There is not enough I could say about how much I love this movie.
For anyone who isn't familiar, this is the latest of three movies about the story of Celine and Jesse, a unique couple whose romance begins with a chance invitation to spend the day recklessly together after meeting on a train as complete strangers. The films follow the couple through each one's individual paths in life after an oddly exciting night consisting of mostly dialogue, set in the most ravishingly romantic backdrop of Vienna. As an audience member you are literally just listening in on one long conversation after another between two people discovering and pondering their own lives, the mysteries of the universe, and the complications of love in the context of discovering one another.
In Before Midnight we find Jesse and Celine 18 years after their first rendezvous, in a long-term domestic relationship with twin daughters. For the first time, their dialogue is opened up to other characters and the questions of life and happiness are extended to both older and younger generations. About half of the movie, however, is a long argument they get into right as they are about to have sex.
Stories - as found in books, movies, and music - are how I've come to discover myself and the world around me. Every now and then a story comes along that leaves me spinning and feeling like I just drank so much life I'm not really sure what to do with myself. This love story, from its start in the first movie until this third (and hopefully not the last) has proven to be one that is so honest about the pain and messiness of life - not disguising it with a fairytale romance or a happily-ever-after cliche, yet somehow it still leaves me feeling so very happy to be human and to be alive.
"Stop fighting with knives!"
"We're not fighting, we're negotiating..."
"It's not romance but friendships and work that will bring me the most happiness."
"We were never one person, always two. We were happier that way."
"It's not the love of one person that matters, it's the love of life."
"We are just...passing through."
"Forget Joan of Arc, forget France...she was burned at the stake...and a virgin!"
"If I don't come it will be easier for you to fuck your cousins. Isn't that what you do down in Texas?"
"I read it - it's true!"
"Still there.....still there.....still there.....still there.....
In Before Midnight we find Jesse and Celine 18 years after their first rendezvous, in a long-term domestic relationship with twin daughters. For the first time, their dialogue is opened up to other characters and the questions of life and happiness are extended to both older and younger generations. About half of the movie, however, is a long argument they get into right as they are about to have sex.
I won't tell you how it ends.
Stories - as found in books, movies, and music - are how I've come to discover myself and the world around me. Every now and then a story comes along that leaves me spinning and feeling like I just drank so much life I'm not really sure what to do with myself. This love story, from its start in the first movie until this third (and hopefully not the last) has proven to be one that is so honest about the pain and messiness of life - not disguising it with a fairytale romance or a happily-ever-after cliche, yet somehow it still leaves me feeling so very happy to be human and to be alive.
Some memorable quotes:
"Stop fighting with knives!"
"We're not fighting, we're negotiating..."
"It's not romance but friendships and work that will bring me the most happiness."
"We were never one person, always two. We were happier that way."
"We are just...passing through."
"Forget Joan of Arc, forget France...she was burned at the stake...and a virgin!"
"If I don't come it will be easier for you to fuck your cousins. Isn't that what you do down in Texas?"
"I read it - it's true!"
"Still there.....still there.....still there.....still there.....
....gone."
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