Before Sunset

Happy Valentine’s Day to those who celebrate (writing on V-Day for a movie I saw two days ago) I think I want to talk about how special this little movie has become to me. There are certain movies you stumble on that ring such a tune that is true to your life that it feels truly magical (some ones off the top of my head are Lady Bird and Marriage Story). It’s an incredible feeling, to feel that a piece of film is speaking to you specifically despite cognitively realizing that the story on paper is actually very far from your own life… but the feeling is there and the feeling is all that matters. About two years (and a month ago) I lived an experience that is incredibly close if not captured perfectly in this movie. I didn’t meet up with a French girl whom I the  had a magical night with in Vienna. However, there was always a loose end in my life; someone I had a deep connection with a decade before today but due to being two crazy young people it didn’t work out and I thought there would be no chance of having that again. About two years ago we reconnected, and despite not seeing each other for a very long time it was as if we hadn’t missed a beat. What was initially two acquaintances catching up over surface level plot points of life came the wave of scary comfort that makes you remember why you had such intense feelings for a person to begin with. Sure you’ve grown and gotten older, even opinions you had nearly a decade ago have been flipped on its head. But the core of what makes you and the other person who they are is still there. You slowly begin to let your guards down and speak more from a place deep within yourself. You’re more honest with the person that you’re reconnecting with than you've been with yourself in a long time. It feels freeing (and to quote the film itself) it feels more immediate.  Two years after reconnecting, and a decade after the initial connection I’m marrying the woman I’m talking about and I couldn’t be happier.  It’s impossible to talk about why I connect with this movie without talking about my actual experience that was put to screen two decades before I ever actually felt it. Because that is what makes these Before movies so special, they feel like a true love story. They are more interested in what makes Celine and Jesse tick and how that makes them connect as people rather than trying to convince the audience they’re in love. It leads to an overwhelming magical experience that makes you feel a deeper connection with your own self (and selfishly mainlining memories you want to relive straight to your veins). And when all is said and all is done, what more can you want out of a movie from a personal perspective? I could talk more about how the film is able to technically achieves this or the mechanical ways the film works to elicit these emotions; but to me the entire reason I connect to cinema as a medium is the magical way it can connect with you that enriches your own life and speaks to an incredibly human part of you. It makes me sad in way that I had overlooked Before Sunrise the first time I watched it, but I see it as more of a wrong place wrong time kind of deal because tjis movie has become such an important part of my life as the emotions of the film are so tied to a very important feeling and memory I never want to let go of.  Thanks for reading. Love is real and it can hit you like a bus because you’re never ready for it, but it’s wonderful when it does.