Knit to This
Before Midnight
Dear Kay,
You know how you love a movie so much that you don’t want to watch the sequel? I’ve got that feeling about Before Midnight. It hit theaters in 2013, but I have been so worried that I won’t like it that I’ve put off seeing it. Now that it just started streaming on Netflix, I gotta know: do Celine and Jesse make it? Can love conquer all? Is Ethan Hawke an old dude now?
It’s the third movie in a trilogy from director Richard Linklater, a guy whose ability to play a long game in filmmaking is unparalleled. He’s the director of Boyhood, the 2014 film that took 12 years to make and used one young actor all the way through, who basically grew up in front of our very eyes. Extraordinary.
Linklater’s Before films are another slow burn, starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Linklater does the amazing thing of using the same pair of actors in three films, each spaced nine years apart. The actors age, even as they play the same characters. It’s the story of a relationship played out over time. I can’t believe I haven’t seen the third one yet.
It’s available to rent on Amazon:
Before Sunrise (1995). Netflix DVD only.
Before Sunset (2004). Netflix DVD only.
Before Midnight (2013). Streaming on Netflix now.
I think I’ll watch all three.
Love,
Ann
In Paris last month, I sat in Le Pure Café with my guy, finding good wine, privacy and shelter late, late , Delpy and Hawke were long gone though.
Oh, how I loved these movies….all 3. One can only hope for #4.
Yes yes yes. Watch all three. It is glorious. And in my opinion, the third is really good and consistent in tone and it is so good to see lovely people aging. Makes me feel compassionate toward my own aging body.
Yes!!
I share Ann’s hesitation! It’s hard when you care too much, and to watch a sequel fall flat feels like it would be too painful. I don’t want to watch these people grow up into Hollywood yuppies having a midlife crisis (the unreformed man-child! The crazy female!)
So, question to those who know: how does the final installment compare to the trailer (above)? Because that trailer is turning me off — cliché music, stagey dialogue, ginned up conflict, blah character stereotypes. But I know that trailers are cut together as a separate process driven by studio marketing (so they tend towards the cliché and samey), and can be wholly unrepresentative of the underlying film. Reassure me?
I’ll be honest (at the risk of hurting feelings) – both my husband and I really, really disliked the third one. I don’t think the characters aged well, emotionally, at all.
OTOH, I thought #2 was everything a sequel should be.
I think the film is more sad and less comical than the trailer. They put together many of the jokes and added “Dancing Zorba” music, I’m sure, to boost ticket sales. But it ain’t My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Not that I don’t also like that movie in its own way.
Oh, yes. I have mixed feelings about Ethan Hawke, and so was hesitant, but finally succumbed…and loved them.
Loved loved loved all three, Julie, and Ethan. Take the leap and watch #3!
I watched all three, even though I didn’t care for the first one, hope there are more to come. I also watched the original Scenes from a Marriage and its sequel, too.