“I’m a delusion angel. I’m a fantasy parade. I want you to know what I think. Don’t want you to guess anymore. You have no idea where I came from. We have no idea where we’re going.”
It’s been 25 years since Ethan Hawke’s Jesse and Julie Delpy’s Celine met on a train to Paris. They went on to show us what 24 hours can do for two people! Romance, as a subject, is often trimmed off its intellectual allurement, in cinema. It’s projected to be this congruent synthesis of human emotions. But, Before Sunrise (1995) completely defies that linear stereotype and delves into a much more blurred yet serendipitous idea of romance.
Over the years, Richard Linklater has shown us time and again just how poignantly beautiful the pauses in our conversations are. While the dialogue is perhaps the most relatably humane element in cinema, very few people truly appreciate the silence. And no one exploits the grey areas of the human consciousness better than Mr. Linklater! From refuting the idea of two people completing each other to showing us how they find missing fragments of their own selves in merely the presence of the other, he really mirrors the subtleties of human interaction, effortlessly!
“So, at best, we’re like these tiny fractions of people, walking. Is that why we’re all so scattered? Is that why we’re so specialized?”
The entire plot is a premise for freedom. Jesse and Celine had different reasons for longing for an escape from their realities. But their reasons became immaterial when they got off that train. Vienna offered them the perfect backdrop for self-realization, through each other. Trading views on religion, mortality, sexism, and whatnot, whilst walking the streets of Vienna, their words were indifferent to churches and cemeteries alike. It’s as if both of them had crept out of their physical selves, and flown away together to find some solace. And solace, they did find.
“You need to resign yourself from the awkwardness of life. Only if you find peace within yourself, will you find true connection with others.”
As they let go of themselves and began to slowly coexist in each other’s vulnerability, Jesse and Celine’s relationship dynamic evolved steadily. They accepted the transience of their strolls through Vienna, agreeing not to stay in touch just for the sake of their conscience. And, they both saw the finality of their escape to be an opportunity to make the best of the time that they had! The whole setting might seem like a run-of-the-mill RomCom, but Linklater’s been too truthful with his characters for them to pull one off!
“I’d rather die knowing that I was really good at something and that I’d excelled in some way, than that I’d just been in a nice, caring relationship.”
Before Sunrise is a vivid narrative of human intimacy, for the most part. It reads between the lines of multitudes of conflicting emotions, with the most minimally effervescent charm. The beauty lies in all the things left unsaid, and all the glances Jesse and Celine stole off each other. There’s whimsy, there’s prudence, and there’s passion. But at the heart of it all, it’s two innately different people, throwing punches at causality!
“It’s the poetry of day-to-day life.”