Before Midnight - Surviving "Happily Ever After"

This is filled with spoilers. If you haven’t seen the film and read this anyway, you are not the smartest of people.

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I’ve already told you about my experience of seeing Before Midnight at Sundance. While I had a lot to say about the film back then, I didn’t want to post it all back in January given the fact that so few people had seen the film. Since only a small number of people would be able to read and discuss with me, I thought it’d be more fun to hold off until we could all commiserate together. This isn’t a straightforward review so much as it’ll be a series of impressions and thoughts.

Ethan Hawke’s Jesse and Julie Delpy’s Celine have come to mean a great deal to me. When I first saw Before Sunrise, I was surprised by how close I felt to these characters. They felt three-dimensional, and it’s entirely due to the dialogue-heaviness of the script. You have a chance to hear exactly what they think about so many things that you feel like you actually know these people in some way, almost like they were friends of mine. I really wanted to know what they might have thought about various things, and found it fascinating to see the way that they changed over time.

In the 9 years between Before Sunset and Before Midnight, I’d often wondered what had happened to Jesse and Celine. The last time we saw them, they’d reconnected after 9 years (sensing a motif here?) and the future of their relationship was in doubt, to say the least. That ending! “Baby, you are gonna miss. That. Plane.” This time around, I made a concerted effort to keep off of any internet forums or the like that would tell me the setup for the new film. I didn’t want to know how Jesse and Celine found themselves on the same patch of real estate and I’m so glad that I did it that way, because the revelation was one of the best gifts I’ve received in years.

After an opening sequence in a Grecian airport between Jesse and his visiting son (he’s so old now!), the camera follows him from behind as he walks outside as he walks to the car . . . and there she is. I’ve often described it since as feeling like a 13-year-old girl on the inside. The thought that they’d found a way to live happily ever after was almost too wonderful to imagine. “Oh, they lived happily ever after!!!” The rest of the film pokes some holes in that theory, but the idea that the end of the second film was not the end of their relationship is beautiful.

Throughout the film, there are a few little easter eggs dropped about what their life has been like. He really did miss that plane, and they blacked out the windows to have sex for days. After he got divorced, the two of them ended up moving to New York for 2 years before moving to Paris so that their twin daughters could be born there, which apparently almost killed Celine. They have never married, even though she has told her kids that they did.

It’s strange to see these characters in middle age. In some ways, I don’t think that Jesse’s ever really changed. He’s still idealistic, believing in true love and the idea of accepting a person exactly as he/she is without trying to make significant changes. I feel as though Celine has changed the most. She’s hit real life, and she’s hit it HARD. He has the luxury of remaining committed to his ideals through his writing, but she’s in the nitty-gritty reality of being a mother and wife (in everything but name). But even that’s not entirely true. She works all day and he stays home to write. It’s not like their relationship is founded in inequality as much as she thinks it is. Still, there’s something there that I identify with that a lot. I know a lot of people who like to deal with these abstract concepts at the exception of reality. I often want to shake them til they rattle to get it across that they only need to listen to what they’re saying to have some idea as to how little what they’re talking about has any bearing on the life of a regular person. Plus, thinking about these abstract concepts all the time doesn’t make one exceptional in any way other than that the corresponding person is often incredibly annoying.

The walk through to the hotel is the most reminiscent of the previous films. The signature two shot of Jesse and Celine walking and talking is one for the books. The amount of work that it must take for Hawke, Delpy and Richard Linklater to not only write that much dialogue but figure out a way to make it feel like it’s coming off the cuff is astounding. I like the way that their hands keep flirting with each other like little sparrows.

The scene in the hotel room is one of the most distinctive in the entire series because, for the first time, we really see Jesse and Celine get into it and the gloves are OFF. In the previous two films, they’ve just been so happy to be together that there’s not really any conflict and they quickly find a way to overcome what little there conflict there is. Here, they’ve been together for 9 years, and are trying to figure out what the future holds. Much of the time, I felt like Jesse was getting a raw deal, as he only wants to talk about the idea of moving to Chicago to be close to his son and Celine’s convinced that he’s trying to destroy her happiness. I don’t think that’s entirely fair, but it’s clear as time passes that she really does feel trapped in their relationship and he doesn’t realize exactly what he’s doing (or NOT doing). They went through a lot emotionally over the course of the first two films, and it’s apparent that they’ve been through a lot in the time since.

In the last scene, he re-enacts their meet cute, and it’s sweet to see him try to tell her yet again that he loves her completely and doesn’t want to throw that away even after she’s told him that she doesn’t think that she loves him anymore. Ironically, it’s only after he resigns himself to the fact that maybe they’re through that she looks at him and asks “so what about that time machine?” I think she knows deep down that he is her last, best hope at being happy. As angry as he makes her, I don’t think there is anyone she would rather be with. I don’t think that this is their last knockdown drag out fight. Even with the most unequal of relationships, it can be surprising to see the kind of almost desperate need that two people have for each other. I’m reminded of Johan and Marianne in Scenes From A Marriage. Despite the terrible things that they say and do to each other, you know that they will never find a way to be two separate people. Fortunately, Jesse and Celine never take it quite that far.

Seeing these two caught up in real life is something kind of strange. In the first two films, they’re either just meeting for the first time or are reuniting after many years, whereas here, they’ve been together for years and are trying to live out the peace. The reality is never as simple as the fantasy seemed. The future's here and it  hurts. Surviving “happily ever after” is not nearly as easy as it might have seemed in the other movies. Even if it's only until the next fight, I'm really glad that the two of them seemed to figure things out. The idea of them splitting up is almost too terrible to think about, at least for long. Jesse and Celine have traversed a lot of emotional territory over the course of the 18 years we’ve known them, but the love that they’ve built up is more important than the little things that drive them crazy. It might be a cliché, but Emerson was right. The things that unite us are stronger than that which drives us apart.

Love is hard. Even if you’re lucky enough to find it, the holding on can be the most difficult thing that you’ve ever had to do. People don’t stay the same and the emotions that they feel often undergo a transformation that, although it might seem glacial, can result in a change so severe as to bring even the mighty to their knees. But you know what? If Jesse and Celine with all their fighting and drama and joy and misery can find a way to be happy, then maybe the rest of us can too. That's a comforting thought.

Tales From Park City - Dreams Come True At The End

The last day! 

My morning started off far too early. In anticipation of my pre-7 AM alarm, I tried to get some sleep by going to bed early, but things are tough when you're bunking with someone on a different schedule. Plus, I never really slept that great the whole time I was in Utah. Whatever. On the last day, I decided to treat myself and go off the beaten path a little bit so I figured that a little extra work was worth it. 

Whenever I go to Park City, there's typically one or two movies that I have to see for me. There are tons that I need to see for my job and I'm fully aware that I'm there to work first and foremost, even if that job involves watching movies all day. (poor guy!) Last year, the "me" movie was 2 Days In New York, and this year, it was Before Midnight. 

What's ironic is that I had the opportunity to meet Julie Delpy through my job last year and heard a journalist ask her if there were any plans to make a third film with Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke. She kept quiet about it and said that it might happen . . . but all the while she knew that they had a script and were leaving to shoot it in a month!

Anyhow, I didn't have a ticket for the film. To rushline a film at Sundance, you're supposed to be there about 2 hours early. Fortunately for me, as it was the first screening of the day, I was only required to be there 1 hour in advance. As the film was scheduled to start at 8:30 AM, I was supremely grateful for this. At each venue, they post a sign with the average number of rushline people who got into screenings at the venue the year before. At the MARC, that number was 50, (not terribly encouraging) and thanks to a misleading bus driver, I ended up with #95 (again, not very encouraging) Fortunately for me, a kind woman who was somehow able to buy a ticket, flipped my number around by giving me her spot at #59. 

Boom!

Now to the film . . .  (no spoilers per se, but don't read on if you don't want to know the basic premise, which I think is a kind of spoiler in the world of this series.)

• Before Midnight: I have loved this series since I was in my late teens. Jesse and Celine feel like friends of mine, and that's not exaggeration on my part. The films are so so well-written and the performances are wonderfully authentic that you feel like you know these people. In this one, we find the two together for nine years following the events of Before Sunset. In many ways, Before Midnight is about what "happily ever after" is really like. It's a very different kind of story than the previous two. With those, the characters still have rose-colored glasses on with regard to each other. But here? Here, they've been together for years and years, and the gloves come off. If the first two were about the fight to get together, this one is about the fight to stay together. Not surprisingly, the writing's great and the performances are strong. That said, I do wish that I'd watched the other two again before watching this one, as it'd been a while, and I think that, to have the maximum effect, a 1-2-3 approach would work best. These films are growers, and while I don't think that Before Midnight is the best individual entry in the series, the impact that they have as a trio is undeniable.
  
  
  Look, there's a lot that I could say about the film, but I'm going to collect as much as I can and post it once the film's come out for people to see for themselves. I want to talk about individual details and plot-points, but there's no reason to put that up when only a few people around the world have seen the film. Stay tuned, ok?

While I was disappointed to have to come home before the end of the Festival, I'm really glad to have been a part of the experience at all. It's an amazing thing to be a part of a town filled with so much energy all focused in one direction. I said this last year, and I'll say it again. It restores your faith a little bit to see people lying on the ground in front of the screen instead of missing the movie and people who'd rather get in line before 8 AM than risk missing a movie. This is my tribe, and I'm proud to be part of it.

Over and out,

-Adam

Tales From Park City - Anger and Alternate Reality

The week is already starting to catch up with me. It’s probably a bit too early to admit this, but it behooves a writer to be honest.

The streets of Park City were the more crowded on Saturday than they have been all week. It’s understandable, given the arrival of first full day of weekend screenings and the coming of audience members enjoying their day off. It does make for a challenging time getting around, not only with foot traffic but also with the free shuttles.

That’s one of the single best things about Sundance. Not only is it easy to find out where you need to go, but there’s very little need to rent a car of any kind, provided you can just get to Park City in the first place. In fact, you’re actually discouraged from renting a car by the Festival itself. My friend, however, had to transport some stuff up here, and wasn’t so lucky. When he told me that he was driving up to Main Street to make a delivery, “good luck” were the only words I could think of to offer him. Fortunately, he found a great parking place. After driving around for 30 minutes.

Ok, onto today’s screenings at Slamdance:

Where I Am: another strong Slamdance documentary. The film tells the story of Robert Drake, an American writer, who was brutally attacked while living abroad in Ireland. The real tragedy is that the only reason he was attacked was because he is gay. While the film runs a little longer than it needs to and begins to repeat itself toward the end, it’s an emotional piece that does a good job of exploring the complex feelings that Robert and those around him have about the attack. I was struck by the idea of a man who has to depend on other people for just about everything being able to so readily forgive his attackers, even though they’d gotten off extremely easy and “justice” wasn’t done. He’s a remarkable man, and it was a pleasure to see him at the screening with his long-time assistant, Butch.

The Bitter Buddha: one of the funniest things I’ve seen this year. The Bitter Buddha takes a look at the career of comedian Eddie Pepitone. He’s one of those long-suffering guys that other comedians swear by, but just hasn’t had the big break that he deserves. A big part of what makes him so likable is he’s incredibly open about his anger and insecurity. There’s a more than ample supply of both. There’s a ton of interviews with other comics, most notably Patton Oswalt. The film goes to video-on-demand in February, and you’d do well to catch it. Here’s a link to Eddie’s Twitter page.

The Institute: this is one of the single best things I’ve seen at the Festival so far this year. The Institute documents an “alternate reality game” that lasted for 3 years and had, at one time or another, over 10,000 participants in and around San Francisco. Jeff Hull, the game’s mastermind, created a convoluted narrative about rival organizations fighting over who was going to control the future of human happiness. Director Spencer McCall was initially hired by Mr. Hull to shoot footage that would become part of the gameplay, and after ending up with over 1000 hours of footage, decided to move forward with the film. It’s fascinating stuff, particularly as you begin to wonder if what you’re watching is even a documentary at all. At certain junctures, it seems impossible that some of these people could be serious about what they’re saying with a straight face. What makes the film really shine is that it’s able to create within the mind of the viewer the same effect that I’d imagine it had on the participants. On some level, you’re not only wondering how people could take this stuff seriously, you’re also wanting for this to be true on some level because it’s been so skillfully put together.

The Brotherhood of the Traveling Rants: Meh. This is the “official documentary” of Canadian comedian Gavin McInnes’ tour in promotion of his book. I’m not going to deny that he’s funny, but only sporadically. There’s also just far too much material that’s clearly been staged for the camera. His best friend comes along for the ride, and there are certain bits where they’re clearly riffing off of each other, and that’s fun to watch, but then later there are just far too many attempts at emotional authenticity that are being attempted by guys who aren’t the greatest actors. Additionally, the film’s introduction makes it seem like Gavin’s setting out to make a film about whether or not comedy is a learned behavior or instinctive ability, but this is quickly abandoned to document the tour. I wish that the film had either stuck with the framing device, or just allowed the camera to roll when the guys were out doing their thing. The latter would have been a lot more fun. There’s enough history between these two to make this thing a lot more fun than it ends up being.

No parties for me at the end of the night. I got out of my last film at 11:30 PM so my party connections were already kinda shut down. 

I’ve got 3 screenings on the docket for today, but am hoping to catch a bit of the 49er game. My buddy’s a HUGE fan and has been making new friends all over town with his authentic (and pretty stylish) Niner gear. I want to watch him watch the game more than anything. Also, he’s got a GREAT Dave Grohl story that I’m going to try and get on camera so I can share it with you tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s the big one for me. I’m going to rushline a screening of Before Midnight at 8:30 AM, which means that I’ll have to be there around 7 AM. Which means I’ll have to get up at . . .  ug. On top of all that, I fly out tomorrow night and have to move house tomorrow morning. Should be fun. Those films mean a lot to me, and I’m really hoping for another stellar entry in the series.

OK, off to a busy day.

More later,

-Adam