Before Midnight

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Those who know me understand that I'm a hopeful romantic.  I cry at Hallmark cards, for goodness sake.  Despite Christopher Plummer's proclamation that The Sound of Music was "sappy" and "gooey," it ranks as one of my favorite movies of all time.

And even he's come around over the decades.

That was a big movie.  Enormous, and with worldwide acclaim and favor.

In 1995 I saw a small independent movie that captured my heart.  Before Sunrise.  Directed by Richard Linklater and starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, the movie told the story of two young tourists who meet on a train and cram a lifetime's worth of romance, deep discussions, and arguments into a single night in Vienna Austria, promising each other at the end of the movie that they would meet again six months later at the same train station.

I watched the movie several times over the years, marveling that such a simple premise could produce so touching a film.

Nine years later, in 2004, I'm watching trailers at the cinema before a movie I can no longer remember when I saw Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy on screen.  Could it be?

Yes.

Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy had taken up the characters Jesse and Celine along with the story and romance and updated it nine years later in Paris.  This movie, called Before Sunset brings us up to date ... for 2004.

In this amazing sequel, we learn their fate over those nine years, whether they actually met at the train station, how their lives have been, and ... oh, what a cliffhanger ... did Jesse stay in Paris with Celine or fly home?

These characters love each other.

It's 2013, nine years after Before Sunset.

Guess what?  Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy have been at it again.

More Jesse and Celine nine years later in a movie called Before Midnight.

It hits theatres near me on June 7th.  Guess where I'll be folks?  Right now it has a Tomato Meter reading of 97%.

This looks like a most promising continuation of one of my favorite love stories.

I'll be blogging about this again, once I've see Before Midnight.