The Before Trilogy includes three romantic movies directed by Richard Linklater and starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. The series began with Before Sunrise (1995), followed by Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013). Richard Linklater wrote all three films, with Kim Krizan writing the first film and Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy writing the last two.

The films were made and filmed nine years apart, showing the romantic relationship between Jesse (played by Ethan Hawke) and Céline (played by Julie Delpy) at three different stages of their lives. The characters also appear briefly in Linklater’s animated movie Waking Life (2001). Before Sunrise was released by Columbia Pictures, while Before Sunset and Before Midnight were distributed by Warner Independent Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics, respectively. All three films were produced by Castle Rock Entertainment, with Before Midnight also produced by Venture Forth and Linklater’s company, Detour Filmproduction.

The trilogy focuses on simple conversations and long dialogues between the characters, showing different ideas about life and love. The series explores themes such as time, self-discovery, aging, loss, gender, and family, and is seen as a new way to look at modern romance. The trilogy received a lot of praise from critics. It was nominated for two Academy Awards, two Writers Guild of America Awards, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for Julie Delpy for Before Midnight. The trilogy made $61.5 million worldwide, with a total cost of $7.5 million.

Films

Before Sunrise takes place during one night in Vienna. Jesse, an American student traveling in Europe, and Céline, a French student visiting family, meet on a train heading to Paris. They walk through Vienna’s streets and develop feelings for each other. However, they part ways and agree to meet again in the future.

Before Sunset happens nine years later, during one afternoon in Paris. Jesse, now a married father and successful book author, meets Céline while promoting his new book, which describes their meeting in Vienna. They walk through Paris and discuss their regret about not following through on plans to reunite. At the end of the film, Jesse visits Céline’s apartment and chooses to stay with her instead of catching his flight home.

Before Midnight takes place nine years after Before Sunset, during one day on the Peloponnese coast in Greece. Jesse and Céline, now a couple with twin daughters, argue about Jesse’s wish to move to Chicago to be closer to his son, Hank, while Céline wants to stay in Paris for a job with the French government. Although their relationship faces challenges, they eventually resolve their differences.

The filmmakers, Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy, have talked about making more films in the series, but with varying levels of interest. In March 2020, Hawke said a fourth film might not follow the nine-year gap between the first three. He explained that the next film would likely take a different path, but the group enjoys working together and wants to ensure they have meaningful content to share. In June 2021, Delpy said she had refused to make a sequel. She clarified that all three agreed they could not create something strong for a fourth film. Some ideas were discussed, but none were satisfying. They decided not to proceed with a fourth film.

Production

The movie Before Sunrise was inspired by a woman Richard Linklater met in a toy shop in Philadelphia in 1989. Because the film has a lot of talking, Linklater worked with Kim Krizan on the screenplay. Krizan had acted in his earlier movies Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993). Linklater said she had many smart and thoughtful ideas when they discussed the film’s story and characters. They only talked about an outline, and the screenplay was written in 11 days. Linklater wanted to explore how people connect and learn about each other. He chose a foreign setting because he believed people are more open to new experiences in unfamiliar places.

Finding the right actors took nine months. At first, Linklater did not think Ethan Hawke was old enough for the role, but he changed his mind after seeing Hawke perform in a play in New York City. After hiring Julie Delpy, Linklater asked them to read together in Austin, Texas, and decided they were right for the roles. In 2016, Delpy told Creative Screenwriting that she and Hawke added romantic scenes to the original screenplay, which had focused more on talking. She also said that giving her a writing credit might have helped the film get funding. Delpy and Hawke later received writing credit for the sequels.

Linklater wanted to make a sequel with a bigger budget, filmed in four locations. However, he could not get enough money, so he scaled back the plan. Over the years, Hawke, Linklater, and Delpy each wrote their own screenplays, and they used ideas from the original film for the sequel.

Linklater described the process of finishing the final version of the film as:

Hawke said, "It’s not like anyone was begging us to make a second film. We did it because we wanted to."

The film was shot entirely in Paris. It starts inside the Shakespeare and Company bookstore on the Left Bank. Other locations include walking through the Marais district in the 4th arrondissement, Le Pure Café in the 11th arrondissement, the Promenade Plantée park in the 12th arrondissement, a boat ride from Quai de la Tournelle to Quai Henri IV, inside a taxi, and finally "Céline’s apartment." The apartment, described as being at 10 rue des Petites-Écuries, was filmed in Cour de l’Étoile d’Or off rue du Faubourg St-Antoine.

Filming took 15 days with a budget of about $2 million. The movie is known for using a special camera called a Steadicam to follow characters and for long scenes that do not cut. The longest Steadicam shot lasts about 11 minutes. Because the summer was one of the hottest on record, the cast and crew, along with Paris residents, endured high temperatures that often reached over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).

The film takes place in real time, meaning the time that passes in the story matches the film’s runtime. This created challenges for the cinematographer, Lee Daniel, who had to match the colors and light from scene to scene as the weather changed. Most scenes were shot in order as the screenplay was still being developed. Producer Anne Walker-McBay had less time and money than she did for Before Sunrise, but she still finished the film on time and within budget. The sequel was released nine years after Before Sunrise, the same amount of time that passed in the story.

The film was released after Ethan Hawke’s divorce from Uma Thurman. Some people compared Hawke’s personal life to the character of Jesse in the film. Both Hawke and Delpy included parts of their own lives in the screenplay. Delpy wrote two songs in the film, and a third was included in the closing credits and soundtrack.

In the years after the film, Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy discussed making a sequel to Before Sunset (or the third film in a trilogy). In November 2011, Hawke said that he, Delpy, and Linklater had been talking about returning to the characters. They planned to make the film nine years after Before Sunset, which would match the time between the first two films.

In June 2012, Hawke confirmed that the sequel to Before Sunset would be filmed that summer. Soon after, Delpy said filming would not happen that year. However, by August 2012, reports from Messenia, Greece, said the film was being shot there. The completion of filming the sequel, titled Before Midnight, was announced on September 5, 2012. Linklater said the film was made in 15 days for less than $3 million after ten weeks of writing and rehearsing. It premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in January 2013.

Reception

Before Sunrise received high praise from critics when it was first released. The website Rotten Tomatoes, which collects reviews, reported that 100% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 51 reviews, with an average score of 8.4 out of 10. The site's summary of reviews states, "Thought-provoking and beautifully filmed, Before Sunrise is an intelligent, unabashedly romantic look at modern love, led by marvelously natural performances from Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy." On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 79 out of 100 based on 19 critics, which means "generally favorable reviews."

Film critic Roger Ebert gave Before Sunrise three out of four stars and described Julie Delpy as "ravishingly beautiful and, more important, warm and matter-of-fact, speaking English so well the screenplay has to explain it (she spent some time in the States)." In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, "Before Sunrise is as uneven as any marathon conversation might be, combining colorful, disarming insights with periodic lulls. The filmmaker clearly wants things this way, with both these young characters trying on ideas and attitudes as if they were new clothes." Hal Hinson, in his review for The Washington Post, wrote, "Before Sunrise is not a big movie, or one with big ideas, but it is a cut above the banal twentysomething love stories you usually see at the movies. This one, at least, treats young people as real people."

Before Sunset received widespread praise from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 94% based on 181 reviews, with an average score of 8.3 out of 10. The site's summary of reviews states, "Filled with engaging dialogue, Before Sunset is a witty, poignant romance, with natural chemistry between Hawke and Delpy." On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 91 out of 100 based on 39 reviews from mainstream publications, which means "universal acclaim." The film appeared on 28 critics' top 10 lists of the best films of 2004 and took the 27th spot on Metacritic's list of The Best-Reviewed Movies of the Decade (2000–09).

In comparing this film to the first, American film critic Roger Ebert wrote, "Before Sunrise was a remarkable celebration of the fascination of good dialogue. But Before Sunset is better, perhaps because the characters are older and wiser, perhaps because they have more to lose (or win), and perhaps because Hawke and Delpy wrote the dialogue themselves." In her review for the Los Angeles Times, Manohla Dargis