Lucas
Versantvoort / 8 June 2013
Spoilers
ahead.
The third
part in the acclaimed Before-series of films: Before Midnight. It’s
one of Hollywood’s indie darlings. Anyone familiar with the previous two, will
note how relatable and real it all feels. This is the films’ main strength and
I’m pleased to report the third outing doesn’t disappoint in that department
nor in many others. This is a very strong movie which is all the more special
since it’s the third outing in the series. As you know, not many third parts
(in trilogies) are particularly good… The acting is still strong and feels
natural, as does the dialogue, and it builds on themes from the other two films
in many, interesting ways.
Since the previous film ended on a
cliffhanger (did Jesse stay with Celine or not?) the first thing you’ll want to
know is what happened. We see Jesse saying goodbye to his son at an airport. We
sense a distance between the two. Jesse then walks outside to…Celine talking on
her cell phone. They both get in their car and drive away, but not before the
camera pans to show twin daughters asleep in the backseats. We now realize that
not only are Jesse and Celine together, but they also have twins in addition to
Jesse’s son with his ex-wife. As you’d expect, the film follows their relationship
for the rest of the day, exploring its highs and lows through endless
conversations…and if that sounds boring, then you have never watched a Before-film.
These are conversations that are simultaneously mundane and crackling with
intelligence at the same time.
The people who have watched the
other two films will obviously get the better audience experience, since they
can note the differences (and similarities) in the way Jesse and Celine act. In
Before Sunrise, they possessed the same wit you’ll see in Midnight,
but they were (hopelessly) romantics at the same time. In Before Sunset,
the subject matter darkened a bit. Jesse was married and had a son whereas
Celine had a boyfriend. In Midnight, their conversations have stayed the
same time and changed simultaneously. They have become able to tease each other
more skillfully, having now spent years with each other, and know how to push
each other’s buttons. There’s a scene where Celine notes how Jesse ogles women.
She’s obviously worried that these are signs that Jesse is not physically
attracted to her anymore. Jesse responds by joking with a Spanish (or was it
Greek?) accent that he doesn’t ogle them, but ‘makes love to them with his
eyes’. This causes laughter and voilà, the touchy subject has been skillfully
swept under the rug. These kinds of details show that how they converse and
what they talk about, has changed. It’s ironic that Celine notes at one point
that she’s missed ‘talking’ with Jesse: now that there are no more trains or
planes that one of them needs to get on, now that they have all the time in the
world, the way they’ve talked has changed and the amount of talking has
diminished.
There’s also a difference in terms
of time which has always played a big part in these films. In Sunrise, Jesse
and Celine have their own trains to catch and in Sunset, Jesse has a
plane to catch. In Midnight, however, this time pressure is
non-existent. This doesn’t mean that everything’s all right now, just that time
weighs on Jesse and Celine in different ways: how they feel about growing old
together, their fading looks, Jesse’s worries about missing his teen son’s
forming years, since he lives with his ex, etc.
The late Roger Ebert noted the
following in his overall positive review: “The exchanges are never less then
brilliant, the jokes pop out with unmatched speed and there are no dead
silences. Small wonder, then, that Jesse and Celine's conversations don't feel
like real life at all. The script is as stylized as that of any classic
screwball comedy -- only the zany antics are missing.” This made me shake
my head in amazement for a second: ‘Before Midnight…not realistic?’ Then
I realized of course that films could never truly risk imitating real life,
since film is supposed to be a compact version of real life. As Hitchcock
famously said: “Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.” The dialogue can’t
be truly realistic, because it would damage the movie. If there were too many casual
silences during Jesse and Celine’s countless well-constructed arguments, it
would take the ‘zing’ out of it, it would be too real. If they didn’t have their jokes ready to go at a moment’s
notice and instead having them take more time to ‘think of’ the jokes (like ‘real
life’), the conversations would lack punch. Ebert is basically saying that
real-life arguments have many pit stops, for example where the arguing couple
is unable to formulate what they want to say or the many moments when one of
them is unwilling to argue. This kind of ‘ultimate realism’ approach might be
the stuff of 8-hour long slice-of-life documentaries, but it wouldn’t work in a
dramatic, narrative-driven film, simply because it would take too long and it
would become boring quickly. A film has to ‘compress’ the entirety of what’s
happening. I can see what Ebert is saying and he has a point, but I still find Before
Midnight to be highly realistic; if not in terms of conversations, then at
least in terms of its many emotional truths about people in long-term
relationships.
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