The Sunday Rewatch: ‘Before Sunrise’

Some films capture lightning in a bottle — a moment so delicate and real that it feels almost impossible to recreate. Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise (1995) is one of those films. It’s a quiet masterpiece about chance, connection, and the fleeting magic of meeting someone who feels like they’ve been waiting for you your whole life.
BEFORE SUNRISE, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, 1995

The setup is almost deceptively simple: Jesse (Ethan Hawke), an American traveling through Europe, meets Céline (Julie Delpy), a French student, on a train to Vienna. They strike up a conversation, and on a whim, Jesse convinces her to spend the night wandering the city with him before his flight home the next morning. That’s it — no explosions, no major twists — just two people walking, talking, and falling in love.

What makes Before Sunrise such a perfect rewatch, especially on a slow Sunday, is how it captures the immediacy and tenderness of connection. Linklater’s dialogue feels so natural that it doesn’t seem written — it feels overheard, like you’re eavesdropping on something too intimate to interrupt. Jesse and Céline talk about everything: love, death, religion, dreams, regrets. They flirt, they challenge each other, they stumble into silences that feel just as meaningful as the words.

On a rewatch, you notice the small details even more: the way Jesse awkwardly touches Céline’s hair in the listening booth, the way she looks at him when he’s not paying attention, the way Vienna itself becomes a third character — ancient, romantic, timeless.

Before Sunrise is a film about possibilities: the lives we could live, the people we could become, the love we might find if we’re brave enough to step off a train and take a chance. It’s bittersweet without being cynical, romantic without being naive.

In a world obsessed with fast-paced everything, Before Sunrise asks us to slow down, to listen, to really see someone. It’s a reminder that sometimes the most extraordinary moments are the simplest ones — a conversation, a glance, a night that changes everything.

This Sunday, rewatch Before Sunrise. Let yourself believe, if only for a little while, in the power of a single evening to shift the course of a life.

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