The inaugural installment of The Before Trilogy opens with a chance encounter between two solitary young strangers. After they hit it off on a train bound for Vienna, Paris University student Celine and the scrappy American tourist Jesse impulsively decide to spend a day together before he returns to the U.S. Richard Linklater’s observant gaze captures the uncertainty and intoxication of young love, from the first awkward stirrings of attraction to the hopeful promise Celine and Jesse make upon their inevitable parting.
Sunday, July 5 - 2:20
Monday, July 6 - 7:00
Almost a decade after their first meeting, Celine tracks down Jesse, now an author, with only a few hours left before he is to board a flight back home to the States. The pair find their chemistry rekindled by increasingly candid exchanges about professional setbacks, marital disappointments, and the compromises of adulthood. Impelled by an urgent sense of the transience of human connection, Before Sunset remains Richard Linklater’s most seductive experiment with time’s inexorable passage and the way love can seem to stop it in its tracks.
Saturday, July 11 - 5:00
MOnday, July 13 - 7:00
The conclusion to The Before Trilogy finds Celine and Jesse several years into a relationship, on a sun-dappled Greek retreat with their twin daughters. The couple finds their vacation upended by long-simmering problems. Marked by the emotional depth, piercing wit, and conversational exuberance honed over two decades with these characters, Before Midnight grapples with the complexities of long-term intimacy, and asks what becomes of love when it has no recourse to past illusions.
