Before Sunrise and Before Sunset
I have traditions whenever "holidays" or Hallmark card days come around, and they all involve movies. For Christmas, I watch Love Actually. On Halloween, I watch...John Carpenter's Halloween. On Groundhog Day, it's Groundhog Day. On July 4th, it's Independence Day (actually, I have watched this in the last few years).
On my birthday, I watch two new movies. I've done this for ten years. This year is the anniversary of that first time.
And so, on V-Day, I watch Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.
Years before the second film, I saw the first one on cable (more than likely HBO, but I cannot for the life of me remember), and I immediately loved it. This love, I came to discover, was two-fold: I love dialogue-filled movies, and I'm a sucker for romantic flicks. Hell, I'll even put up with the avergae Hollywood-modern-romantic-comedy.
Thankfully, these movies are actually great. I love them, from beginning to end. From the opening shots of Vienna to Celine doing her Nina Simone impression, I love these films so damn much.
The first film is made up of many conversations between the two. It's romantic as hell, and it ends in a cliffhanger made so that cynics and optimists get something out of the movie. I loved it. Even as a tween (long before the word existed), I loved the film. And, I did believe they met six months later.
Within the second film's ten minutes, we learn that SPOILER ALERT they did not meet up. And, here we are, nine years later, and they are meeting for the first time since then.
Before Sunset is made up of one conversation. Jesse has a flight to catch, so the two talk for about seventy minutes. It feels like what it is: a mature sequel to a young, romantic story about young, romantic people. As we grow old, and we live, we change. And, yet, we don't. That's what the movie gets right. Clearly, these two have grown as individuals, but together once again, they fall right into the rhythm of talking. And, talking is what makes them what they are.
Jesse and Celine love one another. We know this because they talk. More than that, we know this because how they talk, and how no matter what (he really needs to catch that flight), they will keep talking. They want to be around each other.
And, that's beautiful to me. And, that's why I watch these movies every February 14th.