Before Midnight
USA, Greece 2013, Richard Linklater, 108′
9 years after their last encounter, Jesse and Céline are married with adorable twin girls and spending the summer in Greece. Much talking is done.
TL;DR Just watch it, it’s what you expect.
Of course, most of the time they talk. The first third is banal middle aged banter with their Greek friends over dinner, which even though it is banal is absolutely enjoyable as they all are wonderfully candid and just like in any movie with at least one French/Italian/Spanish/Greek/etc. person everything devolves into talk about sex and gender. The second third is extremely reminiscent of the first two movies: after they have learned that their friends have gifted them one night of freedom from the kids at a hotel they walk through the beautifully cliché village to the hotel. Doing what? Talking of course. Then for the remainder, just when they are about to have sex they get into a really big fundamental argument. It seems a little strange that they argue about things like her doing the housework on top of working, etc. That is so last century. Or at least it should be for civilised Europeans. So even though the dialogue sometimes seems a little dated it is exactly what you expected: Another great entry in the row of “Before…” movies. Let’s see what they will come up with in 9 years.
SO JEALOUS!!!!!111
I’m quite shocked about the housework thing, I would maybe have expected something meta about that, as Celine sees herself as oh-so progressive in Sunset.
Anyway: MHMHMHM, release yourself to a wide non-Berlin-elitist society, movie!
Hahaha I am not shocked. They are middle-aged people after all, I am sure in that generation there are plenty of couples have out-dated gender roles ingrained into them. You don’t see that in “Before Sunrise” because that film did not have any everyday life – precisely the best situation to make out someone’s view on gender differences. However, even in the first film, Julie Delpy has always been an overly girlish woman with very clichéd female concerns and Ethan Hawke was the one who tried to ‘pick her up’, so the old-fashionedness in their conversations seem absolutely consequential. We really are dealing with a different generation, one that was in their twenties 20 years ago. They are virtually our parents. Also, Celine may see herself as progressive, but it’s always in terms of political or social aspects, she never was on a personal level towards men (whom she thought were all untrustworthy). I am okay with that, as the “Before…” series has never been about human condition, but is a rather personal piece in which the actors basically play themselves.
Someone needs to make a “Before…” series set in our time. 314 previously remarked that when a couple comes from different cultures, every argument they have can be traced back to cultural differences. If that is the case for Celine and Jesse but with gender differences, maybe the solution is to make a talky relationship movie with a gay couple.
I am glad that “Before Midnight” is so successful! That heightens my hopes that they really are going to make another one… and I wonder if it’s going to be about lost love like “Love on the Run” or the last segment of “Scenes from a Marriage”. If that happens, I wonder if the movie will raise divorce rates, like “Scenes of a Marriage” did.
Everything what she says. My thoughts exactly, it is highly plausible they would become like that.
That gay theory is so hilarious it could actually work. But then you’d have the “cultural” difference between vocal, political gays and those who resign to the status quo and just want to live peacefully inside the limits others have set for them.
In the next “Before[…]” one of them needs to be dying. Preferably either prostate or breast cancer.
This sounds like a thing you would write as a comment to a film blog only when you’re drunk, but I’m not and I still want to: I LOVE YOU! The reasons are obvious, I guess. (Very appropriate analysis of Celine, Divorce rates, Prostate cancer.)
Anyway, I would go for prostate cancer, as Jesse has already been the lonely one in the period between Sunrise and Sunset – and it would be interesting to see the opposite.
I find the cultural differences aspect interesting. At the same time I’m not sure if you can separate gender roles from culture, but that may be a very geisteswissenschaftlicher thought.
Anyway, @Pixy: I think Sasa actually wants the movie to have a gay couple as they do have cultural differences, rather than those additional stereotypical gender differences that “Before…” shows.
And: “Weekend” already exists. Not the Godard one, the talky gay one. It fits the description of the movie you would like to see perfectly. It has a very “Before” feeling to it in many aspects (although I don’t want to mention the most obvious one, spoiler spoiler) and you may apply the cultural differences theory quite well on those two protagonists. (And I would love to see a sequel for that one too.)
Hahaha I also had to think of “Before Sunrise” all the time when I saw “Weekend” (though I think Gorp was the one who came up with the analogy first), but the latter had so many unspoken emotions? I feel like “Before Sunrise” is all about saying exactly what you think all the time, whereas “Weekend” felt much more quiet somehow?
But yes, “Weekend” needs a sequel.
Concerning culture: The cultural part indeed seems to be totally missing from “Weekend”! I felt like their actions were purely emotional (which is great in its own way), their problems and discussions were rooted in relationships themselves (jealousy, shitty ex-boyfriends etc.) Nevertheless, “Weekend” projects a rather gloomy picture on relationships… and I want to believe that there is more to talky hook-ups than that. I loved the movie but none of their problems has ever applied to me (or anyone else I know). So I think there must be something else.