{"id":35903,"date":"2016-05-15T23:02:32","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T06:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/?p=35903"},"modified":"2016-05-15T23:02:59","modified_gmt":"2016-05-16T06:02:59","slug":"challenge-week-19-before-midnight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/challenge-week-19-before-midnight\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenge Week 19: Before Midnight"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a way, this is kind of a gimme recommendation – Before Sunrise<\/em>, the first movie in this trilogy, is my #156 and in the 96th percentile of my Flickchart, and while I don’t like Before Sunset<\/em> as much as many people, it’s still solidly in my Top 1000 at 80%. It’s probably a given that I would like Before Midnight<\/em>, and really, I’m surprised I hadn’t gotten around to it already. Good news for Ryan, though, as he gets to rack up a definite win with me.<\/p>\n

The third part of the Richard Linklater-Ethan Hawke-Julie Delpy Before trilogy resolves the ambiguity of the end of Before Sunset<\/em> – Jesse and Celine DO get back together after nine years of being apart, and now they’ve been together for nine years, have twin daughters, and are living in Paris but currently finishing up a summer in Greece. That helpfully gives the movie a beautiful location to add to the Paris of the Part 2 and Vienna of Part 1. But like the others, Before Midnight<\/em> is really a series of extended conversations between Jesse and Celine, and sometimes a few other people.<\/p>\n

\"tf-eating\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I tell you, it doesn’t sound interesting to hear a couple of people talk for two hours, and not even everything they talk about is deep or profound or meaningful in any way, but it is MARVELOUS. I fell right back into the groove of living with Jesse and Celine, enjoying their back and forth patter. And while in the first film their conversations were exploratory, two people just getting to know each other, and in the second they were tentative, two people who had been apart reconnecting, here they’re comfortable (at first, anyway) – the conversations of two people who know each other intimately. With a real nine years between films, it’s amazing that Hawke and Delpy can pick up like this and have the same chemistry, with the variations on relationships that these films ask of them.<\/p>\n

The last third of the film turns into a massive fight that almost ruins them – but not the movie, surprisingly enough. The confrontational nature of Before Sunset<\/em> is one reason I don’t enjoy it as much as the first film, but here, even as my heart was breaking for them and the things they were saying to each other, I still weirdly enjoyed being with them as they went through this. It’s the fight of two people are deeply joined together by love and life, but also have their own individual concerns (her job in Paris vs his son from a previous relationship in Chicago) and they’re trying to negotiate all that – which is something I’m sure any couple in a long-term relationship can related to.<\/p>\n

\"tf-sacrifice\"<\/p>\n

I went back and forth in my notes as to which one I thought was right and which one I thought should back down, because really, they’re both right and they’re both wrong, and I appreciated the honesty with which Linklater\/Hawke\/Delpy dealt with this. Relationships are messy, arguments are rarely clearcut, and while it did at times lean a bit too much toward “Jesse’s trying to be a caring guy for her and his son and Celine’s just focused on some abstract feminist ideal” at times, neither of them can be totally pinned down to that.<\/p>\n

Even after the argument, which is admittedly at times difficult to watch, I still wanted to be with them for a lot longer than the film gave us – I could tell the moment it was about to go to credits, and I was a little sad it was already over. I could’ve watched them just hang out and talk, even fight, for another hour, I think. Especially if they were going to do it in gorgeous locations with beautiful cinematography like this, but you know, I’m flexible. I’m really glad Ryan gave me the excuse I needed to finally get around to this. Next up: Getting Jonathan to sit down for five hours to watch all three.<\/p>\n

\"tf-sunset\"<\/p>\n

Stats and stuff…<\/h3>\n

2013, USA<\/em>
\ndirected by Richard Linklater, screenplay by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke<\/em>
\nstarring Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m ranking all my Challenge films on Flickchart (as I do all the films I see), a movie-ranking website that asks you to choose your favorite between two movies until it builds a ranked list of your favorites. Just for fun, I will average out the rankings and keep a running tally of whose recommendations rank the highest. When you add a film to Flickchart, it pits it against films already on your chart to see where it should fall. Here’s how Before Midnight<\/em> entered my chart:<\/p>\n

Before Midnight<\/b> > Three Times
\nBefore Midnight<\/b> > Rango
\nBefore Midnight<\/b> > Dead of Night
\nBefore Midnight < Wings of Desire<\/b>
\nBefore Midnight<\/b> > The Master
\nBefore Midnight < The Man from Laramie<\/b>
\nBefore Midnight < For Heaven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Sake<\/b>
\nBefore Midnight < Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels<\/b>
\nBefore Midnight<\/b> > The Big Parade
\nBefore Midnight < Fort Apache<\/b>
\nBefore Midnight<\/b> > Sleeping Beauty (1959)<\/p>\n

Final ranking #331 out of 3639 films on my chart (91%)<\/p>\n

It is now my #2 Richard Linklater film, my #2 Ethan Hawke film, my #2 Julie Delpy film, my #6 Marriage Drama (only a slight misnomer), my #27 Romantic Drama, and my #2 film of 2013.<\/p>\n

Before Midnight<\/em> was recommended by Ryan Hope, a friend from the Flickcharters group on Facebook. Averaging together this #331 ranking with my #1794 ranking of his other film, Being There<\/em>, gives Ryan an average ranking of 1062.<\/p>\n

A few quotes…<\/h3>\n

[language warning]<\/p>\n

Jesse:<\/b> I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ogle girls. [fake accent] I make love to them with my eyes.
\nCeline:<\/b> Ooh, I like the Spanish guy. Or is he Greek?
\nJesse:<\/b> [fake accent] I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know where I am from, but I am very hairy.<\/p>\n

Natalia:<\/b> Like sunlight, sunset, we appear, we disappear. We are so important to some, but we are just passing through.<\/p>\n

Celine:<\/b> I feel close to you.
\nJesse:<\/b> Yeah?
\nCeline:<\/b> But sometimes, I don’t know? I feel like you’re breathing helium and I’m breathing oxygen.
\nJesse:<\/b> [high pitched voice] What makes you say that?<\/p>\n

Celine:<\/b> …we don’t have to spend our lives comparing ourselves to Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Tolstoy…
\nJesse:<\/b> What about Joan of Arc, right, she was a teenager and she saved France, so…
\nCeline:<\/b> Who wants to be Joan of Arc? Forget France, she was burnt at the stake and a virgin, okay. Nothing I aspired to. What a great achievement.<\/p>\n

Celine:<\/b> Women explore for eternity in the garden of sacrifice.<\/p>\n

Jesse:<\/b> I fucked up my whole life because of the way you sing.<\/p>\n

Celine:<\/b> If we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the girls, or all our stuff, would we still be together?<\/p>\n

Jesse:<\/b> I am giving you my whole life ok? I got nothing larger to give, I’m not giving it to anybody else. If you’re looking for permission to disqualify me, I’m not gonna give it to you. Ok? I love you. And I’m not in conflict about it. Okay? But if what you want is like a laundry list of all the things that piss me off, I can give it to you.
\nCeline:<\/b> Yeah, I want to hear.
\nJesse:<\/b> Okay well, number 1, you’re fucking nuts! You are. Good luck! Find somebody else to put up with your shit for more than like 6 months okay? But I, accept the whole package, the crazy and the brilliant. I know you’re not gonna change and I don’t want you to. It’s called accepting you for being you.<\/p>\n

Jesse:<\/b> if you think I’m just some dog who’s gonna keep coming back, then you’re wrong. But if you want true love, then this is it. This is real life. It’s not perfect, but it’s real.<\/p>\n

Celine:<\/b> Well, it must have been one hell of a night we’re about to have.<\/p>\n

A few more screenshots…<\/h3>\n

\"tf-promo\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-Hank\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-car\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-writers\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-walk\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-cafe\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-wine\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-sunsetwalking\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a way, this is kind of a gimme recommendation – Before Sunrise, the first movie in this trilogy, is my #156 and in the 96th percentile of my Flickchart, and while I don’t like Before Sunset as much as many people, it’s still solidly in my Top 1000 at 80%. It’s probably a given […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3027],"tags":[3131,3132,3084,770],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/tf-feat3.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":35955,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/challenge-week-21-boyhood\/","url_meta":{"origin":35903,"position":0},"title":"Challenge Week 21: Boyhood","author":"Jandy","date":"May 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm really knocking out the Richard Linklater films the past few weeks! I love most Linklater films, but his coming of age stuff (by which I largely mean Dazed and Confused) can fall flat for me, so I went into Boyhood with hopes but also fears. Of course I also\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/tf-feat5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35633,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/03\/challenge-week-9-mauvais-sang\/","url_meta":{"origin":35903,"position":1},"title":"Challenge Week 9: Mauvais Sang","author":"Jandy","date":"March 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Roku description of this movie goes like this: \"In the near future, Paris is devastated by a new AIDS-like disease that infects people who have sex without being in love. Aging thieves Marc and Hans develop a plan to steal a newly devised serum that combats the disease.\" So\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/tf-shaving-cream.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":178,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2007\/01\/december-readingwatching-recap\/","url_meta":{"origin":35903,"position":2},"title":"December Reading\/Watching Recap","author":"Jandy","date":"January 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"You know, having neither school nor work does wonders for media consumption, as does access to St. Louis libraries. Nineteen movies and six books, including Stranger Than Fiction, Before Sunrise, The Queen, The Wrong Man, Volver, V for Vendetta, We are Marshall, The English Patient, Eragon (book), and Ficciones after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books and Reading"","block_context":{"text":"Books and Reading","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36433,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/challenge-week-41-midnight-mary\/","url_meta":{"origin":35903,"position":3},"title":"Challenge Week 41: Midnight Mary","author":"Jandy","date":"November 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Cheery little Pre-Code drama told mostly in flashback while Mary Martin awaits the jury's decision in her murder trial. Turns out growing up poor, getting locked up for a crime you didn't commit, becoming a \"lady of the night\" (hence the nickname), then falling in with gangsters can lead one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/tf-feat-midnight-mary.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32879,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/scorecard-june-september-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":35903,"position":4},"title":"Scorecard: June-September 2013","author":"Jandy","date":"October 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This has been a long time in the works. Even after I decided to just go with picture instead of blurbs and the whole bit, it still took me like two weeks to put together. Lots of interruptions lately. The baby is crawling, and she has the best cord-finding radar\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/SC-Much-Ado-About-Nothing.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":36383,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/challenge-week-38-ive-loved-you-so-long\/","url_meta":{"origin":35903,"position":5},"title":"Challenge Week 38: I’ve Loved You So Long","author":"Jandy","date":"October 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This is in a way a mystery, but a very quiet and unassuming one. Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) goes to live with her estranged sister Lea and her family, but there's obviously a lot of baggage that we can't figure out immediately. Over the course of the film it's revealed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/tf-feat-Ive-Loved-You.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35903"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}