Before Sunrise

I first watched Before Sunrise back in my teens and remembered how I was mesmerized by the film, even though at that time I was too young to understand half of the dialog in there. Aside from walking and talking, the plot is very minimal, however it is the conversations that drew me in.

Revolving around self-fulfillment and self-discovery, the film starts when a young American boy, Jesse, met Celine, a French university student, on a train from Budapest. After spending one day in Vienna, Jesse and Celine became attracted to each other, but the timing wasn’t quite right since Jesse has to go back to the US, and Celine is due to attend her new semester. Instead of swapping phone numbers and address, they do the unthinkable: they decided not to maintain any contacts at all, leave everything to faith, and made a promise to meet each other again at the same place in six months. The film ends with a scene as Celine embarked in a train to Paris, leaving a big question with the audience, on whether or not they will see each other again in six months.

What I love most about this film is the unresolved ending, where audiences are forced to think and finish the story, based on their beliefs. Cynics will argue that Jesse and Celine will never meet again, because in reality it seems unlikely, however, those Romantic bunch will always believe that those two will meet again eventually, if not in the next six months, then perhaps in the foreseeable future.

xoxo

Carol