BEFORE SUNRISE (1995) // BEFORE SUNSET (2004) // BEFORE MIDNIGHT (2013)

watching these three films being so close to the age of céline and jesse in MIDNIGHT was a magical fucking experience. what utterly perfect, authentic writing, acting, and filmmaking.

if i had to pick favorites i might have to lean towards SUNSET, in large part because i can say without hyperbole that there hasn't been a more perfect ending ever committed to celluloid. (and it has benefit of those delightful julie delpy songs bookending it!) but the honest truth is that all three of them are thoughtful and breathtaking and need to be seen.

the BEFORE series will stay in my heart forever. i'm happy i saw them now and not as they came out, because seeing them before i had the life experience to truly understand and feel every moment of all three of them would have been a much lesser experience.

and yes, i'm happy i could see them after having met a person i felt that immediate spark with... that fire, that magic, that otherworldly out-of-time feeling.

"i guess when you're young, you just believe there'll be many people with whom you'll connect with. later in life, you realize it only happens a few times."

i hope we meet these two again, someday.

* * * .9 / 4

2023.03.13