How Beautiful Is Vienna [Before Sunrise]?

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I will be the first to confess that I have a deep fascination for romantic films, as they can vary so much from trying to portray a realistic relationship to romantizing reality to a degree that it makes us believe we are all destined to meet a girl. Then you have films that are kind of in the middle, they do not truly try to romantize the reality, but in the end kind of do. Richard Linklater has directed a rather interesting film back in 1995 called Before Sunrise, which is the part of a trilogy of films that focuses on a specific couple, who are Jesse and Celine, and them meeting. The entire first film takes part in Vienna, a town I actually grew up at for quite some time featuring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.

If you have not yet seen the film, well here is a spoiler room for a film that came out in 1995. If you haven’t seen the film than be aware of the fact that it does contain spoilers.

Before Sunset is a strange film, as I am quite aware of the fact that it was meant to be a film about two strangers meeting in a strange town. That element sadly is lost when you yourself grew up in that town and know that as strange as it seems, it simply isn’t truly that bizarre to the viewer. Sadly, as a viewer a very important element of this film was already lost on me in just the first few minutes as they enter this “strange” new world for them, so at first I didn’t believe I have the right to comment on the quality of this film, because I will never experience it the way someone does if they don’t know the world they are entering, but the more I thought about this film the more I came to realize what it truly is meant to be outside of this simple structure I thought it was on the surface.

Vienna is a beautiful city and well shot in this film. They find very unique and stylized locations, but never truly spend too much time on them. It is a backdrop to further cement the fact that these two people are completely opening themselves in a town where they are technically defenseless. They do not speak the language and they have no idea where they are truly going. While sometimes I felt a bit confused seeing a person belly dancing outside a shop, which is something very unlike Vienna, them showing the classic Viennese Café culture made up for it. The scene in a local Café is a typical thing in Vienna, which sadly has changed much over the years. Seeing it again from a time I was younger, almost brought me to tears seeing a culture that we might one day lose.

The film’s protagonists are two strangers, the American Jesse and the French girl Celine, who meet one faithful day in a train ride through Vienna and decide together to get off and spend just one evening together. That is exactly what they do, no matter how strange that decision seems, the chemistry is there that you believe these two would in fact do such a risqué act. The film does not really have a plot outside of this as we follow them exploring this new town and themselves. It is a film about romance, but at the same time about two distinct perspectives of love and life.

Jesse is young at heart. A person scared of growing up shortly after his girlfriend broke up with him. He is scared and does not want to face reality, but at the same time believes he has his two feet strongly on the ground. This is very well shown in a scene where a gypsy tells them about their future by reading their hands. It simply is something he doesn’t buy into and just believes that the woman was trying to get paid for something she made up. Later on, it is echoed when they meet a man writing poetry for people where he simply can’t accept that a man would be able to make up his lines when given a simple word such as milkshake. He is a realist, who simply never grew up and is quite comfortable where he is.

She on the other hand is quite an interesting person. She is a much older soul, who also doesn’t want to grow up because she fears the reality of what it means. Her last boyfriend was an alcoholic and she feared the fact that one-day she might have to settle down, but she fears that. Her stories from her grandmother cement that thought even more. In a way, every time she tells a story or perspective, you get the feeling that as much as she backs and believes in them, she fears them just as much. If she was the person she describes than just maybe she would have never jumped from her train and simply followed this stranger into whatever trouble he might cause for her. Yet that never happens and it simply feels like she is going through the emotions, but is quite unsure how to feel about it all in the end.

I like these characters a lot and it is quite a romantic story about two unlikely people falling in love in just a very short amount of time. It is something that happens and it is perfectly punctuated by the ending as they go their separate ways, knowing that they could potentially never see each other again even after stating that they would. In a way, it says a lot about romance and love, something they often discussed, as no matter how strong one’s feelings are, it could be that a short amount of time will cement that other person in your mind much more than anything else. We fear the fact that once we are in a relationship that everything can go wrong. Just maybe that person we fell in love with will change so much we do not recognize them anymore. The film tries to tell us about these fears without showing them, which in some way is even more powerful than one would think. Everything is punctuated by long shots that cement these conversations as realistic as possible. It is a perfect choice for the film and while at first it could seem like scenes drag on, and sometimes they tned to do so, it still serves an important purpose.

In summary, this is a beautiful film but a simple one. Do not expect any true twists or turns to keep your attention. The thing that has to lead you through the film are the conversations, the chemistry and the deeper meaning behind each word spoken. We are learning more about this city, about its culture and about these two people alongside them travelling through this new and strange place. It tries to be a very realistic film and it succeeds as such, something that Linklater truly becomes a master at later on with his film Boyhood. I sadly lose an important from this film due to me knowing that city quite well and growing up in it, but that added a completely different experience as I felt quite nostalgic. Maybe in the end I will have an experience not many will have while watching this film and I highly recomment it if you have the patience to sit down and watch two people talk.

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