BEFORE: I had to wait until after the whole Super Bowl to finish off the trilogy, so let's hope this one's worth the wait. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy carry over again from "Before Sunset".
Here's the "31 Days of Oscar" line-up for tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 5 on TCM - the main topic is "Foreign Films", followed by the 2 head-to-head matchups of "Favorite Supporting Actor Win: Anthony Quinn" and "Noir Best Picture Nominee: Bette vs. Joan)":
5:30 am "Bicycle Thieves" (1948)
7:00 am "The Walls of Malapaga" (1949)
8:30 am "Rashomon" (1950)
10:00 am "Mon Oncle" (1958)
12:00 pm "Day for Night" (1973)
2:00 pm "The Battle of Algiers" (1966)
4:15 pm "Through a Glass Darkly" (1961)
6:00 pm "I Vitelloni" (1953)
8:00 pm "Viva Zapata!" (1952)
10:15 pm "Lust for Life" (1956)
12:30 am "The Letter" (1940)
2:30 am "Mildred Pierce" (1945)
I know they showed us "Bicycle Thieves" at film school, so that's a given, and during this project I've also watched "Lust for Life" and "Mildred Pierce". Still, that's only 3 out of 12, so another non-positive day, the cumulative score is now 27 out of 57, and I'm down to 47%. I'm hoping things will start turning around soon, maybe by the end of this week.
THE PLOT: We meet Jesse and Celine nine years later in Greece. Almost two decades have passed since their first meeting on that train bound for Vienna.
AFTER: Well, there's good news and bad news here. First, the good news is that Jesse and Celine are together, so at some point after the fade-out in the previous film, they finally got on the same page. Of course, Jesse was married at that point and had a son, so there were clearly some issues that had to be dealt with, and as "Before Midnight" goes on, we gradually learn more and more about what took place in the nine year gap that we didn't get to see. Because this filmmaker figures, on some level, why SHOW the audience the romance, when the two characters can just talk about it? Isn't it more mysterious and enigmatic this way? Sure, but it's also very boring, and it breaks the general rule of filmmaking as a visual medium, which is "Show, don't just tell."
The film starts with Jesse taking his son Hank to the airport in Greece (which is funny, I suppose, because the previous two films both ENDED with someone going to the airport, or supposed to be going to an airport). Hank spent the summer with his father, so by showing him flying back to his mother in the U.S., we can start to deduce that Jesse's not with his mother any more. Then, thank God, we confirm that he's still with Celine, because it would have been too much of a convenience for him to have to bump into her randomly for a third time.
Reading between the lines here, I think they make references to not really being married, but just acting like they are, and letting everyone think that they are. Hey, some people do this, just act married in every important way except they don't have a license or rings or a ceremony. This is something people might do as they get older, and after a few relationships that didn't work, they may conclude that no relationship is forever, or marriage as a construct is outdated, or perhaps they just need to know that there's an emergency exit of sorts, so that if they ever feel like they want to leave, there will be no need to hire a lawyer. That's the theory, anyway, for people who reach a point in their lives where they know what works for them, and what doesn't work. Or maybe they figured out that the only lasting relationship is the one that doesn't feel binding or constricting in any way.
But what Jesse and Celine are still doing, after all this time, is debating the nature of relationships, especially on long walks through European landscapes with a steadi-cam in front of them. But here in this film the debate slowly escalates to a full-on argument, which is something we've never seen them engage in before. But that's to be expected, I suppose, after they've been together for so long, plus you throw in the pressures of an ex-wife, a son, Jesse feeling guilty for not spending enough time with his son, and then there's the debate over whether they should move to America to be closer to his son, which would mean that either Celine would have to put her career on hold, or else remain in Europe with their daughters while Jesse lived in America, which would of course put a strain on the relationship.
Once again, the dialogue feels very real, and allowing the actors to work freely, with just a few destination points in mind, seems like a great decision, if realistic dialogue portraying the way that a real couple would argue is indeed the goal. And I'm talking about both fair arguing AND unfair arguing - his unfair tactics include implying in subtle ways that women are overly emotional while men are stereotypically practical, and her unfair tactics include saying "This is a conversation that leads to us breaking up..." whenever things don't seem to be going her way. That, and having a fair part of the conversation while topless. How is he even supposed to concentrate? It's like she's hoping that when she takes her top off he's going to say, "Wait, what were we fighting about again?"
And once again, a movie in this series ends in a sort of ambiguous pause, as if we're supposed to decide if we want the couple to break up or stay together, remain dysfunctional or figure out some kind of effective compromise. Sort of like an abstract painting, where you see in it what you bring to it, I guess. Now, if Linklater holds true to form, there could be another chapter in this film series in 2022, just three years away. But now I'm current, I'm all caught up for once. But if this relationship survives and the couple is still together in their 50's, maybe they can make "Before Dusk", where they live in New York and they try to get their chores done, so they can go out to a restaurant together to catch the early bird special. Just a suggestion. But these days, very few trilogies seem to stop there, even if the story seems complete.
Also starring Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick (last seen in "The Dinner"), Jennifer Prior, Charlotte Prior, Xenia Kalogeropoulou, Walter Lassally, Ariane Labed (last seen in "The Lobster"), Yiannis Papadopoulos, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Panos Koronis with another cameo from John Sloss (last seen in "Before Sunrise").
RATING: 5 out of 10 Greek ruins
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