Before Sunset

Before Sunset is a 2004 sequel to the 1995 romantic drama film Before Sunrise.

Directed by Richard Linklater. Written by Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, and Kim Krizan.

What if you had a second chance with the one that got away? (taglines)

Jesse

• Maybe what I'm saying is the world might be evolving the way a person evolves. Right? Like, me for example. Am I getting worse? Am I improving? I don't know. When I was younger, I was healthier, but I was whacked with insecurity. Now I'm older and my problems are deeper, but I'm more equipped to handle them.

• I'm designed to feel slightly dissatisfied.

• Maybe it's just a sense of entitlement. You know, like whenever you feel like you deserve that new pair of shoes. It's OK to want things as long as you don't get pissed off if you don't get 'em. Right?

• Life's hard. It's supposed to be. If we didn't suffer, we wouldn't learn a thing.

• You realize that most of the people that you meet are trying to get somewhere better, they're trying to make a little bit more cash, trying to get a little more respect, have more people admire them. It's just exhausting.

• I don't have any permanent place here. You know, in eternity, or whatever. And the more I think that, I can't go through life saying that this is no big deal. I mean, this is it! This is actually happening. What do you think is interesting, what do you think is funny, what do you think is important? You know, every day is our last.

• I have this idea of my best self, and I wanted to pursue that even if it might have been overriding my honest self.

• In the moment I remember thinking that it didn't much matter the "Who" of it all. Nobody is gonna be everything to you, and that ultimately it's just a simple action of committing yourself, meeting your responsibilities that matters.

• What is love, if it's not respect, trust, admiration? And I felt all those things. So cut to the present tense: I feel like I'm running a small nursery with somebody I used to date.

• I feel like if someone were to touch me, I'd dissolve into molecules.

• We're just living in a pretense of a marriage, responsibility and all these ideas of how people are supposed to live.

• There's gotta be something more to love than commitment.

Celine

• [Celine's Song] Let me sing you a waltz / Out of nowhere, out of my thoughts / Let me sing you a waltz / About this one night stand / You were, for me, that night / Everything I always dreamt of in life / But now you're gone / You are far gone / All the way to your island of rain / It was for you just a one night thing / But you were much more to me, just so you know / I don't care what they say / I know what you meant for me that day / I just want another try, I just want another night / Even if it doesn't seem quite right / You meant for me much more than anyone I've met before / One single night with you, little Jesse, is worth a thousand with anybody / I have no bitterness, my sweet / I'll never forget this one night thing / Even tomorrow in other arms, my heart will stay yours until I die / Let me sing you a waltz / Out of nowhere, out of my blues / Let me sing you a waltz / About this lovely one night stand

• Memories are wonderful things, if you don't have to deal with the past.

• They enjoy the goal but not the process. But the reality of it is that the true work of improving things is in the little achievements of the day.

• I see it in the people that do the real work, and what's sad in a way is that the people that are the most giving, hardworking, and capable of making this world better, usually don't have the ego and ambition to be a leader.

• The concept is absurd. The idea that we can only be complete with another person is evil! Right?

• You can never replace anyone because everyone is made up of such beautiful specific details.

• I was having this awful nightmare that I was 32. And then I woke up and I was 23. So relieved. And then I woke up for real, and I was 32.

• There are so many things I want to do, but I end up doing not much.

Dialogue

[first lines]

Journalist #1: Do you consider the book to be autobiographical?

Jesse: Uh, well, I mean... isn't everything autobiographical? I mean, we all see the world through our own little keyhole.

---

[last lines]

Celine: Baby, you are gonna miss that plane.

Jesse: I know.

---

Jesse: Okay, I realize there are a lot of serious problems in the world.

Celine: Okay, thank you.

Jesse: Okay. I mean, I don't even have one publisher in the whole Asian market.

---

Celine: An imperialist country can use that kind of thinking to justify their economic greed, you know. I - human rights...

Jesse: Is there any particular imperialist country you have in mind, there, Frenchie?

Celine: Mmm, no, not really...

---

Jesse: [describing how she looks different] Skinnier, I think. A little thinner.

Celine: Did you think I was fat before?

Jesse: [laughing] No!

Celine: Yeah, you thought I was a fatty. No, you thought I was a fatty! Yeah, you, you wrote a book about a fat French girl!

Jesse: No, listen...

Celine: [laughing] Oh, no...

Jesse: Seriously, all right, you look beautiful.

---

Celine: It's amazing what perverts we've become in the past nine years.

Jesse: At least now we don't have to pretend that each new sexual experience is a life-altering event.

Celine: I know. By now, you know, you've stuck it in so many places, it's like about to fall off.

Jesse: Yeah, you know, and I can't realistically expect that you've become anything but a total ho, at this point.

Celine: Yeah, thank you.

---

Jesse: I heard this story once about when the Germans were occupying Paris and they had to retreat back. They wired Notre Dame to blow, but they had to leave one guy in charge of hitting the switch. And the guy, the soldier, he couldn't do it. You know, he just sat there, knocked out by how beautiful the place was. And then when the allied troops came in, they found all the explosives just lying there and the switch unturned, and they found the same thing at Sacre Couer, Eiffel Tower. Couple other places I think...

Celine: Is that true?

Jesse: I don't know. I always liked the story, though.

---

Jesse: You want to know why I wrote that stupid book?

Celine: Why?

Jesse: So that you might come to a reading in Paris and I could walk up to you and ask, "Where the fuck were you?"

Celine: [laughing] No - you thought I'd be here today?

Jesse: I'm serious. I think I wrote it, in a way, to try to find you.

Celine: Okay, that's - I know that's not true, but that's sweet of you to say.

Jesse: I think it is true. What do you think were the chances of us ever meeting again?

Celine: After that December, I'd say almost zero. But we're not real anyway, right? We're just, uh, characters in that old lady's dream. She's on her deathbed, fantasizing about her youth. So of course we had to meet again.

---

Jesse: Oh, God, why weren't you there, in Vienna?

Celine: I told you why.

Jesse: Well, I know why, I just - I wish you would have been. Our lives might have been so much different.

Celine: You think so?

Jesse: I actually do.

Celine: Maybe not. Maybe, we would have hated each other eventually.

Jesse: Oh what, like we hate each other now?

Celine: You know, maybe we're - we're only good at brief encounters, walking around in European cities in warm climate.

---

Jesse: Oh, God, why didn't we exchange phone numbers and stuff? Why didn't we do that?

Celine: Because we were young and stupid.

Jesse: Do you think we still are?

Celine: I guess when you're young, you just believe there'll be many people with whom you'll connect with. Later in life, you realize it only happens a few times.

Jesse: And you can screw it up, you know, misconnect.

---

Celine: The past is the past. It was meant to be that way.

Jesse: What, you really believe that? That everything's fated?

Celine: Well, you know, the world might be less free than we think.

Jesse: Yeah?

Celine: Yeah, when given these exact circumstances, that's what will happen every time: two part hydrogen, one part oxygen, you get water every time.

Jesse: No, no, I - I - I mean what if your grandmother had lived a week longer, or, you know, or passed away a week earlier, days even. You know things might have been different. I believe that.

Celine: You can't think like that, it's...

Jesse: No, I mean, I know you shouldn't on most things, but - It's just, on this one it seemed like something was off, you know?

---

Celine: So what's it like to be married? You haven't talked much about that.

Jesse: I haven't? (Sarcastically) How weird.

---

Celine: Do you think you would have finished your book if you were fucking someone every five minutes?

Jesse: I might have welcomed the challenge.

---

Celine: So, I want to try something.

Jesse: What?

Celine: [hugs him] I want to see if you stay together or if you dissolve into molecules.

Jesse: How'm I doing?

Celine: Still here.

Jesse: Good, I like being here.

Taglines

• What if you had a second chance with the one that got away?

Cast

• Ethan Hawke – Jesse
• Julie Delpy – Celine

External links

• Before Sunset quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• Before Sunset at Rotten Tomatoes