Before Trilogy at Picturehouse at FACT
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
One of the key cinematic romances of recent years, Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy is evocative, wistful and at times crushingly believable. This summer, Picturehouse at FACT presents an opportunity to discover the whole trilogy – all 18 years of it – across one Bank Holiday afternoon.
1995’s Before Sunrise stars Ethan Hawke as Jesse, a young American on a train to Vienna, who charms Julie Delpy’s Celine into spending the day with him. The pair walk and talk, discussing things big and small with zest and a certain youthful naïveté, the breezy conversation barely hiding the fact that they are quickly falling for one another.
Before Sunset is filmed and set nine years later, 2004’s Celine and Jesse haven’t seen each other since Vienna, when they reunite unexpectedly over the course of a day in Paris. They’ve lived lives, earned baggage and obligations, but they’re drawn together once again. Is it possible for them to make something work?
Finally, Before Midnight jumps forward another nine years to 2013. On the Peloponnese coast, under the Greek sunshine, the two lovers flail as they work out what they mean to one another. Competing forces work to draw them to different sides of the world, and Celine and Jesse must determine the strength of their bond.
In addition to the powerful effect of time as an artistic tool (something Linklater would explore further with Boyhood), the trilogy gains from Linklater’s decision to invite Hawke and Delpy onto the writing team for the latter two films. The actors bring their own lived experiences to the enterprise, working alongside their director to craft characters that kept audiences rapt for almost twenty years.
It’s now nine years since the release of Before Midnight, and while there isn’t another sequel scheduled for 2022, perhaps a marathon screening is the next best thing.
