Before Midnight
In Before Sunset (2004), Celine reminisces on the little details of Jesse she missed in their nine years apart. She points out the red in his beard, and the way it would shine in the sun. In Before Midnight, Celine looks in his beard and notices the red is gone. Jesse corrects her, saying the red has actually just turned white.
Love doesn’t just go away, however, it transforms. This film has the least riveting conversations of the trilogy, but I think this is intentional, showing how their relationship has run dry and the spark that was in their first two meetings has now simmered down. It’s only natural, especially having kids, that they’d run out of things to talk about.
There’s a tragedy to this. The people, things, and connections we cherish so much eventually fade. However, this doesn’t strip these things of any of their beauty.
Jesse and Celine have grown, changed, and hurt each other, yet the connection they were founded on is still present. The same connection that Celine finds to be so magical in the first film and the same connection she realizes is so rare in a persons life in the second.
Individually, these movies are masterpieces. They somehow manage to be the most captivating stories put to film, (for me) yet contain only dialogue between two people. That is a masterclass in writing and acting.
Put together, however, these movies compliment each other and work together to make what is in my opinion the best piece of fiction (or “media”, if you’re one of those) ever. I have never seen anything more raw and riveting and powerful. Even on second and third viewings these films move me in an indescribable way and capture a feeling that is very human yet beyond words. Only these films have been able to do that.
The first film captures the magic and impact of a deep connection, the spark between two people who complete each other perfectly. The second film captures the melancholia found with in the nostalgia of connection, the regrets of losing touch and losing time, and the irreplaceability of another person.
This third film, though, while the most under appreciated, is necessary for the arc as it faces the reality of the connection between two people that the first two films capture. “This is it. This is real life. It’s not perfect, but it’s real.”
As Ethan Hawke put it, the first film is what could be, the second is what should’ve been, and the third is what is. And maybe that’s the most important one of all.