

* Hypocrite: [[spoiler: Despite both characters being cheaters themselves, they both angrily accuse of the other of cheating.]]

* WeCouldHaveAvoidedAllThis:
** Invoked by both Celine and Jesse: why the fuck didn't they exchange phone numbers? Because they were romantic ''twits'' in the first film and figured it would be more romantic, and didn't realize an emergency (like the death of Celine's grandmother) might intervene.
** And then the fact that Celine and Jesse were ''living in the same neighborhood in New York City'' and ''didn't even know it''...

[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Before_Sunrise_3247.jpg]]

'''''Before Sunrise''''' is a romantic drama from 1995, and one of the early works of director Creator/RichardLinklater. It's notable for being a romance film that contains next to no LoveTropes (or at least, very few straight examples of LoveTropes), letting the romance develop through philosophical and increasingly intimate conversation. It stars Creator/EthanHawke as Jesse, an American tourist travelling to Vienna to catch his flight home, and Julie Delpy as Celine, a French university student on her way home to Paris. They meet briefly on the train and are just making a connection when the train arrives in Vienna and Jesse has to disembark. Not wanting to leave one another's company just yet, they decide to spend the day and night together, knowing that in the morning Jesse has to catch his flight and Celine has to get back on the train. They spend their time together exploring Vienna and talking about life, the universe and the dichotomy between relationships, love and sex, and all with the thought hanging over them of what will happen when morning comes.

It was followed in 2004 by a sequel, '''''Before Sunset''''', that reunited the director and stars and saw Hawke and Delpy co-write the screenplay with Linklater. Nine years have passed since the first film, and Jesse has immortalized the experience in a best-selling novel. While in Paris on the final leg of his book tour, he's reunited with Celine after she reads the book and comes to see his appearance at the Shakespeare & Company bookstore. They quickly reconnect, and even though Jesse only has a couple of hours before he needs to catch a flight home, they decide to kill time by wandering around Paris. Much like the previous meeting, their conversations are very philosophical and introspective, and they also take the opportunity to catch up on the last nine years of one another's lives and how they remember and feel about the events of the first film.

A third film, '''''Before Midnight''''', was released in 2013. Linklater directed a screenplay written by himself, Hawke and Delpy. The film is set in Greece, nine years after the events of ''Before Sunset''. Jesse and Celine are coming to the end of their summer stay in the villa of fellow author Patrick. Accompanying them are their twin daughters as well as Jesse's son Hank, whom Jesse walks to his stateside flight at the beginning of the movie. The movie follows the two as they converse with each other as well as with friends, trading stories and observations about life and love, and remembering events from the first films as well as from their lives since then.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Played with. Both characters have slid to the cynicism side - early, Celine blasts Jesse when he says he's "optimistic" about the world - but by the end, both have slid a little back towards idealism, at least towards each other.

%% * AmbiguousEnding

%% * SeinfeldianConversation: Well, yeah.

%% * FerrisWheelDateMoment

%% * TrainStationGoodbye

* AmbiguousEnding

* SeinfeldianConversation: Well, yeah.

* FerrisWheelDateMoment

* ShoutOut: There are subtle references to ''{{Ulysses}}'' and Creator/JamesJoyce. Jesse and Celine's time together mirrors that of Joyce and his future wife's first outing, when they spent a day and night walking around and exploring Dublin. Both took place on the 16th of June (Bloomsday), which Joyce later made the date on which ''Ulysses'' was set.
** And both have scenes set in a cemetery where one character feels the pressure of their own mortality.

* TrainStationGoodbye

* BasedOnATrueStory: Unconfirmed. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy co-wrote the screenplay with Richard Linklater, and many critics suggested that (much like Linklater in the first film) the two actors put a lot of their own lives into their characters. For example, critics point to Jesse's monologues about his HappyMarriageCharade and compare them to Ethan Hawke's ended marriage to UmaThurman.

* TheCastShowoff: Julie Delpy is an accomplished solo musician. She not only plays guitar and sings, but she wrote the song that Celine plays for Jesse, "A Waltz for a Night", as well as two others that appear elsewhere in the film

* [[spoiler:NoEnding]]

** RealitySubtext: It's a real song written by Julie Delpy.

* WeCouldHaveAvoidedAllThis: Invoked by both Celine and Jesse: why the fuck didn't they exchange phone numbers? Because they were romantic ''twits'' in the first film and figured it would be more romantic, and didn't realize an emergency (like the death of Celine's grandmother) might intervene.

* [[spoiler: BelatedHappyEnding: Jesse does manage to get together with Celine, and even start a family, but it's not without consequences.]]

* HappilyMarried or HappyMarriageCharade?: PlayedWith and explored throughout the movie. They still do have plenty of happy times, as shown at the beginning where they enjoy their holiday with kids and friends to the fullest and still flirt with each other. On the other hand, they both had to make sacrifices (like Jesse living in the U.S. and being there for his son, and Celine having more of a career and more time for herself) and also have had less and less opportunities to spend quality time with each other, [[spoiler: which lead to all kinds of unspoken resentments and regrets that are brought into the open in their night at the hotel.]]
* InMemoriam: Dedicated to a woman Richard Linklater had once met and spent an evening with called Amy Lehrhaupt, who inspired the original Before Sunrise. Although she actually died in 1994 while the first film was in production Linklater did not find out from her family that she had died until 2009.

* TheOner: The drive back from the airport is one continuous shot, save for a brief cutaway. The walk to the hotel is another.

* HeroOfAnotherStory: When Jesse and Celine go to the cafe, the audience is treated to a two minute montage of people sitting around tables in pairs or small groups (including the actors from earlier), all engaged in deep conversation just like our protagonists have been all film. One gets the impression that we could've followed any of these other people out of the cafe and seen their journeys instead, and the end result would have been just as interesting.

'''''Before Sunrise''''' is a romantic drama from 1995, and one of the early works of director RichardLinklater. It's notable for being a romance film that contains next to no LoveTropes (or at least, very few straight examples of LoveTropes), letting the romance develop through philosophical and increasingly intimate conversation. It stars Ethan Hawke as Jesse, an American tourist travelling to Vienna to catch his flight home, and Julie Delpy as Celine, a French university student on her way home to Paris. They meet briefly on the train and are just making a connection when the train arrives in Vienna and Jesse has to disembark. Not wanting to leave one another's company just yet, they decide to spend the day and night together, knowing that in the morning Jesse has to catch his flight and Celine has to get back on the train. They spend their time together exploring Vienna and talking about life, the universe and the dichotomy between relationships, love and sex, and all with the thought hanging over them of what will happen when morning comes.

* SequelGap: Nine years between the first and second films. Another nine years between the second and third films.

* BasedOnATrueStory: Unconfirmed. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy co-wrote the screenplay with Richard Linklater, and many critics suggested that (much like Linklater in the first film) the two actors put a lot of their own lives into their characters. For example, critics point to Jesse's monologues about his HappyMarriageCharade and compare them to Ethan Hawke's recently-ended marriage to UmaThurman.

* ContinuityNod: Jesse brings up the entire "we're figments of an old lady's DyingDream" theory they brought up while in bed in ''WakingLife''.

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<<|FilmsOfThe2000s|>>
<<|FilmsOfThe2010s|>>

* [[spoiler: BumblingDad: Jesse comes across like this a little bit when saying goodbye to his son, but it is partly because he is trying so hard to make up for all the time he could not be there for him.]]
* [[spoiler: DisappearedDad: Jesse is wracked with guilt over not being able to see his 13-year-old son, who lives in the US, often enough. He pines to return to Chicago, but his wife Celine has a new job opportunity in Paris, and doesn't want her or their two daughters to live in the US anyway. This becomes a major point of contention in their big fight at the hotel.]]
* [[spoiler: HappilyMarried or HappyMarriageCharade?: PlayedWith and explored throughout the movie. They still do have plenty of happy times, as shown at the beginning where they enjoy their holiday with kids and friends to the fullest and still flirt with each other. On the other hand, they both had to make sacrifices (like Jesse living in the U.S. and being there for his son, and Celine having more of a career and more time for herself) and also have had less and less opportunities to spend quality time with each other, which lead to all kinds of unspoken resentments and regrets that are brought into the open in their night at the hotel.]]

* [[spoiler: ParentsAsPeople: Jesse and Celine are shown as flawed parents who try very hard and love their kids to bits but ultimately are flawed and imperfect at being parents. Celine later confesses how ashamed she was of being clueless as the mom of their daughters and making mistakes and how she felt she was supposed to be instinctual and a natural at this parenting thing. Also, Jesse totally steals a half-eaten apple from his sleeping daughter!]]
* RealTime: [[spoiler:The film is basically four, five long scenes of conversation in RealTime, with some time passing between those scenes.]]
* TheOner: [[spoiler: The drive back from the airport is one continuous shot, save for a brief cutaway. The walk to the hotel is another.]]
* [[spoiler: TrueLoveIsBoring: The routines of parenthood and domestic life have worn them both down noticeably.]]
* [[spoiler: TruthTellingSession: The big fight at the hotel where previously unsaid things are brought out into the open, mostly in a very confrontational and hurtful way due to how long their resentments and regrets have festered over the years. In this fight they alternate between driving each other away and talking cautious steps towards each other. Celine runs out three times, comes back two times and Jesse goes after her in the end where they decide to give it another try in the hotel.]]
* WalkAndTalk: [[spoiler: When they walk to the hotel, and talk just the two of them for the first time in ages, they mention how much they have missed doing this.]]
* [[spoiler: WeCouldHaveAvoidedAllThis: If they had taken time out to talk to each other more often and been more honest and upfront with each other in general, they might have avoided collecting so many unspoken resentments and regrets over the years of their relationship.]]
* [[spoiler: WhatTheHellHero: Both throw a lot of this at each other in their huge fight in the hotel. Neither really comes off as more or less flawed than the other, though.]]

A third film, '''''Before Midnight''''', was released in 2013. Linklater directed a screenplay written by himself, Hawke and Delpy. The film is set in Greece, nine years after the events of ''Before Sunset''. [[spoiler: Jesse and Celine are coming to the end of their summer stay in the villa of fellow author Patrick. Accompanying them are their twin daughters as well as Jesse's son Hank, whom Jesse walks to his stateside flight at the beginning of the movie. The movie follows the two as they converse with each other as well as with friends, trading stories and observations about life and love, and remembering events from the first films as well as from their lives since then.]]

A third film, '''''Before Midnight''''', was released in 2013. Linklater directed a screenplay written by himself, Hawke and Delpy. The film is set in Greece, nine years after the events of ''Before Sunset''. Jesse and Celine are coming to the end of their summer stay in the villa of fellow author Patrick. Accompanying them are their twin daughters as well as Jesse's son Hank, whom Jesse walks to his stateside flight at the beginning of the movie. The movie follows the two as they converse with each other as well as with friends, trading stories and observations about life and love, and remembering events from the first films as well as from their lives since then.

[[caption-width-right:320:[[BetterThanItSounds It's kinda just this for ninety minutes.]]]]

* MontageOut: The film ends with a montage of Jesse and Celine heading to their respective destinations, intercut with shots of the places in Vienna that they visited.

* TelevisionGeography: Dialogue in the film makes it clear that the train the two meet on was traveling west, from Budapest to Vienna. Yet the landscape outside the train is rolling and almost hilly in some places, more consistent with what you'd see traveling west ''from'' Vienna, in the direction of Salzburg and the Alps—what we'd see if they'd stayed on the train instead of getting off (The actual terrain between the two cities is mostly open plain, which wouldn't [[SceneryPorn have made as nice a backdrop]] for their meeting).

'''Jesse''': Umm, I don't know.

* [[spoiler: BelatedHappyEnding]]: [[spoiler: Jesse does manage to get together with Celine, and even start a family, but it's not without consequences.]]

* [[spoiler: BelatedHappyEnding]]: [[spoiler: Jesse does manage to get together with Celine, and even start a family; but its not without consequences.]]
* [[spoiler: Bumbling Dad: Jesse comes across like this a little bit when saying goodbye to his son, but it is partly because he is trying so hard to make up for all the time he could not be there for him.]]
* [[spoiler: DisappearedDad: Jesse is wracked with guilt over not being able to see his 13 year old son who lives in the US often enough. He pines to return to Chicago, but his wife Celine has a new job opportunity in Paris, and doesn't want her or their two daughters to live in the US anyway. This becomes a major point of contention in their big fight they have in the hotel.]]
* [[spoiler: HappilyMarried or HappyMarriageCharade?: PlayedWith and explored throughout the movie. They still do have plenty of happy times, as shown at the beginning where they enjoy their holiday with kids and friends to the fullest and still flirt with each other. On the other hand, they both had to make sacrifices (like Jesse living in the U.S. and being there for his son and Celine having more of a career and more time for herself) and also have had less and less opportunities to spend quality time with each other, which lead to all kinds of unspoken resentments and regrets that are brought into the open in their night at the hotel.]]

* RealTime: [[spoiler:The film is basically four, five long scenes of conversation in RealTime with some time missing where it cuts between those scenes.]]
* TheOner: [[spoiler: The drive back from the airport is one continuous shot. The walk to the hotel is another.]]

* [[spoiler: TruthTellingSession: This is the bulk of the movie – their big fight in the hotel where previously unsaid things are brought out into the open, mostly in a very confrontational and hurtful way due to how long their resentments and regrets have festered over the years. In this fight they alternate between driving each other away and talking cautious steps towards each other. Celine runs out three times, comes back two times and Jesse goes after her in the end where they decide to give it another try in the hotel.]]

* [[spoiler: WhatTheHellHero: Both throw a lot of this at each other in their huge fight in the hotel. None of them really comes off as more or less flawed than the other, though.]]

A third film, '''''Before Midnight''''', was released in 2013. Linklater directed a screenplay written by himself, Hawke and Delpy. The film is set in Greece, nine years after the events of ''Before Sunset''. Jesse and Celine are coming to the end of their summer stay in the villa of fellow author Patrick. Accompanying them are their twin daughters as well as Jesse's son Hank, whom Jesse walks to his stateside flight at the beginning of the movie.

It was followed in 2004 by a sequel, '''''Before Sunset''''', that reunited the director and stars and saw Hawke and Delpy co-write the screenplay with Linklater. Nine years have passed since the first film, and Jesse has immortalised the experience in a best-selling novel. While in Paris on the final leg of his book tour, he's reunited with Celine after she reads the book and comes to see his appearance at the Shakespeare & Company bookstore. They quickly reconnect, and even though Jesse only has a couple of hours before he needs to catch a flight home, they decide to kill time by wandering around Paris. Much like the previous meeting, their conversations are very philosophical and introspective, and they also take the opportunity to catch up on the last nine years of one another's lives and how they remember and feel about the events of the first film.

A third film, '''''Before Midnight''''', was announced and subsequently filmed in mid-2012. Linklater is again directing a screenplay written by himself, Hawke and Delpy. The film will be set in Greece, nine years after the events of ''Before Sunset'', and is due for release in 2013.

* NoAntagonist: Except for the pressure of how little time they have in the first two movies. [[spoiler: They do argue heavily in the third, but still love each other.]]

* SequelGap: Nine years between the first and second films.

* TheOner: [[spoiler: The drive back from the airport is one continuous shot.]]
* TrueLoveIsBoring: [[spoiler: The routines of parenthood and domestic life have worn them both down noticeably.]]

* ExtremelyShortTimespan

* NoAntagonist: Except for the pressure of how little time they have.
* SeinfeldianConversation: Well, yeah.

* SpeechCentricWork: Both this and the sequel.

* AmbiguousEnding

* [[spoiler: DisappearedDad: Jesse is wracked with guilt over not being able to see his 13 year old son who lives in the US often enough. He pines to return to Chicago, but his wife Celine has a new job opportunity in Paris, and doesn't want her or their two daughters to live in the US anyway.]]
* TrueLoveIsBoring: [[spoiler: Jesse still has problems even though he's in a relationship with Celine.]]

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