The Before Trilogy is a series of three romantic films 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 contributing to the first film and Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy helping to write 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 anthology film 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 films focus on conversations and monologues between the characters, with little action. They explore themes such as time, self-discovery, age, loss, gender, and family, and are considered an example of postmodern romance. The trilogy received praise from critics and won many awards, including two Academy Award nominations, two Writers Guild of America Awards, and a Golden Globe nomination for Julie Delpy for her role in Before Midnight. The trilogy earned $61.5 million worldwide, with a total production budget 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, develop feelings for each other, and decide to part ways, promising to meet again in the future.

Before Sunset happens nine years later, during one afternoon in Paris. Jesse, now a married father and successful writer, meets Céline while promoting his new book, which shares their story from Vienna. They walk through Paris and talk about how they never followed through on their plan 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 parents to twin daughters, argue about Jesse's wish to move to Chicago to be near his son, Hank, while Céline wants to stay in Paris for a government job. Though their relationship faces challenges, they eventually resolve their differences.

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. "If the first three were nine years apart, the fourth would not follow that pattern," he explained. "Linklater would want a different path, but we enjoy working together. We need to ensure we have something meaningful to say."

In June 2021, Delpy said she had refused to make a fourth film. She later clarified, "All three of us agreed we couldn’t create something good for a fourth one." She added that while there were some ideas about a fourth film, "it was basically an idea we didn’t like. That was the end of it. We decided not to do it."

Production

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 dialogue, Linklater chose to work on the screenplay with Kim Krizan, who had acted in his earlier films Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993). Linklater said she had many smart and confident ideas, and they only discussed an outline before writing the screenplay in 11 days. He wanted to explore how people connect and learn about each other, so he chose a foreign setting to help characters feel more open to new experiences.

Casting for the first film took nine months. At first, Linklater thought Ethan Hawke was too young for the role, but after seeing him in a play in New York City, he hired him. After hiring Julie Delpy, Linklater had them read together in Austin, Texas, and decided they were right for the roles. In 2016, Delpy told a magazine that she and Hawke made uncredited changes to the screenplay to add more romance, as the original had too much talking. Delpy said not being credited might have hurt the film’s chances of getting funding, but she and Hawke later received writing credit for the sequels.

Linklater planned a sequel with a bigger budget and four locations, but he couldn’t get funding. Instead, he scaled back the plan, and Hawke, Linklater, and Delpy each wrote their own screenplays over the years. They also used parts of the original Before Sunrise script for the sequel.

Linklater described the process of finishing the final film as:

Hawke said, “No one 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,” which was filmed in Cour de l’Étoile d’Or near rue du Faubourg St-Antoine.

Filming took 15 days with a budget of about $2 million. The film is known for using a special camera technique called Steadicam for smooth tracking shots and long continuous scenes. The longest Steadicam shot lasts about 11 minutes. During filming, temperatures in Paris were very high, over 100°F (38°C), which made it difficult for the cast and crew.

The film takes place in real time, meaning the story’s time matches the film’s runtime. This made it hard for the cinematographer, Lee Daniel, to match sky colors and lighting between scenes because of Paris’s changing weather. Most scenes were shot in order as the screenplay was still being written. Producer Anne Walker-McBay had less time and money than for Before Sunrise, but the film was completed on time and within budget. The sequel was released nine years after Before Sunrise, the same amount of time that passes in the story.

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

After the first two films, Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy discussed making a third film. In 2011, Hawke said they were ready to return to the characters, as nine years had passed between the first two films. If they made the film the next summer, it would be nine years again, which they thought was meaningful. In 2012, Hawke said the sequel to Before Sunset would be filmed that summer, but Delpy denied it at first. Reports later showed filming in Messenia, Greece. The sequel, Before Midnight, was completed in September 2012. Linklater said it took ten weeks to write and rehearse, and the film was made in 15 days for less than $3 million. It premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in January 2013.

Reception

Before Sunrise received good reviews from critics when it was first released. The website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 100% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 51 reviews, with an average score of 8.4 out of 10. The site's summary says, "Thought-provoking and beautifully filmed, Before Sunrise is an intelligent, romantic look at modern love, with 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 warm, speaking English so well that the screenplay explains it (she spent time in the United States)." In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, "Before Sunrise is as uneven as any long conversation might be, with interesting ideas and some slower moments. The filmmaker clearly wants things this way, with both characters trying on new ideas and attitudes." 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 better than the usual love stories about young people. This film treats young people as real people."

Before Sunset received widespread praise from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 94% based on 181 reviews, with an average score of 8.3 out of 10. The site's summary says, "Filled with engaging dialogue, Before Sunset is a witty, touching 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, which means "universal acclaim." The film appeared on 28 critics' top 10 lists of the best films of 2004 and ranked 27th on Metacritic's list of the best-reviewed movies of the decade (2000–2009).

In comparing the films, American film critic Roger Ebert wrote, "Before Sunrise was a remarkable celebration of good dialogue. But Before Sunset is better, perhaps because the characters are older and wiser, or 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 called the film "a deeper, truer work of art than the first" and praised director Richard Linklater for making a film that "keeps faith with American cinema at its finest."

Before Midnight also received widespread praise from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 98% based on 202 reviews, with an average score of 8.7 out of 10. The site's summary says, "Building on the first two films in Richard Linklater's Before trilogy, Before Midnight offers intelligent, powerfully acted perspectives on love, marriage, and long-term commitment." Metacritic gave the film a score of 94 out of 100 based on 41 reviews, which means "universal acclaim." It was listed as the third-best film of the year after 12 Years a Slave and Gravity. According to Rotten Tomatoes, it was the second-best reviewed film of 2013 after Gravity.

According to Total Film's Philip Kemp, "Like its two predecessors—and like films by French New Wave director Éric Rohmer, who is known for this kind of cinema—Midnight is a film about people talking. But when the conversations are this good, this absorbing and revealing, who would complain? It is a more-than-worthy, expectation-exceeding chapter in one of modern cinema's finest love stories. As honest, convincing, funny, intimate, and natural as its predecessors."

Perry Seibert of AllMovie praised the film, writing, "The screenwriting team filled the movie with long, detailed conversations (there are only two scenes in the first 20 minutes) that feel like they were improvised but are carefully planned by skilled artists." Eric Kohn of Indiewire gave the film a top review, adding it to his list of Top 10 Films of 2013. He wrote, "With Before Midnight, Richard Linklater has completed one of the finest movie trilogies of all time." In 2021, The Independent ranked the Before trilogy third on its list of "10 greatest movie trilogies of all time."

The trilogy received many awards. Richard Linklater won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 1995 Berlin International Film Festival for Before Sunrise. In 2025, Before Sunrise was selected by the National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the United States Library of Congress's National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Before Sunset and Before Midnight were both nominated for the Bodil Award for Best English Language Film, the Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Feature, the Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Picture, and the Silver Condor Award for Best Foreign Film. Their screenplays were nominated for the Academy Awards, the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the Online Film Critics Society Awards, and the Writers Guild of America Awards. Julie Delpy was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for Before Midnight.