Before Sunset

Colour, 35 mm
USA, 2004, 80 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

Nine years ago, in Richard Linklater´s Before Sunrise, two young people met on a train to Vienna - Celine from France and Jesse from America. They spent fourteen hours wandering around the Austrian capital together and promised to meet in six months. Did they really meet? It is not only the audience that asks this question in Linklater´s well-received, likeable film, but also the reader of the pleasantly romantic book which Jesse wrote after this encounter. The publicity tour for the book ends in Paris, in a small bookshop. And it´s here that a new story starts - or rather, an old one continues, for just at that moment Jesse meets Celine again. His flight back to America takes off in two hours, but there is no reason not to continue their interrupted conversation. Maybe they´ll even pick up the relationship of long ago, which is as intense and fragrant as the coffee in a cosy Parisian café. Will the heroes of this distinctive romantic film bring it off this time?

About the director

Richard Linklater (b. 1960, Houston, USA) studied literature and drama at Sam Houston State University. In Austin, where he grew up, he co-founded the Austin Film Society. At the beginning of the 1990s he established himself as an original independent filmmaker. He also writes scripts and works as an editor, cameraman and producer. His acting career includes a role as a cold-blooded spy in Robert Rodriguez´s Spy Kids (2001). He won the Silver Bear at the 1995 Berlinale for directing Before Sunrise and received the John Cassavetes Award at the 2001 Denver IFF. Before Sunset was presented in the competition this year at Berlin. Filmography: It´s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (1988), Slacker (1991), Dazed and Confused (1993), Before Sunrise (1995), SubUrbia (1996), The Newton Boys (1998), Waking Life (2001), Tape (2001), The School of Rock (2003), Live From Shiva´s Dance Floor (2003), Before Sunset (2004), $5.15/Hr. (2004, TV). He is working on an adaptation of Stephen King´s novel A Scanner Darkly.