Julie Delpy

DVD/Stream of the Week: Before Midnight (and Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, too)

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BEFORE MIDNIGHT

In 1995’s Before Sunrise, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) is an American writer in his early twenties who meets a French woman, Celine (Julie Delpy), on a train and talks her into walking around Vienna with him before his early morning flight back home. They banter and flirt, sparks fly and they agree to meet in six months. We find out what happened nine years later when they encounter each other again in Paris in Before Sunset. Now, in Before Midnight, it’s been another nine years and Jesse and Celine are 41. Their journeys have reached another stage, and we meet them in a Greek coastal resort.

In the first two movies, we were rooting for them to get together, but didn’t know whether it would happen. Now we know – they are a couple. The arcs of their careers have intersected, they face the roles of parent and step-parent and their attraction and feelings for each other have matured. As do all couples, they must negotiate each other’s expectations, desires, temperaments and quirks – with a combination of deliberation, accommodation, manipulation and argument.

All three movies in the series are deeply affecting because they are unusually authentic movie romances. The tension in the first two movies is what will happen when they fall in love. The tension in Before Midnight is whether – and how – they will stay in love. Jesse and Celine are perfect for each other – but is that enough?

Before Midnight is co-written by director Richard Linklater and stars Hawke and Delpy. Once again, we have a movie romance without the tired conventions of more superficial romantic comedies; in this series, there are no goofy best friends/roommates, obnoxiously intrusive parents – and no weddings. Instead, we have two attractive, intelligent and very verbal people who are very funny, and have potentially conflicting needs.

The series, which develops the same characters over eighteen years, is a very impressive work and Before Midnight is the year’s best romance (and one of the year’s best movies).

Before Midnight is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu and other VOD outlets. I recommend that you watch the prequels first. Both Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are available on DVD from Netflix and streaming on VOD from Amazon , iTunes, Vudu and other VOD outlets. Before Sunrise is free with Amazon Prime.

Before Midnight: the best romance in nine years

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BEFORE MIDNIGHT

In 1995’s Before Sunrise, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) is an American writer in his early twenties who meets a French woman, Celine (Julie Delpy), on a train and talks her into walking around Vienna with him before his early morning flight back home.   They banter and flirt, sparks fly and they agree to meet in six months.  We find out what happened nine years later when they encounter each other again in Paris in Before Sunset.  Now, in Before Midnight, it’s been another nine years and Jesse and Celine are 41.  Their journeys have reached another stage, and we meet them in a Greek coastal resort.

In the first two movies, we were rooting for them to get together, but didn’t know whether it would happen.  Now we know – they are a couple.  The arcs of their careers have intersected, they face the roles of parent and step-parent and their attraction and feelings for each other have matured.   As do all couples, they must negotiate each other’s expectations, desires, temperaments and quirks – with a combination of deliberation, accommodation, manipulation and argument.

All three movies in the series are deeply affecting because they are unusually authentic movie romances.  The tension in the first two movies is what will happen when they fall in love.  The tension in Before Midnight is whether – and how – they will stay in love.  Jesse and Celine are perfect for each other – but is that enough?

Before Midnight is co-written by director Richard Linklater and stars Hawke and Delpy.  Once again, we have a movie romance without the tired conventions of more superficial romantic comedies; in this series, there are no goofy best friends/roommates, obnoxiously intrusive parents – and no weddings.  Instead, we have two attractive, intelligent and very verbal people who are very funny, and have potentially conflicting needs.

The series, which develops the same characters over eighteen years, is a very impressive work and Before Midnight is the year’s best romance (and one of the year’s best movies).

DVD/Stream of the Week: Before Sunrise and Before Sunset

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Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in BEFORE SUNRISE

The year’s best romance (and one of the year’s best movies), Before Midnight, is coming to theaters on May 31. So it’s time to get ready by watching (or revisiting) its prequels, Before Sunrise and Before Sunrise. 

In 1995’s Before Sunrise, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) is an American writer in his early twenties who has been moping around Europe after a breakup.  He meets a French woman, Celine (Julie Delpy), on a train and talks her into walking around Vienna with him before his early morning flight back home.   They banter and flirt – and sparks fly.  As they connect more deeply, each begins to explore whether this can be a real relationship, more than a transtice encounter or a one night stand.

Nine years later, in Before Sunset, Jesse and Celine have another encounter, this time in Paris just before he is again scheduled to fly back to the US.  (Before Sunset is only 80 minutes long.)

In the upcoming Before Midnight, it’s been another nine years and Jesse and Celine are 41.  To avoid spoilers, I’ll just say that their journeys have reached another stage, which is played out in a Greek coastal resort.

Co-written by director Richard Linklater and with characters developed by stars Hawke and Delpy, the series is deeply affecting because the movies are unusually authentic movie romances.  All three stories are constrained by time and set in beautiful European locations.  All three are about two intelligent people who are attracted to each other and are connecting deeply.   All three stories are unencumbered by the conventions of more superficial romantic comedies; in this series, there are no goofy best friends/roommates, obnoxiously intrusive parents – and no weddings.  There are no races to the airport to keep Jesse from leaving.

Most importantly, the filmmakers let the audience figure out what happens next.  As in real life, there’s no pat happy ending, and there’s the ambiguity of yet unwritten personal history.  At the end of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, we don’t KNOW whether they are going to get together…but they could.  And we want them to.

Both Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are available on DVD from Netflix and streaming on VOD from Amazon , iTunes, Vudu and other VOD outlets.  Before Sunrise is free with Amazon Prime.

2 Days in New York: a diversion, sometimes funny

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Writer-director Julie Delpy and Chris Rock play a couple living together in a cramped New York City apartment with their kids from previous relationships when her eccentric French family comes for a visit.  Most French are reserved and impeccably polite; because that’s not funny, Delpy wrote her visitors to be very badly behaved extreme hedonists.  The stress of the first visit by the in-laws, the claustrophobia of packing people into a tiny apartment and language and cultural barriers are all promising comic situations.   A mid-range comedy, 2 Days in New York has its moments.

As a screenwriter, Delpy’s strengths are a keen eye for family dysfunction, brisk pacing and a willingness to get raunchy.  But much of the broadest gags in 2 Days in New York fall flat.  There is a funny bit about Delpy’s emotionally brittle artist literally selling her soul as a piece of performance art.  And it’s funny when Delpy invents a preposterous tragedy to avoid facing a complaint from a neighbor.  But the funniest moments are two Chris Rock monologues when he retreats to his man cave to converse with a large poster of Barack Obama.

I wouldn’t recommend a special trip to the theater to see 2 Days in New York, but it’s a pleasant enough diversion to watch on DVD or stream later this year.