Before Sunset

Nine years after that fleeting Vienna night, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) cross paths again. Jesse is now a novelist whose book fictionalizes their encounter, and he's on a Parisian book tour. Céline shows up at his reading at Shakespeare and Company. With only 80 minutes before his flight, they wander through Paris, their conversation weaving through regrets, politics, and the lives they've built apart. Shot in real time over 15 days on a $2.7 million budget, the film grossed nearly $16 million worldwide. Delpy and Hawke co-wrote the screenplay with Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. The second chapter of the Before trilogy, it's celebrated for its naturalistic dialogue and emotional honesty.[edit]

Jesse (Ethan Hawke) is on the final stop of a European book tour, promoting his novel about a young American man who spends one magical night with a French woman in Vienna. He never found her again. At Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris, during a Q&A, he spots Céline (Julie Delpy) at the back, smiling. After the reading, they embrace awkwardly. Céline reveals she was in Vienna the day after their night but had to leave for her grandmother's funeral. Jesse had waited at the train station, unaware.

With his flight to New York in 80 minutes, they decide to walk. The film unfolds in real time. They stop at a café, where Céline admits she read Jesse's book and felt exposed. He confesses his marriage is unhappy; she's in a relationship with a photojournalist who's never around. Their conversation jumps from politics to reincarnation, but the undercurrent is always their unresolved connection. On a boat ride along the Seine, Céline says she's become cynical about love. Jesse counters that she's romanticized their night too much. They trade barbs and vulnerabilities, each testing whether the other feels the same pull.

They visit the Promenade Plantée, an elevated park, and Céline reveals she wrote songs about their night. Jesse admits he wrote the novel to find her. But time is running out. As they approach her apartment, the question hangs: will they part again, or finally seize what they lost?[edit]