Thursday, November 18, 2010

147. Before Sunrise (1995)

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I know what you mean about wishing somebody wasn't there, though. It's just usually it's myself that I wish I could get away from. Seriously, think about this. I have never been anywhere that I haven't been. I've never had a kiss when I wasn't one of the kissers. Y'know, I've never, um, gone to the movies, when I wasn't there in the audience. I've never been out bowling, if I wasn't there, y'know making some stupid joke. I think that's why so many people hate themselves. Seriously, it's just they are sick to death of being around themselves. Let's say that you and I were together all the time, then you'd start to hate a lot of my mannerisms. The way every time we would have people over, uh, I'd be insecure, and I'd get a little too drunk. Or, uh, the way I'd tell the same stupid pseudo-intellectual story again, and again. Y'see, I've heard all those stories. So of course I'm sick of myself. But being with you, uh, it's made me feel like I'm somebody else.

Every once in a while, you come across a movie by plain dumb luck. For some reason they must have printed way too many copies of this dvd because it has been in bargain bins at Wal-Mart and Big Lots for about the past ten years (on a side note, I urge you to pay the $3 for it next time you see it at Big Lots). I picked it up at Wal-Mart because I saw Ethan Hawke (probably my favorite actor) on the cover. When I flipped it over, I noticed that Richard Linklater directed (who has since become my favorite director, mostly due to this movie and its sequel). With this chance encounter I discovered one of my favorite movies of all time.

The plot is simple, Ethan Hawke's Jesse meets a nice young French girl on a train on the way to Paris. He talks her into spending an evening with him in Vienna along the way. The entire movie takes place during this evening. They walk around the beautiful city talking about every topic from exes to religion to love to their hopes and dreams. This may not sound exciting, but it is not often that you get the chance to see true love blossom before your eyes. Julie Delpy and Hawke give a flawless performance that anyone who has every fallen in love can appreciate. Ironically enough, even though the banter between the couple is why I love the movie, my favorite scene contains no lines at all. Luckily, I found a link and you can check it out below. To set it up a little, they are in a record store's "listening booth" and they have only known each other for a few hours. The way that their eyes dart back and forth and they avoid each other's gaze is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen on screen.

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