Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight make up one of the most perfect film trilogies ever made. In chronicling Jesse and Céline’s journey from a chance meeting on a train to a lifelong romantic obsession with one another, Linklater helmed one of the greatest love stories ever told. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy’s chemistry in the lead roles goes a long way toward selling the unusual premise.

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Recommending the Before trilogy to friends is difficult, because “three movies about the same two people talking” is a tough sell in a moviegoing landscape dominated by superhero smash-‘em-ups, but these movies truly deserve all the praise that has come their way.

The Conversation-Driven Storytelling Keeps The Focus On Character

Jesse and Celine walking and laughing in Before Sunrise.

A lot of romance movies have sitcom-lite subplots that have nothing to do with the actual love story, like the leading man has to give a big presentation at work or something similarly generic.

The conversation-driven storytelling of the Before trilogy keeps its focus squarely on character. Through dialogue, Jesse and Céline reveal their innermost desires, the lies they’re telling themselves, and their deepest insecurities.

Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy’s Chemistry Is Off The Charts

Jesse and Celine rise on a boat in Before Sunset.

There are plenty of romantic co-stars with tangible chemistry, but the on-screen dynamic shared by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in the Before movies is something else. These are two actors who trust each other’s instincts completely and rely on each other’s performances to inform their own. The result is a movie couple with all the complicated emotions of a real one.

In the hands of Hawke and Delpy, who were heavily involved in the writing of the trilogy in addition to starring in it, Jesse and Céline really come to life and their romance rings true as a relationship between two human beings.

It’s A Rare Perfect Trilogy

Before Sunrise

There are very few perfect trilogies. The Godfather trilogy is let down by its unnecessary third installment. The Matrix movies gradually got worse after their groundbreaking debut. The Lord of the Rings, the original Star Wars trilogy, and of course the Before trilogy, are diamonds in the rough.

Across three movies, the Before trilogy takes viewers from Jesse and Céline’s initial chance encounter on a train to well into a committed relationship that’s become marred by complications. It’s practically unparalleled in telling a rounded, complete, perfect story in three parts.

It Evokes All Kinds Of Emotions

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy look at each other in Before Sunrise.

Love is an emotional rollercoaster, but movies about love rarely are, because they’re often either a romantic comedy leaning into the humor of the dating world or a romantic drama leaning into the inevitable tragedy that eventually follows falling in love.

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But the Before movies never get pigeonholed as either comedies or dramas. There are scenes that are hilarious and scenes that are heartbreaking, and along the way, the trilogy evokes every emotion in between.

There Are No “Best Friend” Characters

Before Midnight

In most cinematic love stories, the leads speak to their best friends about how their relationship is developing. When Harry Met Sally has a fun twist on this as Harry and Sally try to set each other up with their best friends and the friends end up falling in love with each other.

In the Before trilogy, there are no “best friend” characters. Jesse and Céline have dinner with some friends near the beginning of Before Midnight, but we never see either of them privately consulting their friends about the relationship — all their communication about the relationship goes through each other, which is much more emotionally compelling.

The Dialogue Is Impeccable

Jesse and Celine walk along a street in Greece in Before Midnight

The best dialogue writers, like Quentin Tarantino and Aaron Sorkin, don’t tend to write love stories. Their scripts often have romantic subplots, but David Mamet would never write a movie like Pretty Woman. As a result, there aren’t many romantic movies with incredible dialogue, but the dialogue in the Before movies is just that.

Dialogue is the focus of the entire trilogy, calling back to the works of Éric Rohmer, and it’s impeccably written. Richard Linklater, in collaboration with his stars Hawke and Delpy (and, on the first two movies, Kim Krizan), penned three of the greatest naturalistic screenplays ever written.

The Audience’s Expectations Are Constantly Subverted

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as Jesse and Celine looking at the water in Before Midnight

After each movie in the Before trilogy, it’s impossible not to imagine where Jesse and Céline will find themselves a few more years into the future in the next movie. But despite begging these questions and getting imaginations running wild, the trilogy still manages to constantly keep the viewer guessing.

The Before trilogy is a rare example of a story that subverts its audience’s expectations at every turn, yet doesn’t have a single plot point that feels misplaced or out of character. It all culminates in an incredibly engaging series of movies, and it achieves this without putting the world at stake; it’s just a human story about whether two people will end up together.

It Explores The Ups And Downs Of Love

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy sitting on a sofa and looking at each other in Before Midnight

Cynical moviegoers usually hate romantic movies because the Hollywood studio system tends to dial up the sentimentality to a sickening level with a story about the need to find a soulmate and get married to create the illusion that love is a quick fix for life’s problems.

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The great thing about the Before trilogy is that it explores the ups and downs of love. Before Sunrise is a testament to the meet-cute, but Before Midnight finds Jesse and Céline constantly arguing years into their relationship.

Each Movie Builds On The Last

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in Before Sunset

As each entry in the Before trilogy passes, Jesse and Céline know each other a lot better and have more of a history together. The better they know each other (and the better the audience knows them), the more layered and interesting their conversations are.

This increasing knowledge of each other and the rich backstory witnessed first-hand by the audience in the previous installments inform even more nuanced storytelling and character work in each sequel.

There Are No Happy Or Sad Endings

The ending of Before Midnight

The problem with a lot of love stories is that their happily-ever-after message implies that all of life’s struggles disappear when one falls in love and that once you’ve found love, everything will be fine forever. The Before movies don’t tell this lie to their audience, but they also don’t shallowly subvert expectations with downer endings.

The endings of the Before movies are neither happy nor sad. Before Sunrise leaves it up to the viewer to decide if Jesse and Céline met up again, then Before Sunset reveals what happened and how they moved past it. That movie ends with Jesse having to decide if he’s going to stay with Céline or not, again leaving the audience to decide, then Before Midnight reveals they did get together and start a family. But then, that movie’s climactic argument and subsequent reconciliation leaves it uncertain as to whether the relationship will last.

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