Skip to main content

Before Sunrise/ Before Sunset

Bottom line - If you haven't seen them, then get a DVD/ Download it and do watch it (unless you hate each and every so called "romantic" kind of movie) - not much taxing - total run of 3 hours(for 2 movies combined, seen back to back)
_____

What if you are guy travelling across and exploring Europe (wishful thinking!) and strike a conversation with some young chick in the train (wishful thinking again!), decide to spend few hours together at some place, say Vienna ... and that day turns out to be the most memorable day in your life?

Well, this is precisely the story of Jesse and Celine in the movie "Before Sunrise" and their meeting ten years later forms the premise of "Before Sunset".

(Today I saw them for the 3rd time)

Interesting concept, I would say but that is just surface of the movie. The real soul lies in the light hearted kind of discussion they have. That forms the heart and soul of these movies. Well, the discussion isn't specifically about anything. It is about random assorted stuff but still, they are likely to make you think and take notice.

Also interesting is the way their perspective about life changes in all these years and yet the core of it remains same across the years - forms an interesting comparison and also reflect a bit on how our own thoughts have undergone a (gradual?) change in last ten years or so ... and maybe will change a lot still in following ten years.

And about the so called argument over which one is better - I would vote for "Before Sunset" - the reason being much more depth in the kinds of discussion they have.

I would love to see another sequel - maybe when Jesse and Celine are in 50s and again get into a long conversation philosophize about life, universe and everything. Among everything, I am sure that the movie will have some amazing conversations!

Comments

  1. Pradnya4:49 PM, March 25, 2010

    Have seen both of them...Loved Before Sunrise more- one because of the new concept of those conversations and also, because I was hopeful for a happy ending :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nikesh Rathi7:41 PM, March 25, 2010

    I think conversations in Before Sunset were better

    ... but the argument continues!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Shop @ Amazon

Popular posts from this blog

An area of darkness ?

The title of this post finds its origins in a novel with simlar name written by VS Naipaul. Set in India, some 40 years ago or so, this is a kind of travelogue of author's brief stay in India where he found it to be full of superstitions, ignorance and darkness! Many decades and many MNCs and malls later, few parts of India seemed to have chucked off that tag, but there are many places that haven't and continue to remain shrouded in ignorance. Move few hours away from a city, travel in a second class train compartment or a dilapidated state transport bus and you get to see the dark underbelly of India Shining. As one of the characters in the movie Rang De Basanti says "Yahan zinda rehne ki jung mein logo ki zindagiyan nikal jaati hai" . So true it seems! My day today was spent being kind of lost in similar thoughts. To start with, I when I boarded the ST bus, a woman was wailing. She may be in her 20s or something, but she was crying in some peculiar musical tone. At...
13 comments
Read more

The Detour

The 7 year old girl walked from school to her home. This was the first time she was walking alone on that route. On any other day, her mother would have gone to pick her up from school, but not that day. She was not aware that schools were declaring holiday an hour and a half earlier due to trouble in the town owing to some agitations and protests. Only few parents could be intimated about this. A friend’s mother accompanied her to the lane leading to her apartment, from where it was just a minute’s walk. But that day, for some unknown reason she decided to roam about a bit and take the longer route. It is not always that she gets to roam about, and no one would know about it. After all she wouldn’t tell her mamma about that. The road was almost deserted. It was usually the case around the noon time in this part of the country. She walked ahead leisurely, singing and dancing all along as if she owned the road. But this was short lived. In couple of minutes, the scene changed....
7 comments
Read more

Cycle

After a failed attempt at jogging, I roamed about aimlessly when an idea struck me to have a ride in a cycle, couple of which is lying in the “recreational area”. I was longing since long to ride a cycle sans motor. There was no particular reason for this feeling; it was that just I wanted to have a ride. The 2-3 km ride was a tiring experience, especially for one who is having this after a long time; but I was gleeing all along. As an infant, I loved going about in a tricycle. Then I became too big for it and got a cycle. After several attempts and many falls, I mastered the art. I used to flaunt it in front of my friends, who flaunted theirs. As I entered teens, the bicycle seemed smaller; so I got a bigger cycle. As years progressed, I learnt to ride a 2 wheeler. Now I started to find the bicycle too childish for my tastes. I tried to reason out why I should get a 2-wheeler to go to a particular place. Sometimes I succeeded to get it, and sometimes I didn’t and had to go around in...
5 comments
Read more

The Forest

The Toyota Qualis and the Chvrolet Tavera stopped after a long journey. It was almost 9 in the night and it was pitch-dark. Night times in a forest are always pitch-dark. Adding to that it was a good `thirteen days since the last full moon day. Adding to this, the cloudy weather made visibility close to zero. Later in the night the forest would be engulfed in a fog making it nearly impossible to see. The only noise audible was that of silence, few random insects and that of a train going at a distance. After a long journey they all were quite weary and all they wanted was some rest so that the next day morning they can head for tiger and rhino spotting among many other species of flora and fauna in the wildlife sanctuary. Right now it was time for some parathas, maggi and booze. All fifteen of them headed for the cottage which they had booked, sat near the fire place relishing food, chit chatting about college life, universe and everything. But chit chatting wasn’t what they came ...
10 comments
Read more

K-eediyot box

(Disclaimer - Please do not think that I don't know spellings ... my numerologist told to use the above spelling for eediyot and add a k before it, this will help generate more TRP and comments for the blog) Time 7 : 30 - 8 PM, 8 - 8 : 30 PM .... 10 : 30 - 11 PM Venue - Zee TV, Star Plus, Sony entertainment etc. etc. Figure this - A family drawing room belonging to an extremely rich business house occupied with a mixture of emotional and scheming characters - 1 saas, 2 bahus, 1 son (+1 who makes an entry unaware of what is happening), 2 random distant relatives, 3 random cousins, all mouthing dialogues that have earlier been said by actors ranging from Nirupa Roy to Rajesh Khanna, followed by a long silence, 13 camera angles for same scene (top view, side view, cross sectional view, lateral view, 45 degree elevation view) , flashbacks and memories that last few episodes, good people becoming evil, evil people actually being un-evil, rebirths, amnesia, a background score that often ...
11 comments
Read more