In Richard Linklater'sBefore Sunrise(1995), two young lovers, the American Jesse (Ethan Hawke), and the Frenchwoman Celine (Julie Delphy), meet on a train travelling across Europe and spend a magical night together in Vienna before parting at dawn. Filmed in nine-year intervals, the film's sequelsBefore Sunset(2004) andBefore Midnight(2013) forge an unexpected trilogy brimming with longing, second chances and resentments as the couple meet again and build a relationship.
Lucas Hilderbrand reflects on the experience of falling in love with, living with and having one's own life shaped by the Before trilogy. Tracing the story of the films' production, he considers the contribution of the leading actors, particularly Delphy, to their screenplays. He offers a close reading of each of the Before films, considering the extent to which they operate beyond the generic norms of romantic comedy or melodrama, incorporating aspects of realism and emotional authenticity through their location shooting, long takes and near-real time temporality. Treating the films as time capsules of their respective historical moments, Hilderbrand considers how evolving politics and technologies impact or interrupt the characters' intimacy, while placing the trilogy in conversation with other films. All the while, he pays attention to the trilogy's subjective impact on viewers across its eighteen-year timespan and its continuing afterglow.
A study of Richard Linklater's
Before Trilogy, in the BFI Film Classics series.
Lucas Hilderbrandis Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine, USA. He is the author of
The Bars Are Ours: Histories and Cultures of Gay Bars in America, 1960 and After(2023),
Paris Is Burning(2013), and
Inherent Vice: Bootleg Histories of Videotape and Copyright(2009).
Acknowledgments
Introduction: If You Feel It Adds Something to Your Life in Any Way
1. Come Here: BefolĂ$
![The 'Before' Trilogy [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/7/6/5/2_6942367.jpg "The 'Before' Trilogy [Paperback]")