DVD Review: Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset on Warner Home Video

Nothing special in the extras department but Before Sunset is a film that truly speaks for itself.

Before SunsetYou can make a strong argument that Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise doesn’t require a sequel. A nimble 1995 romance starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as unacquainted travelers who spend a heady day and night in Vienna together before separating—with the beguiling possibility of a future rendezvous—during the film’s tantalizing conclusion, it was a sweet, euphoric gem that convincingly conveyed the transcendent power of conversation. Linklater, however, respectfully disagreed, and, as it turns out, wisely so. Before Sunset reunites Hawke’s Jesse, now a novelist who’s married with a young son, and Delpy’s Celine, an environmental activist mired in a passionless relationship, in Paris, where Jesse is finishing up a promotional tour of his new book This Time. The novel is a barely fictional account of his 24-hour reverie with Celine nine years earlier, and when Celine attends his appearance at a quaint Parisian bookstore shortly before he’s to catch a flight home, the two rekindle their relationship with an hour-long stroll around the silent, thinly populated city streets.

As with Linklater’s original, the beauty and grace of Before Sunset is its unparalleled ability to capture the idiosyncratic rhythm and cadence of everyday dialogue—the fitful starts, stops and interruptions of excited, nervous conversation, and the way in which two people engaged in discussion can get caught up in the intoxicating flow of ideas and emotions. Linklater’s unassuming camera predominately situates itself either directly in front of, or behind, the ambulatory couple, and this fluctuation between showing and hiding the characters’ faces—also found in scenes such as a third act car ride that begins with a shot of the driving automobile’s exterior while the duo’s voices can be heard chatting—conveys the primacy of the spoken word. Linklater’s ear is attuned to the commonplace sounds of life, so that when there’s a momentary respite from Jesse and Celine’s banter, the natural creaks of steps on a rickety old staircase or the monotonous splashes of water against a tourist boat’s hull help the director express the alluring vibrancy of the natural world surrounding these former lovers. And like two actors slipping comfortably into the roles of their lives—in part because they seem to be playing minor variations on their real-world selves—Hawke and Delpy bring a natural, optimistic slacker humanism (him) and a neurotic, wishful pessimism (her) to their restless strangers in the sunset.

Yet despite the familiarity of the film’s tempo, Before Sunset substitutes its predecessor’s revelatory tone for a somber wistfulness that subtly reflects the advanced age of its now mid-30s protagonists. Idealistic dreams of future love and bliss have given way to despondent fears that their one chance at happiness nine years earlier was an opportunity forever lost, only to be replaced by the unfulfilling dreariness of unhappy lives punctuated, at best, by minor satisfactions. That they delicately dance around contemporary Franco-American politics almost immediately after finding each other exemplifies the characters’ maturation from carefree, optimistic youths to realistic adults who more fully recognize and accept the many barriers (cultural, political, geographic, personal) that are conspiring to keep them apart. Linklater, however, is a dogged optimist and a devout believer in conversation as a holy unifying force, and thus as Jesse and Celine debate the nature of desire (is it a healing impulse or a corrupting one?), consumerism, and New York City, introspection and analysis ultimately become the vehicles by which this stunning film’s romantics learn, step by step, to progress from an unstable state of fragmentation to one approaching contented completeness.

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Image/Sound

If Before Sunset doesn’t have a very aggressive surround presence, that’s because the world in the film is seemingly hushed by what Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy have to say to each other. Dialogue is anchored completely in the center channel with very little in the way of vocal pans, which means the Dolby Digital 5.1 track is a little on the unexciting side. Still, dialogue is clear, and that’s all that matters in the end. And save for some black levels that are a little on the gooey side, the video is lovely from start to finish.

Extras

Just a theatrical trailer and the short behind-the-scenes featurette “On the Set of Before Sunset,” which features director Richard Linklater, producer Anne Walker-McBay, and actors Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke talking about the appeal of the film and how the idea for Before Sunset evolved throughout the years.

Overall

Nothing special in the extras department but Before Sunset is a film that truly speaks for itself.

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Score: 
 Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Vernon Dobtcheff, Louise Lemoine Torres, Rodolphe Pauly, Mariane Plasteig, Diabolo  Director: Richard Linklater  Screenwriter: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater  Distributor: Warner Home Video  Running Time: 80 min  Rating: R  Year: 2004  Release Date: November 9, 2004  Buy: Video, Soundtrack

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