Directed by: Richard Linklater
Staring: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Andrea Eckert, Hanno Pöschl
In the wake of its sequel Before Sunset, this – the original film in which Céline and Jesse first meet – has taken on a life of its own way beyond anything it generated first time round.
This is one of the best films about love and relationships you’ll ever see – and the two protagonists barely touch. Linklater’s films are often accused of being far too ‘talky’, and there’s talk, talk, talk in Before Sunrise. But the director trusts his actors to express, through gesture and body language, the unspoken things revealed in the course of the talking, and this is what makes his film so engaging. His camera remorselessly follows their arbitrary trail through the city, capturing every nuance of expression in their faces and including the viewer as a third, silent, companion.