Before Sunrise, directed by Richard Linklater, is as sweet a love story as one will ever see. An American in his early 20s (Ethan Hawke) is taking a train from Budapest to Vienna, where he’s scheduled to catch a flight back to the United States. He meets a French woman his age (Julie Delpy) who’s heading to Paris, and the two strike up a conversation. Once in Vienna, he convinces her to disembark with him. His plane doesn’t leave for another day, and she can catch another train to Paris in the morning. The film follows them for the next several hours as they walk and talk the night away. The screenplay, by Linklater and Kim Krizan (with uncredited contributions by Hawke and Delpy), has no central dramatic conflict. It just delicately chronicles the pair’s conversations as their rapport deepens and they fall in love. Linklater and the two actors give it a marvelous pace, and the picture has a gentle momentum. Things start out light and funny, but by the end, one is caught up in the characters’ terror at the prospect of never again seeing the other. No film has ever dramatized the experience of falling in love so well. Lee Daniel provided the cinematography. The editing is credited to Sandra Adair. The film was followed by two sequels. The first, 2004’s
Before Sunset, is an even richer effort.
