Before Sunset

“Nine years ago, in Before Sunrise, they spent a night strolling through Vienna, talking about love and dreams: now Jesse and Céline meet again in Paris. In Before Sunset, Linklater once again stages a city tour as a thought-provoking dialogue. But it is not only the protagonists who have matured: their former naivety now has a bitter aftertaste, whilst the mise-en-scène exudes a serene elegance.’ (Christoph Huber, Austrian Film Museum, June 2007)

“Before Sunset could easily have gone terribly wrong, destroying memories and burying ideals. Julie Delpy (34) and Ethan Hawke (33), who play the girl and the boy, must have been very aware of this. In the mid-1990s, it seemed as though they were just about to conquer the world – today we know that their creation from back then is perhaps the most valuable thing they have produced to date. That is why they have given this sequel the most valuable thing they possess today: nine more years of life experience, hard-won insights, unhealed wounds, resolved and unresolved problems. They threw themselves headlong into writing the screenplay in order to continue lending authenticity to these characters, within the wonderful creative freedom that director Richard Linklater has afforded them.” (Tobias Kniebe, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 16 June 2004)