We just finished watching Before Midnight, the third movie about the relationship of Jesse and Celine (played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpi). I have been watching these movies for the last 18 years, starting with Before Sunrise in my early 20s, when Jesse and Celine first meet on a train and spend the night in Vienna.
Ever since then, I have dreamed about meeting someone on the train. It seems to me the most romantic thing that could ever happen. The movie ends with Jesse a Celine agreeing to meet in Paris in six months. Nine years later, in Before Sunset, we learn that never did meet up because Celine's grandmother died just when they were supposed to meet and they didn't know anything else about each and couldn't get in touch (clearly before the electronic revolution). Jesse is married with a 4 year old son. We follow their conversation through the winding streets of Paris. Jesse's dilemma is whether he can abandon his son to be with his true love. And now, in Before Midnight, we see that he chose to be with his love, but that there has been a huge cost, leaving his son, and that is threatening his life with Celine and tearing apart their marriage.
Like the other two movies, the dialogue between Jesse and Celine in this movie is so real and the tension in the marriage is so realistic. The bitter fighting. Celine being totally neurotic and crazy. Jesse trying so hard. They are nothing and everything like us. It was hard to watch at times, because it felt like eavesdropping on such a intimate and personal moment in two people's relationship. Jaime and I watched tensely, both of us hoping that they would work things out by the end of the movie because we knew they love each other, just like we do.
Will there be more movies about Jesse and Celine? I don't know but I hope so. I want to continue seeing what happens to them as they grow older and older. I want Jaime and me to grow old with them.
But they will run out of names for the movies, Jaime says.
No, they'll be what, 50 in nine years? Before Menopause? Before Dentures? Before Death? The possibilities are endless.
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