Why Richard Linklater’s ‘Before’ trilogy are the ultimate romance movies
At their core, romance movies are supposed to act as a reminder of the beauty of love. By telling tales of the feeling over and over, through all these gorgeous, cinematic lenses and stories where connection endures through drama and hardship, it’s a celebration of life’s true meaning, which is to love and be loved. Yet, so often, the things we see on screens are very different from reality. It loses the clunkiness and trickiness and the messiness of real human connection. But the Before trilogy leaves it in, as Richard Linklater created the most realistic yet romantic films of all.
The most unrealistic thing about the trilogy is its synopsis. Two people, Jesse, an American man played by Ethan Hawke, and Celine, a French woman played by Julie Delpy, meet on a train. Both coming from Budapest, they happen to be in the same carriage being annoyed by the same arguing couple. That’s somewhat realistic. Even in the modern age of dating apps, meet-cutes happen every day as the universe seems to pull two people together. But the dramatic part comes when the train pulls into Vienna and Jesse turns to Celine, asks her to get off the train with him after a brief chat and wander around all night. She says yes. That’s how Before Sunrise begins.
But besides that plot point, that one theatrical risk that very few people would dare to take in real life, the love depicted across all three of the movies is an utterly normal one, and that’s what’s so beautiful about it.
In each, Linklater dedicates the entire run time to chemistry, but the kind of chemistry that anyone who has ever been on a good first date has experienced. The kind where you talk for hours about nothing and everything. That’s basically all that Jesse and Celine are doing as the dialogue largely goes nowhere and means nothing to the story, as the characters meander through conversations on everything from death to their exes to philosophies on spirituality to their childhood. Similarly, in Before Sunset, even after chance brings them together again, a large proportion of the film is one scene where the pair are sat in a cafe. They’re talking about nothing of any real importance to the viewer, just moving through topics and bouncing off each other’s humour. But in the ease of it and the way that their chemistry makes even the silliest chats feel beautiful and cinematic, that’s where the romance lies.
Even though Jesse and Celine’s story is miraculous, fate seems to move them together over multiple years, and it’s not perfect cinematic chemistry. As the characters themselves admit after getting off the train, “This is kinda weird.” “I know. It feels a little awkward.” Their connection is chunky and shy and silly, which is exactly what makes it so intoxicating. The viewer sees Jesse trying to make a move, going to push Celine’s hair behind her ear but getting shy and giving up. The listening booth scene as they both try to get up the courage to make eye contact and kiss but instead just stand awkwardly darting glances around is so simple but so beautiful in its relatability. Even in the moments where they are suave, it’s rooted in the kind of witty banter that any good Hinge match could deliver as Celine sarcastically pokes, “Actually, I already decided to sleep with you when I got off the train. but that we’ve talked so much I don’t know anymore,” leaving Jesse and the viewer alike to kick their feet and giggle.
Nor are they a perfected couple. Both characters are written with flaws built in, and Linklater doesn’t shy away from showing that and showing the moments of doubt or tension between them. In the first film, we regularly catch Celine being slightly put off by Jesse’s cynicism. In the second, Celine has a full meltdown about how their night in Vienna had left her feeling jaded. In the third, Before Midnight, even when the couple are together and seem to have got their happy ending, they’re fighting, caught in an argument about the logistics of love and the difficulty of maintaining it longer term ends. Yet still, all three are romantic because what they’re doing is celebrating love in its honest, normal, yet still beautiful form.
In Before Sunrise, Celine turns to Jesse and says, “I really believe that if there’s any kind of god, he wouldn’t be in any one of us – not you, not me – but just this space in between. If there’s some magic in this world, it must be in the attempt of understanding someone else, sharing something, even if it’s almost impossible to succeed.” In that piece of monologue, Linklater essentially laid out the motivation for the movies as an exploration of that “space in between”, and how the magic of love also exists in it. With no dramatic plot points, no big external conflicts to battle through, no melodramatic climaxes, no polished depictions of lust or adoration or desire, the beauty of the Before trilogy is in its fascination with the sort of love any of us could have, and the magic of the connections being made day after day, in trains, bars, restaurants and beyond around the world.
