Romance is always seen in a unidirectional format. It always
has a predefined formula of where a boy and girl meet and fall in love, maybe
have a few hardships and their love triumphs all in the end. It has a treatment
which is tried and tested; close up shots of the lovers with low-key lighting
around them but with the couple in focus set to soft romantic music as the
background score. There are very few films that dare to break this norm but the
trilogy culminating in the 2013 film Before Midnight does have a different
style and treatment although still falling under the genre of romance.
Picking up from the story of the first two films, Before
Sunrise and Before Sunset, Celine and Jesse are living together in Paris. They
are unmarried with twin daughters and are currently vacationing in Greece upon
invitation from one of Jesse’s literary friends named Patrick who owns a villa.
Jesse also has a son from his previous marriage who loves with his mother in
Chicago but visits Jesse in Greece for the vacation. After dropping him off at
the airport, Jesse and Celine drive back to Patrick’s villa and discuss raising
their daughters and Celine’s career prospects. At the villa, they discuss their
ideas and thoughts about life with their friends over lunch. Another couple with
them, Stefanos and Ariadni, decide to get them a hotel room for a night and
agree to take care of their daughters in order for them to get some time alone.
While walking to the hotel they talk about their future and plans to live
together. On reaching the hotel room, they’re discussion turns into an argument
and they are faced with the reality that their relationship isn’t perfect and
have to decide how to deal with the immediate future.
Before Sunrise saw the introduction of the two protagonists –
Jesse, an American tourist travelling through Europe, and Celine, a French
student returning to university – who make a decision to roam through a city
they have never been to before and spend a night together without the hope of
ever seeing each other again. Before Sunset is the sequel after 9 years where
Jesse has written a book about his meeting with Celine and is visiting France
to promote the book when Celine tracks him down and they spend a few hours
together before he must continue with the responsibilities of his book tour.
Before Midnight is the third part of the series which is a follow up after 9
years with Jesse and Celine now living together as a couple with twin daughters
with the knowledge that they love each other but not entirely sure how long
their relationship will last if in fact it has an expiration date attached to
it.
The film was written and directed by Richard Linklater and
stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. As is the case with the other films in the
trilogy, this film is mostly marked with long conversations between the
protagonists and quite a few track shots as the characters are followed around
while they walk about. Both the lead actors do a splendid job in their
respective roles which helps make the film believable and real.
The character of Celine is amiable. She has matured
emotionally with time and motherhood takes a toll on her especially since she
admits that she lacks maternal instincts in spite of having twins. The
French-American accent works perfectly since she is born and raised in France
but spends a considerable amount of time in the United States. The character of
Jesse is still a daydreamer and a child at heart. His ideologies seem to be
along the same lines as the previous films but he has matured as a person especially
since he accepts the responsibilities of being a father. He has also grown
professionally since he is living his dream of being an author after having a
few of his books published and also taking the opportunity of his vacation to
write another novel and discuss his ideas with other literary persons. The
conversations between the two characters are still the highlight of the film
although this film also brings in a few more characters in the form of friends
of the protagonists. The conversations with the friends are mostly existential
in nature while the protagonists themselves speak on a variety of topics
especially those concerning their own lives, those of their children and the
immediate future.
The film appears to be a day taken out of the life of a
couple. It does not have many elements of being a staged film. The use of
ambient sound and mostly natural light lend a very real feel to it. The
treatment, as was the case with the previous films, is to have two characters
speak casually to each other without the need for added dramatic elements or
much of a background score either. The film is about a couple who have known
each other for years but are still exploring one another’s minds by putting
ideas back and forth between each other. There is no essence of the film being pretentious
in spite of the constant philosophical discussions taking place. The brilliance is in the simplicity.
Before Midnight is the best in the series. Each scene is
lengthy and runs between 10 minutes to half an hour but moves at a decent pace
and does not get boring at any point of time. It has the audience’s attention
all the time and is a splendid film.
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