Tuesday 2 April 2013

Before Midnight - The first trailer for the return of Jesse and Celine


As all time favourite filmmakers go, Richard Linklater ranks very highly on my list. After first seeing Dazed and Confused as a teenager and then quickly digesting the rest of his filmography in a short space of time, it helped shape my cinematic tastes for the years that have followed and probably explains why the site you are currently reading is called Slacker Cinema. A major highlight of that filmography was 1995's Before Sunrise, the Vienna set romance that introduced the characters of Jesse and Celine, played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.

Linklater, Hawke and Delpy returned to those characters in 2004's Before Sunset and now, another 9 years later, are back once again with Before Midnight. Now married with kids, Jesse and Celine's relationship has reached a new completeness, the questions from the final scene in 2004's installment satisfyingly answered. Now, living within their own romantic legend, Before Midnight continues the ongoing love story.


Jesse and Celine seem to have found themselves a comfortable life (this time on a Greek island), and equally, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy seem even more comfortable in the roles that they are best known for. Also back on board as co-writers (along with Linklater, Delpy and Hawke received an Oscar nomination for Before Sunset) it's reassuring to know that they wouldn't have risked returning to these roles had they not had something relevant to say.


Receiving great word of mouth after its debut at Sundance in January, Before Midnight arrives in cinemas this summer.

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