Some of the emotional impact of Before Sunrise (1995) was taken out of it for me because I saw Before Sunset (2004) first.  This will make more sense later, but for now, the important thing to remember is that the latter is a sequel to the former.  All the same, though I knew the ending, I found myself feeling the longing of the two main characters, Céline (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke).  I have spent most of the last year and a half contemplating committing the rest of my life to God in a fashion that would preclude the kinds of experiences you see in Before Sunrise.  What I am specifically referring to is romance between a man and woman, though when I am in prayer I feel a love that goes beyond and deeper than the day these two spend with one another.  Yet, I am human, and I would be lying if I said that I have never had the kind of strong reaction these two have upon their first encounter.  Even as I write this, I feel within me the echoes of those moments from long ago.  What does this mean for my vocation?  That is between God and me.  Let us instead focus on how this works in the movie.

It is well Before Sunrise, and Céline and Jesse are on a train making its way through the Austrian Alps.  In the seat across the aisle from her is a couple loudly arguing in German, which causes Céline to move to another spot.  Her landing place happens to be near Jesse, and they begin to converse about their situation.  This turns into an invitation to the dining car, and carries on through a long meal.  She is a student from France who had been visiting her grandmother in Budapest, while he had been traveling alone on Europe’s railways.  It is later revealed that he had come across the Atlantic from the United States to visit his girlfriend who had been studying in Madrid, Spain.  However, their rendezvous did not last long, and they broke up well before his trip was set to end.  He had gotten a ticket to fly out of Vienna, Austria, for the next morning, and his plan is to walk around the city all night long instead of paying for a hotel room.  Because they seem to have such a strong connection so quickly, he suggests that she get off with him and join him in his wanderings.  He explains that if she finds him to be strange at all, she can just catch the next train to Paris.  With a smile, she agrees.  However, the awkwardness of their situation hits them immediately as they wonder what two strangers should do with one another in a foreign city.  They stop two locals and ask for ideas.  They are given a flyer for a play, something weird about a cow, but also learn of some more normal activities to do, especially since all the museums are about to close.  From here, it is a pretty familiar set up to its sequel in that they spend the entire time talking, getting to know one another.  There is more of a plot here to this one, for two reasons.  First, there is simply more time they spend together, the events taking place over the course of a little over twelve hours.  Thankfully, the movie does not go on that long.  Secondly, it is about two people falling in love.  This constitutes an arc, and thereby a genuine film.  Nonetheless, like its sequel, it makes describing its plot difficult because there is so much dialog.  It is sensible that it would be this way because you are watching a relationship blossom, and it is beautiful.  Because of this, I am once more going to tell you about some of the themes that come out of their conversation, which stretches over stops at different landmarks around the city.  The biggest one is, of course, love.  They share their thoughts on the subject, touching on its emotional and physical components.  I will delve into these topics further in the next paragraph.  As they continue on, they find that there are attracted to one another’s feelings on these subjects.  Eventually, it comes around to their past relationships, even though this occurs after they have already kissed.  This is when he reveals the reason for coming to Europe.  As for her, she had been dating a guy who she thought would be the one, despite his flaws, but it ended six months ago.  They agree that whatever the situation they had been in, it had not been the right one.  They want more, but are afraid of getting into it and having it fade once they learn everything about the other.  Among their last stops is a bar, where Jesse cons the bartender into giving him a bottle of wine, even though he has no money, while she swipes a pair of wine glasses.  They then retire to a park where their tête-à-tête turns to sex.  The issue of the fleeting nature of their meeting had been broached, and they know that this will be the last time they see each other.  Yet, there is some hesitation on both their parts to ruin the night with physical intimacy beyond the kisses.  To get around it, they theorize about agreeing to meet again.  This becomes a serious proposition as the next morning he is walking her to the train, and they have to say their final goodbyes.  They make a vow to return to this spot in six months’ time, and with hearts exploding in sweet sorrow, they part.  The last we see of them is them separately on their way to other parts of the world, looking melancholy out this window.

If you read my review of Before Sunset you will know that the promise made at the end of Before Sunrise goes unfulfilled.  Jesse honors his end of the deal, but Céline misses it because her grandmother gets sick.  There are other echoes here, which is kind of an inaccurate way of putting it, but such are the constraints of prose, sometimes.  Primarily, there is an ongoing examination of love and sex and how the two relate to one another.  Now, had I not already seen the sequel, I would not have assumed that these two do the deed with one another.  You see them talk about it, some heavy petting takes place, but then it cuts to the next morning.  If nothing else, I will thank director Richard Linklater for his restraint in not showing this material.  At the same time, there is no reference to such an act in the film between them. What interests this Catholic most is their discussion of intimacy.  One of the worst cinematic clichés when it comes to romance is the sentiment shared in Jerry Maguire (1996), “You complete me.”  No person on Earth can do that for us, only God.  Before Sunrise deconstructs that narrative, interestingly doing so at one point while they are in a church.  Céline mentions how fascinated she is by the fact that people can keep returning to a place where there is so much joy and sadness witnessed inside those walls.  God is present for all of it, in that church and everywhere else, though they seem to be amplified in those locations.  They are where people make their vows, whether in marriage or in giving themselves to the Church, a union that no man can break.  This feeds into their later dilemma when they are in the park contemplating sex, though at times they use a ruder term that I will not repeat.  I will assume you know the one about which I am speaking.  But it is that one that they are trying to steer away from, love, because love is powerful, and it takes a level of submission that is only perfectly achieved before God.  While they do not talk about this in Catholic terms, Jesse gives the example of a Quaker wedding he once attended.  The two people about to be wed kneel before each other and the congregation and stare at one another for about an hour, with everyone else praying over them.  In other words, they humble themselves, and by doing so the grace of God is extended to them.  We Catholics have an equivalent, but the meaning is essentially the same.  As romantic and sweet is this story, again, it is only perfected through God.

One last thing I would share about Before Sunrise are some further words on life from Céline.  She says that one has to be prepared for the awkwardness of life.  Watching a film like this poses some hard questions for me that I will have to take to prayer.  In the meantime, if you are looking for a sweet romance, I would watch this one.