Love, European style

***Spoiler Warning***

Richard Linklater knows conversation. In 1995, he got together with American actor and novelist Ethan Hawke and Parisian actress Julie Delpy (note: Ms. Delpy, if you're reading this, I'd like you to consider marrying me.) and began writing a screenplay based on a night that he spent talking to a woman who he had met on a train only that day. What became of that meeting of those minds was Before Sunrise, starring Hawke as Jesse, an American in Europe nursing a recently broken heart, and Delpy as Celine, a Parisian on her way home from visiting her grandmother. When they first meet they, and we, realize that these two are meant for eachother. The dialogue manages to be realistic yet flows like poetry. It's romantic realism. The two meet, connect, and discuss family, death, sex, friendship, love... in short: life. The romance rings true. Each touch, each kiss, Linklater and the unmistakable chemistry between the two make us feel as if we ourselves were walking through Vienna that summer. When they part, they agree to meet again in six months. Of course, they dont. Nine years later, Jesse (scruffier, looking like a lone wolf) is in Paris on a book tour (a book based on their night together) and runs into Celine. Elapsing in real time, the two reconnect and talk for an hour and a half, discussing their regrets and their lives since that night. This film, Before Sunset, also penned by Linklater, Delpy and Hawke, is in many ways more mature than it's little-known but much beloved predecessor. It achieves the true status of a classic romance, and leaving us with one of the greatest endings of all time. These are films that dareto not fall into romantic cliché, but rather discuss, tear apart, and then piece back together the idea of true romance and love, as well as their own limitations. In today’s world where the best films are to be epic and seek to crush you in their glory, it’s nice to see two films that can merely wash over you like sunlight on a Parisian woman’s face in summer. Finally, a love story not afraid to show the fear in love. My grade for both: A.