Before Midnight Anticipation Thread (Threequel to Before Sunrise / Before Sunset) (1 Viewer)

[Carlo_M]

Wow, I just read this is scheduled for release May 24, 2013. Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are my two favorite modern romantic movies. They motivated me to go to Paris (twice now) and I've fallen in love with the city, but that's another story. I will be in line for this on day one. Most likely the only one in line, but hey, you gotta have things you're passionate about right? Glad to see all three principals are still on board and collaborating in the writing (Linklater, Delpy and Hawke). My only concern (and it's not really a concern in a negative way) is that it's supposedly set in Greece. I really loved to see them in Paris but thinking about it, it was always Celine's "home court" and setting it in Greece now puts all three on foreign footing. WARNING: DO NOT READ THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER REVIEW of it. On one IMDB thread a person writes that they read the HR review and it reveals the entire plot. Now this isn't a Christopher Nolan "All Things Must Remain Secret" type of movie but I want to go into it fresh. I'm actually rewatching the first two before going into Before Midnight. One final note: I hope this movie is the catalyst for the release of all three films on Blu-Ray. Come on Warner, make this happen!

 

[Ruz-El]

I'm looking forward to this one as well. Loved the first two films. A bluray set is a MUST. and not a archives one either!

 

[Michael Elliott]

I've read several spoiler free reviews and all of them have said it's one of the best of the year. I saw the first film when it was originally released in theaters and thought it was good but not great. I haven't seen it since or the sequel but both of them arrived from Netflix today so I'll be watching them shortly.

 

[Carlo_M]

I'm looking forward to this one as well. Loved the first two films. A bluray set is a MUST. and not a archives one either!

Yeah if the studios aren't going to "do right" by the first two movies, I hope they license it out to Criterion who are no stranger to doing wonderful Special Editions of Linklater's movies.

 

[Michael Elliott]

I just got done watching these two back-to-back and I must say that I'm now f&*(ing dying to see the third one. I saw BEFORE SUNRISE when I was 15 so not all of it hit home but viewing it as a 32-year-old had me seeing it in a very different light. I really, really enjoyed it but it's pretty weak compared to the sequel. I thought BEFORE SUNSET was really a perfect little gem. I really liked the way they explained what happened "six months later" and I enjoyed the darker moments. Considering I'm the same age that the two are here, it worked flawlessly. Both films work remarkably well because they feel like a documentary. It's almost as if an invisible camera is just following around these two people and we're listening in on them. There's nothing that really happens in either film, which is so rare for dialogue to carry two pictures like this. I'm not sure if it was planned for a new film to come every nine years but I'm going to try and avoid anything on the new one and just go in blind. I still can't wait to see where the relationship goes from here.

 

[Bryan^H]

I can't wait to see the third film. I loved the first two films. 'Before Sunrise' had such a great vibe. That fantastic excitement of meeting someone special you connect with. 'Before Sunset' was a bit darker with the mood more on uncertainty, and missed opportunities. But still great. So what direction will the third film take?

 

[Carlo_M]

It's funny, but I'm aging at about the same pace as the characters (a few years younger). I think how you feel about each one is highly dependent on where you are in your life when you first saw the movies. I love Sunrise, but saw it when I was in my twenties and something about it resonated absolutely true to me. I think if I had seen Sunrise now for the first time I might feel very different about it. I saw Sunset in my early thirties, and of course thought that was every bit as good as Sunrise because I was at the age where I could appreciate the difference in tone and meaning, and where the characters were in their lives. Now approaching forty I really look forward to seeing Midnight. I don't think I can pick a favorite, each one resonated with a certain point in my life, and while watching Sunrise now doesn't elicit the exact same response it did from me over a decade ago, it still transports me back to that time in my life, inasmuch as I can remember it, and in that way still resonates deeply despite the fact that I'm no longer concerned with the same things that Jesse and Celine were in that movie.

 

[Carlo_M]

As far as to whether or not this was planned, I think if you go back to the Sunset DVD in either the commentary or the special features the three of them talked about how cool it would be to check in with the couple every decade or so. The big change from Sunrise to Sunset was that Delpy and Hawke contributed to the writing process (and did so again in Midnight). I think they've all become very invested in their characters and Sunset (and presumably Midnight) will reflect that diversity in creative input whereas Linklater was very much the driving force behind Sunrise's dialogue and situations. And I do *not* want to know which direction they'll go in for Midnight. I'm trying to avoid all spoilers and want to just go in and get reacquainted with two old friends.

 

[Michael Elliott]

While hundreds were lined up for the four rooms showing MAN OF STEEL, me and two other people I didn't know caught the 11am screening of this. The sad thing is that something happened and the film didn't start like it was supposed to so we had to wait about 25-minutes before they could get it running (the workers were dealing with the other new release).

I'm not going to give away any spoilers because I'm sure most people will want to go in blind but for the most part I thought they did a very good job. I thought the introduction of the characters was a little shocking but it was mildly effective as was the much darker tone of the movie. The performances were great as you'd expect but I did have a problem with one extended sequence that happens in the middle of the picture. On its own this sequence was fine but it just takes away from our two leads.

I'd go *** 1/2, slightly better than the first film but no where near the second one.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Beyond the cataclysmic slugfest that was "Man of Steel", I have to say that "Before Midnight" was a refreshing ode to humans relating to one another, albeit, now at a more advanced stage of life, i.e., their 40s. We get to revisit Jesse and Celine, and the dialogue is once again the highlight of the "Before" films, and the writing is on-point and engrossing, as is the intimate chemistry between Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, and Richard Linklater's direction. That's as much as I want to say, lest I spoil it for other fans of this now-trilogy of sorts.

I give it 3 stars, or a grade of B.

 

[AlexF]

The performances were great as you'd expect but I did have a problem with one extended sequence that happens in the middle of the picture. On its own this sequence was fine but it just takes away from our two leads.

I was finally able to see this film this evening and (like many of those for which this series resonates wonderfully), I'm a similar age to the two characters and really enjoyed the film (especially as "41Up").

For that sequence, I suspect that it's the dinner table one, and I felt exactly the opposite to you when watching it. While each "couple" at the table were talking, the camera was often jumping over to show Jessie and Celine and their reactions, keeping them at the forefront, even if they weren't speaking and were only reacting to the tales being told by a pair that evoked Before Sunrise, a pair that could be the next generation, and a pair that could be them in their 80s. Each reaction shot told a story of the last nine years and how they had gotten to the point they were at and what they hoped might possibly be ahead of them.

At least... that's what I took from it.