on Before Sunset (the movie)
There is some magic about a film like Before Sunset, Before Sunrise and the last one I haven’t watched yet. The magic is its being authentic and smooth and letting the conversation flow without cut-off from the director’s self-acclaimed genius transition. Watching Celine and Jesse initiating their conversation with a bit of awkwardness, which resembles so well of how my own dates usually started, makes me smile, from the inside out.
There is some magic in just observing how their conversation flows, how they pivot their topic (and I noticed it’s mostly Celine who pivoted to a new topic), how they deal with arguments or differences in their opinions, how they reconcile and grow their affection to each other even stronger.
Throughout that hour and a half’s nonstop conversation, I started recalling my past conversations with those memorable dates and realized the potential out of them if we could’ve really had a bit less expectation and a bit more organicity in how we met, and also a bit more faith and hope in how it might turn out without being too rushy or stressed about it.
I don’t remember how long exactly between their two dates, 6 years? There are feelings so raw, so strong, so affectionate, that time couldn’t really wipe off the freshness in the memory. “Memory is so good but also bad that it’s in the past”, “Memory is so good and we are blessed with the desire hoping something better will come too to form more memories of it”.
They are just two people who luckily met each other and dared to take the adventure with each other, and they live the same sort of drama and chaos and anxiety and trouble in life and haven’t figured out where everything leads, trying to find an answer but not really stringent about it, trying to make peace and sense of all those pieces in mundane life, and their one-night, one-day dates are what keeping their hope on.
Desire is good, that you always have something to look forward to, as long as you are not too frustrated about not getting it.
I think it might be my favorite movie so far that I just felt so warm and reflective after observing the whole conversation, while not really disappointed at their open-ended result of the date.
People we meet on vacation and grow some affection with, are a thing worth celebrating, and I should embrace it with pure authenticity and open-mindedness.