Before Sunrise

Rating:
Summary: You gotta be lonely to like it...
Review: Performances were OK, cinematography was fine, story was OK. Lacked sexual or emotional chemistry. He was an immature little boy by his own admission; she was a co-dependent perhaps but even so too good for him. What did these two find in each other?! Other than company to be walking around Vienna with? Everything she loved, he belittled or hated... the fortune teller, and the beautiful poem. The hell with him. They should have made the girl just want him for a romantic roll in the hay.
I guess all the rave reviews come from women so desperate for a good romantic movie, they are easily impressed.
I too would like to see Hollywood do more in the romance arena, even some adaptations of favorite romance novels, but alas "BEFORE SUNRISE" is not one of these masterpieces.
Good, OK, worth seeing, but not worth the hype.

Rating:
Summary: Sunrise and Sunset
Review: The Before Sunrise/Sunset movies offer the very definition of romance. Short-lived meetings and life-long memories. Most of all they allow the viewer to determine the outcome. These two separate meetings have had more influence on the lives of Jesse and Celine than any other event in their lives, with the possible exception of the death of Celine's grandmother. Had Celine's grandmother not died the two may have been reunited and attempted to live out their one romantic night into a lifetime affair.
The question is will these two survive if they have the chance to let their love grow, or will their passion burn out and extinguish all that they remember from that night in Vienna, and that evening in Paris. While Sunset is far less concerned with passion and more devoted to the idea of memory it is perhaps the more moving of the two films. After Sunrise you could easily blow off the night they had as two people that didn't really know each other connecting on some level because the possibility of meeting again was so slim. Sunset has them meet again, without the passion, or the sexual drive, but with the pshyes of two adults trying to understand why they can't get over that one night when they were essentially still kids.
As they meet again, and talk again, they fit neatly with one another, even though talk is a bit uncomfortable at first, and the weight of the situation bears down on them. They realize that they are two people that will never be satisfied elsewhere if they haven't given each other a try in a realistic setting.
The song that Celine sings to Jesse is beautiful, romantic and heartbreaking, and the actors are impeccable both in the acting and the writing of their parts, and the result is the perfect follow up the defining film on young passionate love. Here's to hoping that Jesse and Celine get together and stay together forever, and let us watch the whole of the way.

Rating:
Summary: don't bother
Review: Now that Before Sunset is out, there's renewed interest in Before Sunrise. This movie is so shallow, tedious and boring that it should be allowed to die in peace. Unless you are predisposed to fall in love with Ethan Hawke or Julie Delpy, you would be well advised to avoid it. As an infomercial by the Vienna Tourist Office, this is far more successful than as a movie. I can only suppose that those who like this movie have never spent a whole night just talking to and being with someone. Those who have will know how much more interesting that was than sitting through this is.

Rating:
Summary: Best Romantic Movie
Review: I was rendered speechless after viewing this movie, if you can call it that. This film hardly seems like a movie, the characters are that real. Celine and Jesse spend one night together in Vienna and make a connection that is surreal to them and to the audience. Both actors (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) pull off amazing performances in that it is difficult to believe they are acting. The entire film is several sets of long dialogue, unbroken by separate camera shots so much had to be done in one take. The vision of director Richard Linklighter is daring and courageous, as he lets moments of silence, awkward spaces in between conversations, happen between these two just as they would in any real conversation. The movie is not programmed for your attention span, it is simply set out for you as it really happened, or would happen.
At the end of this film, you feel for these people so strongly not because of sweeping background music or witty banter, but because they are so real to you.
By looking at the cover photo of this DVD, one would instantly write it off as a chick flick, but this romance is one that men and women can enjoy.
Go into it knowing that it will be slow paced, and appreciate that fact.
Its unlike any movie you have ever seen.

Rating:
Summary: OK, but tries to be much more clever than it is
Review: A movie in which two young people in Vienna, an American man and a French woman, bond for a few hours--mostly by making vague, authoritative pronouncements about "people." While a couple of these observations are mildly amusing, I don't much like movies that beat you over the head with their self-professed "cleverness." In this particular case, anyway, what is held up as clever is mostly a mishmash of pseudophilosophy and trite, sweeping statements about love. No thanks.

Rating:
Summary: Possibly one of the most under-rated films of the 1990s!
Review: Sensitively directed by Richard Linklater (who was responsible for 1993s Dazed and Confused), it is essentially the tale of two people who meet as strangers and part as incredibly close friends only a few hours later - possibly to never meet again. But it offers so much more on closer inspection than that simple synopsis.

Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) meet on a train travelling between Vienna and Budapest. Both are in their early twenties and appear to be looking for something in their lives. Celine is French and heading back to Paris after visiting her grandmother. Jesse is an American and heading to Vienna to catch a cheap flight home to the States. The two meet quite by accident on the train, but soon strike up a conversation and instantly 'click'. They talk for some time before Jesse realises he must leave Celine when the train arrives in Vienna so he can catch his flight home. But he comes up with the crazy idea of asking her to join him when in Vienna, and just hang out in the city for the night. With his flight not scheduled to leave until next morning he wasn't planning on going to a hotel, but rather just wander the streets and take in the sights of the Austrian capital.

Celine agrees and together they leave the train and explore the streets, meeting locals, buskers, beggars, and even a fortune teller, all in between telling their life story to each other and pondering all sorts of worldly and ethical questions about love, life, and death. The two effectively cram more living into the period between sunset and before sunrise than many people would hope to do in a year. As the time approaches when Jesse must leave for his flight, the two begin to realise that this could be a life defining moment, and the turmoil is clearly evident as both try to decide whether they should advance this relationship or leave it at this one-off meeting.

When looking at the credits and realising that the character listed third is 'wife on train', you just know this whole film is going to be made or broken by the two lead actors. Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke carry the roles off to perfection. Watch the unbridled excitement in their first kiss or glances at each other they steal when huddled in a record store listening booth and the reaction as they catch each other doing it. This is priceless filmmaking and a real joy to watch.