One of the best movies of 2004!

10/10 (A+)

the single best movie of the year 2004.

This was a masterpiece of modern cinema and I truly, deeply feel sorry for those who just couldn't get into it.
It was far superior to the original. The dialogue was stunning, sharp, witty, perfect. the acting wasn't acting, it was something above what we understand as acting. The cinematography was pulled off seamlessly. The directing was also something amazing!

Let me tell you why this film was so great and why these characters are so vibrant and so real.... because Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, and Richard Linklater toegther created these characters. They took them from the first and built them up, each by themselves over the course of 9 years, putting alot of themselves in it. They wrote it and lived it together, that's why the movie seems so effortless, while it's almost impossible in today's american films to pull off six-seven minute dialogue scenes, especially when the dialogue is that heavy and witty, involving alot of gestures, so NATURAL.

Julie Delpy was incredible yes, but I think that Ethan Hawke is extremely overlooked in this film. The little gestures he makes, his movement and acts while listening, the smirks and smiles.... I am watching this movie for the third time and I am visualizing myself in the situation.... it's freaky how he so perfectly executes, how THEY have so perfectly executed such natural and minute details to conversation and a delayed rendezvous.

I don't give away A+'s easily... I'd like to believe I rarely do so others would know how significant a film I think it is when I do give it away. But this year having two equally amazing masterpieces doesn't help it...
Kill bill and Before Sunset

SOLID A+

Great little movie with a perfect ending. A-

Interesting, but not great. I guess I should have seen the first one. It is worth noting that even though it's just two people talking for eighty minutes, I never lost interest. That's a huge compliment for the director and the actors. Hawke and Delpy were both excellent. I especially enjoyed Ethan Hawke, who I've never been a big fan of. Not for everyone, but I recommend it for those who can watch something that doesn't involve a single explosion, flesh-hungry zombie, or bodily fluid joke. I rate it a B,

I haven't seen Before Sunrise, so I don't have any attachment to the characters at the beginning, but I was immediately hooked to the opening scene where Ethan Hawke's character was in a library in Paris promoting his new book. Then after Ethan Hawke saw Julie Delpy, they had this 70-minute conversation while walking down the street of Paris (and on the boat sometimes). I didn't even know the names of the characters since they only refer each other as you and I, but the conversation is simply amazing. It feels so real. It's the exact conversation I could imagine when two people met for the first time in 9 years. People may say "why should I waste my time listening to them when I can listen to my friends having long chats in real life for free?" To me, it's much more than just random talks. Without seeing Before Sunrise, I learned about the characters, their lives, and their attitudes toward what happened all via the conversation, and it's just a great fun. Being able to make a movie solely base on that is an achievement.

A

Oh you're crazy!!!! You absolutely should have seen teh first movie first. I don't see how its possible to enjoy it as much as you could if you havent (even if you gave it an A). It makes this one put more at risk, and it just makes you care more for the characters and root for them just because you've seen their chemistry from the first movie (even if, IMO Before sunrise is not quite as good as Before Sunset).

It's a great movie, always fun to watch...yes, fun. Intriguing, Captivating, I don't know. Great performances by the leads. The movie develops the characters more in one continous conversation than most movies do in a movie that takes place over 10 years, for example. THAT'S amazing.

A

lol Yeah, I really should have watched the first, but my family and friends made fun of Before Sunset so much (like I knew they would) that I knew both would be impossible.

Already a thread on this :?

Anyways, #2 of the year. 10/10 (A+)

Fantastic. I watched Sunset and Sunrise for the first time yesterday and it was quite an amazing experience. While I did like Sunrise a tad better, Sunset is just as facinating and feels so... real.

- A

lol....didnt you say you liked Sunrise a bit more than Sunset? :???:

Gah... Yes I did, thanks for pointing that out. I shall edit. ](*,)

Here's my review, which should hopefully be up on the main site some time soon. Read it! Go on, you know you want to. It's ever so boring!

http://www.worldofkj.com/Clough-BeforeSunset.php

Before Sunset

By Snrub

After an initial spurt (two reviews, no less), I've been a bit lazy in writing any more reviews. It didn't seem worth the effort to start reviewing films from last year, and nothing I've seen so far this year has inspired me to write more than a listless "meh". However, I get bored very easily so I've decided to spend an hour or two pumping out a review for one of my favourite films of last year - Before Sunset. There may be more on the way. It all depends how bored I get.

Before Sunrise was an entertaining, ceaselessly romantic film about a fleeting encounter between two young adults making their way across Europe. The premise was simple - Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) meet on a train, chat for a while, connect and on a whim decide to spend the night together. The rest of the film followed their wacky adventures through the streets of Vienna as they talked and walked and... talked. That the film managed to be entertaining despite having no explosions, gunplay or exposed genitalia whatsoever was testament to the chemistry of the two leads. After nearly two hours of talking and romance, the film ended with a question mark - will the two meet again? Won't they? It was left up to the viewer to decide.

Well, fret no more, indecisive viewer! For the answer can be found in 2004's Before Sunset! Picking up ten years after the events of the first film, Jesse (Hawke again) is now a published author out pimping his new book in a tiny French book shop - the last on his tour. As he discusses the book - which chronicles the events of that night ten years ago - snippets of Before Sunrise are played to bring the audience up to speed and aid in Jesse's useful exposition. These snippets not only help to remind audiences of the previous film but also serve to highlight the cragginess and age Ethan Hawke's face has accrued over the past decade. After watching Hawke's gaunt face babble and creak for five minutes I was frankly dreading to see what Delpy looked like.

As Jesse talks about his future book plans (which sound a bit crap), Celine (a pleasantly uncraggy Delpy) pops in to watch and distract him from talking about little girls dancing. The conference is quickly wrapped up, they both exchange anxious hellos and arrange to go for a coffee before he has to catch his plane back to America (which leaves at sunset). Thus begins the film.

Much like the original, there's not much in the way of crazy hi-jinks or adventure in Before Sunset. The film basically follows a man and a woman with an awful lot to say to each other and very little time to do so as they walk through the streets of Paris. Indeed, the most immediately apparent difference between Sunrise and Sunset (besides Hawke's weathered visage) is the greatly reduced time the two have together. The threat of Jesse's plane leaving is constantly hanging over the pair and the closer it gets to sunset, the more desperately Jesse and Celine work to say to what they've been wanting to say for years.

What ultimately makes the film so engaging and compelling to watch is the hurried, anxious banter they exchange. Waiting for Jesse and Celine to broach the subjects they're both clearly dying to talk about makes up the majority of the film's conflict. The script itself is obviously semi-improvisational and both actors clearly bring a great deal of their own experiences into the film, so when they talk it rarely feels forced or insincere. The dips, awkward pauses, branching off onto different subjects, talking over one another... it creates a perfect illusion of conversation that's exhilarating to watch.

Before Sunset is ultimately the perfect companion piece to Sunrise. Sunrise chronicled the blossoming romance of two young lovers without a care in the world and Sunset chronicles the fallout of that night of romance. The idealism and innocence both characters once had has since been sullied by the harsh realities of life and failed relationships. But despite all this, the film manages to remain endlessly romantic. It provides an adult perspective on the notion of love and romance, but never treats either with cynicism. Both characters have been bruised by their experiences, but remain hopeful - and by the end of the movie, so will you.

Final Grade: A

wow, brilliant review, snrub. and l mean brilliant in the american way, like really really good. l agree with just about everything, except l think l might like Sunrise a little less...but otherwise, great read. :up:

couldn't have said it better myself. (and l doubt l would have ever tried, so l'm glad you said it for me:oops: )

Thanks very much Kypade, I'm genuinely chuffed you liked it. It turned out to be a bloody difficult review to write in the end (I have no idea why I was expecting it to be a piece of piss), but to have someone buff up my ego like that makes it all worth it.

*revels in praise*

Well, that was nice. But now it's time to batter my newly inflated ego back down to regular size. No one likes a big head, after all.

You've got to keep your feet on the ground Snrub!!

*beats self on the head*

You're scum!! No one likes you!!

no problem...thanks for writing it...l felt genuinely chuffed reading it...

er... :???:

anyway, l have no idea what "chuffed" means, and l don't know if l like the idea of you beating your"self on the head" because l tend to dislike violence (especially the self-inflicted kind), and l also really don't have much of a clue how l plan to end this sentence, but yeah...

*lol* chuffed just means very pleased.

Also, don't worry - I didn't really beat myself on the head (I have people for that).

bump in casse Dr. Lecter visits this forum

This movie is unforgettable. (Yes I know, I alredy reviewed it).


But the more I look back on it the more I love it, and the characters as well. Still only seen it once (welll...twice). But. Wow. My favorite movie of the year.

i may be the only person who doesnt like this movie

Honest to god!!! WTF!?!?!?!?!?!

these people just had a conversation for 80 damn minutes!!!!.....thats it!!....dont get me wrong the Acting was great!!....but DAMN!!!! im sorry but this movie was awfuly boring to me


C- >> Just because of the acting....

Another one of 2004's most overrated films.

5/10 ( C )

Just a conversation for 80 minutes????


A conversation that revealed more about these two characters than any other movie I can think of in the last few years even when we follow the characters though months or years.

Acting and conversation that says more aobut these characters feelings for each other than anything else probably could have. (when celine wants to reach over and touch jesse even for a second but hold back, and then .....possible spoilers in the last sentence....


when she finally get the chance to. You know in the molecule scene hehe. It was one of the most rewarding moments in film I can think of.




Is this really what it has come down to? DIALOGUE in a movie is seen as a flaw and considered boring?


*cries some more*

:wink:

Like I pointed out in another thread, I think they CLEARLY missed the whole point of the movie. Aw well, maybe they'd have liked it more if Ethan Hawke farted and there were more 'splosions.

An amazing film, made even better by two truly incredible performances by Hawke and Delpy. The dialogue is utterly captivating and the film never loses interest from beginning to end. The ending is ambiguous, but simply perfect. All around, a near masterpiece. A-