Before Sunset

I had the pleasure of re-watching this brilliant movie today.
Or rather, re-listening. It was playing on my video iPod, and the iPod spent most of it's time in my pocket thanks to my standing in a crowded bus. I smiled a lot while listening, enjoying the humor and regular digs and outrageous and totally untrue statements Celine and Jesse hurled at each other. There's something to be said for listening, rather than watching, a movie that's primarily dialog driven. It really works this way.

One cannot help but compare this film to Before Sunrise. In the earlier film, you see 2 young people, critical of their parent's lives and while realising they weren't perfect themselves, "knew" they were going to do much better.

Now, in Before Sunset, they seem to have done worse than even their parents had done. The future does not look good, and they blame their unhappy lives on their stupidity of not ensuring the 9-year ago meeting at the Vienna train platform by at least exchanging phone numbers.

They allowed that night they spent in Vienna 9 years ago loom so large in their lives as to destroy their future. They can't get over it.

One recalls the final lines from Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece:

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter -- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. ... And one fine morning ---- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

In the early part of their Paris reunion, Jesse and Celine are cautiously getting to know each other again in a Parisian coffee shop. They speak of living in the moment, which brings back the earlier scene where Jesse is describing the possible plot of his next book - in which one can live two moments - one in the present and one in the past - simultaneously. Just like the characters, in living their current meeting simultaneously with their past meeting, we viewers who have enjoyed the first film are also watching two films simultaneously. As we watch "sunset", out minds are reliving "sunrise" - looking for parallels of word, image and concept.

They grow in anguish as they talk about the near misses. How fate seemed to keep bringing them so close, and yet not letting them connect. Like the 2 magnets a child holds facing each other - close enough to feel the force of attraction pulling the magnets together, but with just enough force to keep them from closing that final less-than-a-millimeter gap that stands in the way of union.

The dialog throughout is superb, but there are two parts I choose to highlight in this post. It just doesn't read as well as it's heard - thanks to Celine's expressive french accent, and Jesse's laid back manner.

Jesse: I was once a... ...a drummer in a band.

Céline: You were?

Jesse: Yeah, we were pretty good, actually. But then...the lead singer guy, he was just so obsessed with us getting a record deal. (Céline reaches into her bag and withdraws a cigarette.) You know, it's all we talked about, it was all we thought about, getting bigger shows, and everything was just...focused on the future, all the time. And now, the band doesn't even exist anymore, right? And looking back at the...at the shows we did play, even rehearsing...you know, (motioning for emphasis) it was just so much fun! Now I'd be able to enjoy every minute of it. Can I have a drag? (She hand him the cigarette.)

Céline: Well, your book has been published, that's... that's a pretty big deal, and you've been all around Europe with it. Are you enjoying every minute of it?

Jesse: (Exhaling smoke, and shaking his head.) Not really...

Céline: Not really? (They both laugh.)

Jesse: Do you have another one of those?

Céline: Yes, of course. (Hands him a cigarette.) Um, here. (He takes the cigarette and taps it 3 times on the table.) In my field, I see these people that... (Hands him her cigarette so he can light the one she has given him.)...uh, sorry...come into it with big idealist visions of becoming the new leader that will create a better world. They enjoy the goal, but not the process!

Jesse: Right.

Céline: But the reality of it is that the true work of improving things is in the little achievements of the day. And that's what you need to enjoy, just in that field.

Jesse: What, what do you mean, exactly?

Céline: Well, for example, I was working for this organization that helped villages in Mexico. And their concerns was how to get the pencils sent to the kid in these little country schools. I was not about big revolutionary ideas, it was about pencils. I see the people that do the real work and what's really sad, in a way, is that...the people that are the most giving, hard working and capable of making this world better, usually don't have the ego and ambition to be a leader. They don't see any interest in superficial rewards, they don't care if...if their name ever appear in the press. They actually enjoy the process of helping others, they're in the moment.

Jesse: Yeah, but that's so hard! You know, to be in the moment. I just feel like I'm...designed to be slightly dissatisfied with everything. You know? I mean, like...always trying to better my situation. You know, I satisfy one desire, and it just... agitates another, you know? Then I think, to hell with it, right? I mean, desire is the fuel of life, I mean, do you think it's true that if we never wanted anything, we'd never be unhappy?

*****and another............

Céline: (Shaking her head with eyes nearly watering.) You know...it's not even that. I was...I was fine, until I read your fucking book! It stirred shit up, you know? It reminded me how genuinely romantic I was, how I had so much hope in things, and now it's like...I don't believe in anything that relates to love. I don't feel things for people anymore. In a way...I put all my romanticism into that one night, and I was never able to feel all this again. Like...somehow this night took things away from me and...I expressed them to you, and you took them with you! It made me feel cold, like if love wasn't for me!

Jesse: I... I don't believe that. I don't believe that.

Céline: You know what? Reality and love are almost contradictory for me. It's funny...every single of my ex’s...they're now married! Men go out with me, we break up, and then they get married! And later they call me to thank me for teaching them what love is, and…

Jesse: (Smiling sympathetically.) Oh God. (Rubs his face with both hands.)

Céline: …and that I taught them to care and respect women!

Jesse: (Pointing at himself.) I think I'm one of those guys.

Céline: (Yelling.) You know, I want to KILL them!! Why didn't they ask ME to marry them? I would have said "No", but at least they could have asked!! But it's my fault, I know it's my fault, because...I never felt it was the right man. Never! But what does it mean the right man? The love of your life? The concept is absurd; the idea that we can only be complete with another person is...EVIL!! RIGHT??!!

A good place to read the script:
http://sunrisesunset.wikia.com/wiki/Before_Sunset_(2004)_script

The first of the segments above really got my notice, because just the Sunday night before, I'd spoken to my Aunt, who's a not-so-young nun working in a small convent way out in the Sabah jungles. I was asking her what Laura and I could bring on our trip for the nuns and the people they serve, and was ready for big asks. Her reply surprised me.
"Erasers and Ball Point Pens"

After more prodding, I got her to accept a lot more, but after a week of thinking what she wanted us to bring for her, foremost in her mind are what I would think of as being very small things!
Yet, this situation is exatly mirrored in the film, where Celine speaks of transporting pencils to outlying villages in Mexico.

I'll end with a short return to the Great Gatsby. The BBC recently ran a radio dramatization in 10 parts. It was abridged and I was suprised at how much I got out of the broadcast. I had read (carefully!) the book, and enjoyed it a great deal. But now, listening .....I found myself with a new and stronger appreciation of how Fitzgerald conveyed his ideas with his use of language - things that I had missed while reading.

Sometimes, using a different sense to experience something familiar to another sense results in a new experience.

Which was certainly the case with my listening, rather than watching the film Before Sunset.

A film I would readily summarise with the phrase "boats against the current".