Before Midnight

This is the third film in a series about the romance of a couple, Jesse and Celine, who have now known each other for twenty years and now are living together in Greece. Jesse, played by Ethan Hawke, was previously married and the film starts at the airport as he says goodbye to his son from the earlier marriage. There follows a long conversation between the couple in the car as they drive back from the airport. Then there is a scene with Jesse and his mates, when Jesse talks about his ideas for a possible future book. This is followed by long eating-around-the-table scene, with a many of their friends present. After that the couple go for a long walk, talking all the time. Then they go to an hotel room, where they have a row. Jesse seems slightly more the supplicant; he loves Celine, played by Julie Delpy, and is charming and eager to please her, she seems to express a little more autonomy, and it is not so surprising when it is she who speaks decisively. He is some sort of author, but that doesn't seem to add much weight or sagacity to his character.

For my taste these early scenes tend to be too long and to have too little significant content to be particularly interesting. Throughout the conversations there is a nicely controlled sense that either one or the other will say something that sends a conversation into a spin, leading to disaster and a row, and this is what happens at the end. I am sure many people will find these scenes horribly plausible. The final scene was for me quite painful and hard to watch. The film passes the time quite pleasantly, and leads to a satisfactory dramatic conclusion, although I did find my eyelids flickering downward in the earlier, long scenes. It is difficult to refer to these scenes without using the word 'long', and the question of dramatic economy does arise. More significantly, for me, is the question of what qualities may a good drama embody? My notion is that a good drama is a bit like a Chinese puzzle - that it should be elegant and fit together well, with balance, harmony and, in the case of drama, good rhythm. Information should not be sown and then, unused, left blowing in the wind, which I think does happen here on occasions. This film is more of the Mike Leigh school, where scenes seem to have been grown organically and naturally to embody certain essences and situations, but where the dramatic arc is less important. The dramatic thrust in this film is generated by the possibility that their conversations will at any time go in a bad direction.

Another reservation I have about these films is: are they not the wet dreams of a Texan in love with the tourist idea of Europe? We have had Paris, now we get Greece, or is this too flippant? Jesse and Celine are, to some extent, tourists and it is unarguable that we are shown in these films tourist-eye views of France and Greece. There is no sign in Before Midnight that Greece is crashing and burning as the Euro disintegrates.

Was their row something they would get over after a good night's sleep? Is there an opening for a sequel? To both of these questions I answer 'yes'. She said she doesn't love him any more, but tomorrow morning she can roll her eyes at him and backtrack. Maybe in nine years time we shall find out. It would be terrible for them to split up now because there is so much that is good (including twins!) in their relationship.

Richard Linklater is a very interesting film-maker, who now has a back-catalogue of good and diverse films. This series of films: Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight constitute alone an interesting and worthwhile body of work, improving, I think, as the series progressed. In working with Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke (a Texan like Linklater) he has chosen to work with two actors who don't hesitate to take challenging parts (Delpy worked with Godard when she was 14!). I learnt to respect Hawke when I saw him in Sidney Lumet's Before The Devil Knows You're Dead.