Before Sunrise | |
---|---|
Theatrical release poster
|
|
Directed by | Richard Linklater |
Produced by | Anne Walker-McBay |
Written by | Richard Linklater Kim Krizan |
Starring | |
Music by | Fred Frith |
Cinematography | Lee Daniel |
Edited by | Sandra Adair |
Production
company |
|
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date
|
|
Running time
|
101 minutes |
Country | United States Austria Switzerland |
Language | English German French |
Budget | $2.5 million |
Box office | $5.5 million |
Before Sunrise is a 1995 American romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater and written by Linklater and Kim Krizan. The film follows Jesse (Ethan Hawke), a young American man, and Céline (Julie Delpy), a young French woman, who meet on a train and disembark in Vienna, where they spend the night walking around the city and getting to know each other.
The plot is considered minimalistic, as not much happens aside from walking and talking. The two characters' ideas and perspectives on life and love are detailed. Jesse is a romantic disguised as a cynic, and Céline is seemingly a romantic, albeit with some doubts. Taking place over the course of one night, their limited time together is always on their minds, and leads to their revealing more about themselves than they normally would, since both believe they will never see one another again.
Before Sunrise opened to a strongly positive reception from critics. Jesse and Céline later make an appearance in Linklater's 2001 film Waking Life. A 2004 sequel, Before Sunset, picks up the story nine years after the events of the first film, and a 2013 sequel, Before Midnight, picks up the story eighteen years on.
The film starts on June 16, 1994 with Jesse meeting Céline on a train from Budapest and striking up a conversation with her. Jesse is going to Vienna to catch a flight back to the United States, whereas Céline is returning to university in Paris after visiting her grandmother. When they reach Vienna, Jesse convinces Céline to disembark with him, saying that 10 or 20 years down the road, she might not be happy with her marriage and might wonder how her life would have been different if she had picked another guy, and this is a chance to realize that he himself is not that different from the rest; in his words, he is "the same boring, unmotivated guy." Jesse has to catch a flight early in the morning and does not have enough money to rent a room for the night, so they decide to roam around in Vienna.