Milkshake.

Since Valentine's Day is just several days around the corner I thought it would be a great time to display a little love for a film (in this case a pair of films) about the subject of love. I like a lot of romantic movies whether they're new or old, in English or a foreign language, as long as they appear genuine and attack that elusive and mysterious subject fearlessly and with a longing to understand its depth and enchantments on every individual gripped by its irrational throes.

There are a lot of romantic movies I would be happy to discuss like Roman Holiday (1953), City Lights (1931), In the Mood for Love (2001) and many others, but what I want to talk about tonight are Richard Linklater's two complimentary films, Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004). The reason I've chosen these two is because they're not entirely unknown, they have a small passionate following, but I still can't help but feel they're under-appreciated films.

Before Sunrise's set-up is simple. A young American is traveling on a train through Europe and the night before his flight back to The United States he by chance meets a young French woman and decides to throw caution to the wind and ask her if she would spend his remaining night wandering around Vienna before he has to head home. She thankfully says yes and thus one of the best romances in cinema begins.

In the movie the two only exchange first names but the things they discover in the few hours of each other's company is much more personal and meaningful. They exchange broad questions about family, life, and love. I don't think their philosophical inquiries are to be taken too seriously but they paint a picture of two young people with big questions about the adult lives of which they are about to embark rather than solid answers to the way the universe works. The two films use these along with their observational opinions and personal stories from when they were kids to not only connect the characters to one another but with the audience watching as well, they develop the characters as fully rounded human beings and makes it impossible to think of them as merely fictional characters on celluloid.

I was originally going to have an individual post for each film but after the first time I saw both movies long ago it's always been hard to think of one without the other, they compliment each other perfectly. In Sunrise the two are young, naive, and a little awkward. One of the best moments of the movie that displays this is where the two of them are listening to an album at a record store. Enclosed in a small room they don't a speak word to each other and continue playfully glancing at one another and then quickly looking away before the other glances up. The scene is pretty much how most young couples start out. Each glance is just like the little dating tight-walk tricks people play during budding relationships. Not to give too much attention, but to show interest while not coming on too strong and while looking away they still feel the other's eyes.

Sunset is different. These two have grown almost a decade and the perfect line to describe them is spoken by Jesse when he says "I'm older and my problems are deeper but I'm more equiped to handle them." They're not fledgling adults anymore and while they're stronger people overall the problems they have cut deeper and more emotionally into their lives which we see displayed in the last thirty minutes of the film while they bare their souls to each other. This is why I personally prefer Sunset out of the two, because while the first is whimsical and endearing the second is so emotionally rich and Hawke and Delpy display their hurt and longing without fault. The ending brings heartbreak and jubilation to their story with such force that I want to watch the two films immediately after it ends, and what better way to describe love than as a serious of instances that make one feel heartbreak and jubilation?

Another thing that strikes me about Sunset is the way the movie primarily takes place in real time, we don't lose moments of their time together cutting to a new scene like in Sunrise which touches upon the idea of memory and "the moment." When Before Sunrise ends, before the credits, we see a series of images reprising all the places they spent together with the hint of their presence lingering, capturing the power of memory and that night they spent together, how it never really dies as long as we're here to remember it. Sunset however opens with a series of shots, not of where they have been, but where they will soon pass by. The movie captures the moments they spend together much more thoroughly, like what Jesse quotes earlier in the movie "Life is in the doing rather than getting what you want." It's about how the future is an extension of the present. We should make the most out of the present and we should make the most out of the moments we spend with those we care about. Because like that one night they first have in Vienna, a moment can stretch on indefinitely prolonged in our memory, and the sun may rise and set countless times, but those moments will still last.