Cheap Before Sunset (DVD) (Richard Linklater) Price

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Customer Reviews of Before Sunset

a sweetly poignant conversation between two real-life friends
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>This was one of several movies that I watched while stuck on board this long round trip Qantas flight. It was without a doubt the best one of them all, just a terrific movie. <
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>I got the DVD for this movie and for "Before Sunrise" later. Unlike most people here, I definitely preferred "Before Sunset". There is a noticeable difference between the two movies, and it has to do strictly with the fact that "Before Sunrise" was a standard movie script, written by two screenwriters, while "Before Sunset" was written largely by the two actors - Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy - together with the director/screenwriter. <
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>It is quite clear from the background information available on the making of "Before Sunset" that an enormous amount of the screenplay was taken from the real lives of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. <
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>Jesse is originally from Texas, so is Ethan Hawke. Celine goes to the U.S. to live and study, so did Julie Delpy. Jesse is in the midst of a loveless marriage - Ethan Hawke was in the midst of a breakup of his marriage to Uma Thurman at the time this movie was being made. Celine stays single, having many male friends/lovers, but never marrying - this is also true of Julie Delpy. <
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>Although they both said at the time that they were not playing themselves, that Ethan's real-life marital problems were completely different from Jesse's, and that Celine was only an idealization of the real Julie Delpy, the similarities are striking. The fact that they are playing characters so close to who they really are is what makes "Before Sunset" feel so completely effortless and free flowing, more like a documentary that is evesdropping on a long, sweetly poignant conversation between two real-life friends. <
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>Watching "Before Sunrise" after this movie, I could definitely sense that the first movie was more of a situation where two actors were just playing out roles written for them by screenwriters. The conversations do not flow quite so naturally, with the transitions occurring more awkwardly and in a more artificial fashion. <
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>In "Before Sunset", Jesse and Julie are nine years older, wiser, and sadder than in the first movie, just like in real life. Like most fair skinned people in their mid 30's, they have now lost the smooth baby faced skin of their youth and are developing the beginnings of wrinkles. The sadness comes from their realization, and our realization, that all of the youthful hopes and plans and passion from their encounter in the first movie did not come to fruition, and that time is perhaps running out for them. <
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>One final comment - most reviewers who have commented on the ending of "Before Sunset" seem to want to believe that Jesse and Celine went on to stay together as a couple. <
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>I have a different take on this. I think that Jesse most likely did miss his airplane and went on to stay longer with Celine than he originally planned. I also think that Jesse and Celine did go on to become best friends and soulmates, but I seriously doubt that they would go on to live together as a couple or that they would get married. No, marriage would definitely not be in the cards for the fiercely independant-minded Celine. <
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>Why do I think this? Because, in real-life, Ethan Hawke went on to a divorce with Uma Thurman, and became best friends with Julie Delpy, but today, they remain just that, best friends, and they have not gotten married nor did they go on to live together as a couple. <
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>And more than anything else, this movie is but a parallel universe mirroring their real lives.

Perfect Ending
See my review for Before Sunrise. Before Sunset is a perfect sequel to before Sunrise. A lovely love story.