Before Sunrise + Before Sunset

Attuned to the sweeping grandeur of time’s passage as well as the evanescence of individual moments, Richard Linklater's Before films chart the progress of a romantic destiny as it navigates the vicissitudes of ordinary life.

BEFORE SUNRISE (1995) | M

Jesse (Ethan Hawke), an American, and Céline (Julie Delpy), a French woman, meet by chance on a train traveling through Europe. Struck by an instant connection, they decide to spend one night together exploring Vienna before Jesse's flight the next morning. An exquisitely understated ode to the thrill of romantic possibility, Linklater’s tenderly observant gaze captures the uncertainty and intoxication of young love.

BEFORE SUNSET (2004) | M

Jesse and Céline reunite nine years after their magical night in Vienna. Jesse - now a successful author - is on a book tour in Paris when Céline attends one of his readings. With only a few hours before Jesse's flight, the two wander through Paris and reflect on the choices they did - and didn't - make. Impelled by an urgent sense of the transience of human connection, Before Sunset is a bittersweet meditation on time’s inexorable passage and the way love can seem to stop it in its tracks.