similar to Before Sunrise/Before Sunset

Discuss what movies Bill, Scarlett, and Sofia, the producers or musicians are working on or in now as well as film influences for LIT etc.

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pearly7

similar to Before Sunrise/Before Sunset

#1 Post by pearly7 » Sun Aug 15, 2004 12:00 am

lots of people say that Lost in Translation is similar to In the Mood for Love, but when I first saw the film, the first movie that it reminded me of was Before Sunrise.

Of course in that film Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy don't have the age gap problem, and are probably more sexually attracted to one another than Bob and Charlotte. However, they're both people who develop a deep connection with each other in a short period of time while traveling, but were forced to leave each other in the end due to circumstances (i.e. they live in different parts of the world)

Before Sunset is also similar to Lost in Translation (Before Sunset was completed before LiT was released, so the similarities weren't intentional). Like LiT, Before Sunset is a subtle film, and is constantly playing with repressed sexual tension between the two leads. Nothing "big" seem to happen in these films, which makes the characters' slightest movements seem significant:

- Bob touching Charlotte's toe, their little glances, the hug, the whisper, etc...

- and in Before Sunset **spoilers** celine reaching her hand out to touch jesse but then retrieves it, their stolen glances, the hug, walking up the stairs, etc...

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#2 Post by lemoncupcake » Mon Oct 23, 2006 9:26 am

Just saw this thread, i guess i should venture over here more. I love both Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. What i really liked about Before Sunset is that it's all filmed in real time. An hour and twenty minutes of conversation between two people with such an incredible connection. I think my favourite part of Sunset is the stairway scene.

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#3 Post by Pitman » Tue Oct 24, 2006 7:51 am

Yes, I too am a BIG fan of these two movies. I also agree with the similarities.

I wonder if there will be one more movie in this chain.

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#4 Post by lemoncupcake » Tue Oct 24, 2006 8:08 am

I wish i still had the link to where i read it, but Linklater has hinted at a third. It's good to know other people care about Celine and Jesse as much as i do. I kind of freaked out after seeing Sunset. The nine year difference between films made me think of my fifteen year old self eating popcorn in the movie theatre watching the first film and how full of hope for the future and optimistic i was. Like the characters now, i'm a little bitter and disillusioned and wish i still felt the way i did back then.
It amuses me when other people love the same films that i do as my friends always tell me "You have the worst taste in movies"
I hope we do see more of Jesse and Celine, even if it is just a they lived happily ever after ending, i'd like to see where they end up. Both characters have grown so much, but that intense connection is still there. Can they make it work? I hope so.

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#5 Post by Congruous » Tue Oct 24, 2006 12:46 pm

I liked both movies, but they didn't move me the way "LiT" did. The big problem is I'm not an Ethan Hawke fan. Plus, in the first movie, Delpy's accent was kind of weird. I did like the end of "Before Sunset" when Delpy was singing and dancing to the Nina Simone tune while I was wondering if Hawke was going to leave or stay. He was just sitting there with a huge grin on his face.
"Are there no more arrows left?"

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#6 Post by lemoncupcake » Tue Oct 24, 2006 8:27 pm

I'm not an Ethan fan either, i think those are his only two movies i actually like. Even though she's french, Julie doesn't have the typical french accent, and during the whole media junket for Sunset she was saying how most movies make her play it up instead of speaking like she really does. I noticed it too when watching both in one sitting. I guess in the first they wanted to play up the whole french girl thing.
I love Just in Time, that Nina Simone song. I was lucky to see her once.
It doesn't really matter but i think he stayed.

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#7 Post by I65 » Tue Oct 24, 2006 9:05 pm

I am an Ethan Hawke fan, but it's purely libinous. :D

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#8 Post by Pitman » Wed Oct 25, 2006 7:54 am

I first saw Before Sunset when I surfed upon it on one of the movie channels I get...and I started watching it from the book signing scene...which was close to the beginning, but I missed the opening credits.. And the movie was unique in that I had never watched just two people walking and talking for the entire film. But their conversations and interactions were so natural and lively it kept me very interested. I was fascinated by the story of what happened 10 years ago in Vienna. I had no idea after having seen this film that there was in fact a film called Before Sunrise. I thought this was a one-off movie. So you can imagine my surprise and excitement to find the "prequel" and see it.

I think, in some way, it was even more rewarding to see the 2nd film first and then discover the 1st film later. It was like my own personal adventure intertwined with theirs.

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#9 Post by lemoncupcake » Wed Oct 25, 2006 8:12 am

That's another greatly endearing thing about them. You can watch the second without ever needing to see the first. Or you could watch the first, and make up your own ending in your mind. Did they meet again or didn't they? I'd tell people that, and they couldn't understand it, until they saw it.

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#10 Post by Congruous » Wed Oct 25, 2006 12:56 pm

If you guys enjoy talky movies like these two, check out Eric Rohmer's films. They are in French, but are immensely entertaining. I give you fair warning: there is little or no action in them, but if you like to watch normal people interact, you will enjoy his stuff.
"Are there no more arrows left?"

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#11 Post by preciouswhile » Wed Oct 25, 2006 4:04 pm

One of the things I liked best about these movies is the way the first one ends and the second begins.

Sunrise shows you all the places they visited that night, empty. It was very touching.

Sunset begins by showing you all the places they'll visit.

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#12 Post by lemoncupcake » Wed Oct 25, 2006 7:41 pm

I love Eric Rohmer's films!

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#13 Post by Pitman » Fri Oct 27, 2006 1:11 pm

Thanks for the Eric Rohmer tip. I love foreign film. Check out the French film Pure Formality. Another of those mainly dialogue movies...but highly entertaining!!

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#14 Post by lemoncupcake » Fri Oct 27, 2006 1:25 pm

Pitman you have great taste in films. I loved Pure Formality.

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#15 Post by Congruous » Fri Oct 27, 2006 2:15 pm

Some Rohmer titles:

Summer (Reye Verte)
Chloe in the Afternoon
Le Beau Marriage
Full Moon Over Paris
Claire's Knee
Ma Nuit Chez Maude
"Are there no more arrows left?"

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#16 Post by Pockets » Sat Mar 10, 2007 4:11 pm

I finally saw Before Sunset last night. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie but I found Ethan Hawke's character Jesse more of a typical American young guy and felt that if they had hooked up, their relationship would not have been that special or lasted forever. While the combination of an American and a French national seems wonderfully exotic, it's a surface exoticism and a shallow veneer. I feel that the Celine character had more intellectual and spirtual depth than Jesse's (for instance, she was cool with the gypsy fortune teller lady and he wasn't). He was kind of boring and only had his youthful enthusiasm going for him, and I think that will wear thin with Celine after a few years.

I now need to see Before Sunset.

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#17 Post by Just Like Honey... » Thu Jul 05, 2007 3:10 am

Oh, boy. I can't believe I didn't bother to see either of these until the other night. I was going to watch Before Sunset at work tonight, but I forgot to bring it (after finding this thread, this disappoints me severely, since I'm still at work).

I saw Hawke's character described in a review somewhere as 'a romantic disguised as a skeptic'. I thought that said it all about his selective kind of agnosticism, which is pretty apparent when his beliefs on reincarnation, etc are contrasted with his detachment from stuff like the palm reading and the improvised poetry. I did think his youthful enthusiasm was just slightly overplayed, but I saw Waking Life (cameos by Delpy and Hawke, in character) many times before, so I was prepared for it, plus that's just sort of what Ethan Hawke does with his characters. I don't think having the name 'Jesse' helps much either. If there's anything prosaic in this movie, it's that.

While watching, I became so aware of how easily it could be ruined. It's simply amazing to me that Linklater was able to navigate through this whole story, all these emotions, all this ever-changing dialogue, and all of the tension in the air throughout without falling into cliché. I found myself predicting the cliché in almost every scene, and every time he managed to find some way to slither out of it. And I'm talking about every scene, from first to last, held an inherent prediction which, in any other movie, would have been realised, but Linklater manages to slap us hard enough with deviation to keep our eyes and ears open (mine, at least)

Last but not least, the scene near the beginning in the record store has to be the loveliest, most moving thing I have ever seen. Really.


"There's wind that blows in from the north.
And it says that loving takes this course.
Come here. Come here.
No I'm not impossible to touch I have never wanted you so much.
Come here. Come here.
Have I never laid down by your side.
Baby, let's forget about this pride.
Come here. Come here.
Well I'm in no hurry. Don't have to run away this time.
I know you're timid.
But it's gonna be all right this time."
I'd rather be a gear in a big, deterministic, physical machine than just some random swerving.

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#18 Post by Congruous » Thu Jul 05, 2007 1:40 pm

The last scene in "Before Sunset" is just fantastic.
"Are there no more arrows left?"

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#19 Post by Just Like Honey... » Sun Jul 08, 2007 11:16 pm

It was. I didn't think anything could top the end of the first.
I'm too emotionally exhausted after that to comment further.
I'd rather be a gear in a big, deterministic, physical machine than just some random swerving.

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