Before Sunrise (1995)

User Review

• 

  eleanor

  10 / 10

  What I consider to be a truly exceptional romance film. The dialogue is profound and interesting the characters are rich with depth and intelligence. As an audience member I feel placed alongside them- particularly Celine. Her beauty is more than two-dimensional it depicts this angelic presentation of modern femininity- assertive and approaches life with a poetry (in simpler terms: I want to be like that when I'm older)
  The love story of Jesse and Celine is this sort of transitory romance which is able to defy the limited amount of time it exists within. Although romantic love has a poignance within the narrative there is also a common theme of death which carries the mood and setting of a range of scenes throughout the film. When Jesse and Celine have their first conversation Jesse tells her the story of seeing his grandmothers death and Celine mentions her fear of flying. They also visit a graveyard Celine visited as a young teenager attempting to find a grave that impacted her of a young girl. Now she reflects on the permanent nature of death and the movement of time as she is 10 years older but the girl remains the same age.
  A crucial moment for Celine is when she sees a poster for an exhibition of an artist whose work captivated her for 45 minutes; commenting how the 'human figures are always so transitory': when she notices this she also is noticing the transitory of her own experiences (the exhibition is in a week when what she is faced with will only be a memory). It could be argued, in this moment the film is placed in a artistic continuum; as she looks at the poster Jesse looks at her falling deeper in love- offering both their perspectives.
  'Before Sunrise' is ultimately timeless because of its ability to play with reality and human experience. I am truly excited to continue watching the trilogy.

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