About Before Midnight and Feeling Old

I have plenty of outfits and birthday presents to show you (I have been spoiled in the end) but I HAVE to talk about Before Midnight first. I apologize to the fashion-minded readers.

So I went last Sunday and I have mixed feelings about it. I would love to say that I loved it but I have to admit I found it a bit boring at times and I even found myself thinking about my day in at least one occasion. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of two people talking non-stop for an hour and  half but I found that in this case the talking felt sometimes forced (like they were trying to find topics) and was missing that something that kept your interest alert.
However, Richard Linklater has a real gift for endings and while the ending of "Before Sunset" is probably one of the best ending of a movie EVER (I just watched it again because I didn't remember much of it and I was in awe) the ending of Before Midnight, if not as sexually and emotionally charged, at least saved the movie for me. I think that the big difference in this third installment is that Jesse, the character played by Ethan Hawke, is way more charming than his female counterpart. The character played by Julie Delpy on the other end, went all neurotic since the last time we saw her. But it might be me, as I tend to identify with the male characters in movies about married couples (or people in a relationship) because I AM the passive-aggressive one in the couple (usually the man). I am kind of curious to see if I am the only one to have almost hated Celine in Before Midnight (I was like "Please, give the guy a break") or it is just that I AM the teenager my husband is stuck with (to quote a line from the movie). I am not idealizing Jesse, I know he has his flaws but it seemed to me that all along the movie he was the one who was really making the romantic effort to keep the flame alive and that Celine was the one always ruining the moment. Ok, I know, it is called being realistic and having to deal with daily problem, still I couldn't help rolling my eyes at her being so aggressive (angry?) and taking things too seriously. It doesn't help that while her outfit in Before Sunset was really flattering and a big component of her Parisian charm, I found that the dress that she was wearing in Before Midnight (the one in the pic above) wasn't doing her any justice. I wonder if it was a directorial choice (to make her look more womanly than girly) or if she chose the dress (I couldn't find any detail about the dress, except for an interview where she says that she loves vintage and that it is a vintage dress. Maybe the famous top that she was wearing in Before Sunset was vintage too? Even if it looks a lot to me like a Isabel Marant from the same era. Again, I couldn't find anything on the top or the jacket, except for another interview where she said that she has kept both. The journalist, probably a man, didn't jump on the occasion to ask her the question that we all want to know the answer to: WHO MADE IT?). Ethan Hawke on the other side has more physical presence in this movie than before, I guess pre-middle age suits him well. He looks (and even his voice sounds) like a young Nick Nolte (but not like the REAL young Nick Nolte, more like I would have imagined Nick Nolte to be when he was young by watching him old). In any case, when at some point he tells her that she is "crazy nuts", I couldn't agree more.

Anyway, for any of you who haven't watched any movie of the "Before" saga, I recommend to see the previous ones first. At this point it has really become a trilogy so it doesn't make sense to see this one without seeing at least Before Sunset first (there are also a lot of recurring themes in the dialogues that you will savor more if you have watched the other two). As I said before I just watched Before Sunset again and I actually encourage those of you who watched the whole thing once already, to start from the end if you are planning to do a marathon, because the characters become more endearing if you know where they end up (this "backwards" take on a love story has actually been attempted in a movie by French director Ozon, the movie being "5x2" that I recommend but can be a bit depressing). The power of the movies is that, unlike in real life, characters can go back in time and you can actually watch them being young again. Their youth is what the character have lost in Before Midnight. I was shocked to see how young they were in Before Sunset, after watching them in Before Midnight.

Before Sunset and the iconic top that Julie wears in the movie
 

Maybe I am overly sensitive because we are going to celebrate our 15th anniversary next week and last week I did something that I almost never do: I looked at old (digital) pictures of me and my husband when we were younger. I was looking for a picture of me years ago in Siena that I wanted to show to my daughter and I went back in time year by year and saw myself and my husband get younger and younger and I was literally mesmerized by those young people who were looking back at me from the past. It can seem a bit cliché but I actually wanted to ask those two questions like "Were you really happy back then?" We did seem happy and in love and I wanted to crack that secret but it's lost in time. We are as happy and in love now as Jesse and Celine in Before Midnight but there was a time when we were as happy as Jesse and Celine in Vienna and YOU know the difference. That's probably the real reason why I didn't like "Before midnight": I was mourning my youth and my lost love.
In any case "Before Sunset" is definitely my favorite out of the three, it is an almost perfect movie from a cinematographic point of view and when the end credits started I couldn't believe that an hour and half had just gone by. BTW, I am now obsessed with the song that Julie Delpy sings over the credits (that you can hear here and buy here. I didn't know she could also compose music and sing.

As many other fans of the trilogy, I wonder if we will see another Jesse and Celine movie in another nine years and so on (I think it is going to be a "After" if any). Being almost the same age than the two characters I hope for them but also for me and my husband that they will find a way to somehow reconnect to those young people who fell in love on a train again. Maybe there is a third age of love (I guess I should probably watch "Amour", the Haneke movie, but I think I am not ready yet) and that's the secret. Or maybe perspective is the secret and in twenty years I will look at the pictures of my husband and myself and we will seem as happy as we were in our twenties. But wait, that's what Jesse tells Celine at the end of the movie, in his charming way. See, the ending saves the day (let's hope).




Jesse and Celine at the end of Before midnight.
 I have actually been there, on that same dock, eons ago (it is in Pylos, in Greece)

OK, sorry for the rambling, I will be back to the usual stuff soon but in the meanwhile I would love if those who have seen the movie (or the other two) could leave a comment and share their thoughts. Well, just share even if you haven't seen them...