The Dawn of Romance: Before Sunrise

Hello to anyone reading this essay, it has been a while, a long while indeed!

The everlasting boycott we are currently engaging in as medical students has been a real challenge and a true roller coaster of emotions; each time things seemed as if they were about to be resolved and end, something new came up and we found ourselves at the starting point again, which has made it impossible to write. It made it impossible to do anything, really, because everyone feels stuck and paralyzed. But it feels immensely gratifying and fulfilling to see everyone’s commitment even after countless hardships and challenges, to remain united and one out of principle and beyond our differences.

Today’s essay is one that I have been meaning to write since I first started essay o’clock but somehow just kept delaying by writing about other stuff already published or not.

I remember my first time ever, as a young teenager, watching “before sunrise”, only by coincidence, because I haven’t found anything interesting on TV.

It was my first encounter with a movie that way, a movie made fully out of dialogues and conversation between two characters and with complete absence of supporting actors. Nothing big or great happens during the whole duration of the movie, no plots or twists, no surprising turn of events and no baits and switches. There are no dramaturgircally complex scenes or characters. It just feels like you’re floating with two people in their own little bubbly world and the color palette in all three of these movies is heavenly, soothing and relaxing.

I found out a little while later that the movie has a sequel named “before sunset”, which follows the lead of the previous work and the duo becomes my favourite thing in the world to watch for years and years.

Then I discovered that there is another sequel, named “before midnight”, only to feel like Vito Corleone in the Godfather when he says “look how the massacred my boy”.

Let’s begin our dissection of this trilogy together by starting from the start:

A. The Dawn of Romance: Before Sunrise

The events of the first movie unfold in a train towards the beautiful city of Vienna. On board, remember this event because it will be mentioned later again, a German couple is fighting and is letting all the passengers know about it, including Jesse, an American discovering Europe, and Céline, a French returning to her university life after visiting her grandma.

Jesse and Céline bond over the fighting couple and from there emerges their endless conversation, fluid, smooth and easy.

One fact I loved about the making of the movie, besides the fact that some of it was inspired from real events from the movie director’s life, Richard Linklater, is the fact that Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke were involved into the process of the writing, which gave the movie a realistic aspect and a human essence, along with the natural mannerism, that has helped make the movie both timeless and relatable.

Jesse, representing the stupidly simplistic dreamy American boy who can’t speak another language besides English, and Céline, the French rebellious soul, smart, pragmatic yet in the search of love. We witness those two have a meet-cute, and they seem to connect with each other without difficulties, with lots of curiosity and an interest in each other.

As the conversation progresses between the two of them on the train, I had the impression that Jesse’s ideas were things Céline thought of at the age of 13, not only because he was a man and she was a woman, and because I am convinced that men’s late encounter with notions such as empathy delays their process of thoughts, but mainly because he was a perfect embodiment of the American spirit, and the cultural contrast between the two of them couldn’t help but highlight Céline as someone more intellectual and knowledgeable.

After Jesse has asked Céline to embark with him on an adventurous day to discover the charming and dazzling Vienna, before he catches his flight to the States, a new chapter starts between the two; the space around them vanishes and seems to exist, only the space between them.

You can sense the chemistry and the connection, but as the movie goes, you begin to feel fear also, and I personally felt anxious too, and I still feel anxious each and every time I watch this movie even though I know perfectly how it ends and can basically say the lines at the same time as the characters.

So why anxious, you may ask, it’s because you can’t help but feel that there is some sort of  doomed romance happening. As the characters progress to become more anchored to each other, you can’t help but think of the fact that a separation is only around the corner, inevitable, approaching step by step, as every second passes, the ticks of the clocks and the sky’s changing colour can only be ignored for  long.

It is mentioned that Céline feels like an old woman whose life consist of memories and Jesse as a 13 years old who is just figuring his way out of life, which is an idea I found interesting, isn’t that really just the dichotomy of life and behaviour between men and women?

From the train to Jesse and Céline walking around discovering Vienna, they discuss a wide range of topics and subjects.

From life and death, to travelling, to politics, to art and culture, the subject that has strike my attention the most to be honest  was the one about love and relationships.

The scene that particularly catches me and makes me feel a bit uncomfortable is the one where Céline asks Jesse if he knows a happy couple, which he responds to by saying yes while attributing that happiness to the idea that they lie to each other.

It led me to have many questions like: Why was Jesse sceptical about love as he approaches love through Céline? And what was it anyway, whatever this is going on between the two of them? Was it love or lust? Was it possible to fall in love with someone this way? Without profoundly knowing them? And what did it mean to profoundly know somebody? Is a long conversation about everything enough? Are we our most selves with strangers or is it around them that we cease our golden chance to play an immaculate performance of who we want and dream to be? And do people have to lie to each other to be happy in relationships, was the question that kept lingering in my head.

I feel like Jesse’s statement deranged Céline too because to me, she seemed to value the human experience of love, she craved a true connection and she had a different approach from Jesse’s in relationships, as she appears to be more inclined towards more of an authentic experience and more focused on the emotional and philosophical aspects of connection, Jesse seemed to ponder more towards relationships with a vision of engagement and commitment which lead me to think that he was most likely to marry in the future and have kids only because that was the “natural” flow of things not because he necessarily has found the right person and that he really loved that person, and although I do think that commitment is an essential pivotal element for the longevity of any relationship, it being the only reason someone would choose to stay with anyone sounds like a depressing idea to me and that is may be because I do tend to idealise and romanticize relationships and connection the way Céline does, and Jesse’s cynical view tarnishes my view on relationships, as I consider them the true resort, the safe haven, the true meaning of intersubjectivity, having to lie and fake myself into them makes me feel very uncomfortable, and the idea that partner is lying to survive in this relationship suffocates me. And while I do try to keep realistic considerations, I refuse to see relationships as a forced commitment, forcing them to work out only because there isn’t better out there and that this is as good as it gets, I would rather try make things work out of love, and not out of practicality.

Jesse adds that there is nothing more selfish than love, which intrigues me even more, but then we find out that the reason behind his scepticism is his recent break up which to be honest throws me off a bit too much and makes me question his intentions with Céline; was she only his European French fantasy of a woman, was this whole connection only a set to fulfil his American mind and was she may be just a rebound?

As the plot advances, I notice that Céline becomes more worried of how Jesse perceives her and how he thinks of her, which proves even more her desire for a true connection and showcases her vulnerability but I find a bit concerning because that also shows a growing attachment towards him.

When the both of them agree that there is no necessity to keep contact after they separate, I thought to myself that it was a smart idea.

As someone who doesn’t believe in long distance relationships on a macroscopically large level for several reasons this essay will not fit to include, I admired the mutually shared decision and I was happy that they addressed this issue before the moment of separation only to be disappointed when they sleep with each other, which is a scene I don’t personally approve off, mainly because I don’t think that they have known each other enough to take things to the next level of connection and because that decision, in my personal opinion, would bias the two of them and only make their separation harder and expand their expectations from each other, which actually did lead them to the crazy idea of meeting in 6 months from June 16th and that takes us to the next movie.