A conversation for a movie

Last night my wife and I finally sat down to watch "Before Sunset" which had come via Blockbuster Online, earlier in the week. I had heard a lot about the movie and was waiting to see the first movie "Before Sunrise" before I saw the sequel. But Blockbuster unfortunately put the first one in a short wait and I had to watch the sequel first. I dont regret it too much as an afterthought. The movie is a rare, almost unheard of "romantic sequel" to a modest cult movie that was released 9 years ago. The first movie is about how a young writer played by Ethan Hawke and a French free-spirited person played by Julie Delpy meet one evening in Vienna. They get to know each other and enjoy their company immensely. They have but one evening to get to know each other before they go their ways, the next morning. While parting, they plan to meet again 6 months hence in the same place, if they were still intent on being with each other. This is the premise of the first movie, as described here.

The second movie, picks up 9 years later with the hero, now a writer, promoting his book in Paris and the heroine, now an activist with Green Cross, comes to his last book signing before his evening flight to NY. The two pick off the strands of their past and what happened between the fateful evening in Vienna and today. The entire movie is a conversation between the two, set amidst the glory of summertime Paris. While it seems to be a bore to watch two people just talking throughout the 80 odd minutes, rest assured, you'll be more than surprised. The movie is unbelievably real and you can feel as if you are there as a third participant in the conversation that traverses a multitude of topics ranging from Buddhist monks to death to lost love to the history of Notre Dame to sex and what not. The movie's screenplay written by Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy and Richard Linklater (the director) themselves, sparkles with amazing insight into the flaws and strengths of human character and is a fantastic study of the two common place individuals in a unique situation. Needless to say, the climax is really the piece de resistance. You dont see it coming and when it does, you have a smile on your lips that tells you, there is always hope at the end of the tunnel.

I am now waiting to see the first movie and while I do that, I very strongly recommend you see one or both of them. Rarely do we get to watch movies where it not technique or the cinematography or the stars or anything else which is a staple of most movies today, that really matters. For once its about people and their emotions and simply wonderful character interplay between the protagonists. No more. No less.