Conversations

DSD and I spent Valentine's evening together. It happened by chance. On Sunday, after our late lunch, I suggested meeting again this week; my Thursday evening was open, and hers was too. And then it occurred to us that it would be Valentine's Day. Did we want to brave the streets where flowers and bears and balloon hearts would almost certainly decorate the arms of young girls? Sure.

We had Korean food at Far East Plaza, tried to find clothes that weren't shapeless sacks of cloth, failed at that, looked at shoes, and talked plenty. We talked about our match-making success (the couple are newly engaged), how we had yet to figure out our lives; we discussed careers, job interviews, places we wanted to see, places on Monocle's list of most livable cities - Munich, Copenhagen, Zurich, Tokyo, Vienna, Helsinki, Sydney, Stockholm, Honolulu, Madrid, Melbourne, Montreal, Barcelona, Kyoto, Vancouver, Auckland, Singapore(!), Hamburg, Paris, Geneva; she shared her stories about working on farms, I dreamed about working on farms; we wondered about our friends, admitted to knowing how lucky we are to have our passions - paddling for her, tango for me - through which we escape the world. She loves being out in the sea and I love that I can be away from everything. I read somewhere that "tango begins when you decide to live in another country in another time in your mind, while continuing to function in the life you are living," and that's almost how I see it.

Earlier, on Sunday, we also talked about the films "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset," which I like to think "speak" to each other, in pretty much the same way the two sensitive protagonists enjoy a long, passionate conversation in each film. DSD prefers "Before Sunset," which seems more realistic, because life isn't pretty for either of them. I like both equally, because I can still remember what it's like when the world seems incredibly open and full of possibility, when you're young like Celine and Jesse in "Before Sunrise." The films work because of their honesty and real-world magic, the kind that happens between two people who find a rare connection. Perhaps this is the 90s version of "Once." "Before Sunset," set nine years later, builds on the things that made the first film work, and makes them better. When Celine and Jesse reveal to each other how miserable they are, laying bare their secrets, they're in their most convincing scene. DSD and I are nearly 30, not very old, but old enough to understand what they're feeling. What makes a film, book, or poem reach out and grab a person is that startling moment of recognition. You see it, and it's saying, "I see you."

Here are highlights from both films, and songs to go along with them.

The person who put this video on Youtube calls it the best scene in the first film: the awkward silence; the stolen glances - unseen by them - that tell the audience everything.

Come Here - Kath Bloom

My favorite - the wacky make-believe phone-call scene in a Viennese cafe. They get to tell each other what they think and feel, without the pressure of telling each other "directly."

Falling In Love In A Coffee Shop - Landon Pigg

Not really a scene from "Before Sunset," but the trailer itself.

You won't see this in the trailer, but I have to say how I like that the first film ends quietly but powerfully - images of all the places where Jesse and Celine sat and talked the night away; now they're lit with the morning sun. Scenes in the morning are usually hopeful, suggesting newness and possibility, but we've seen these places in another time, another light; now they're empty, and haunted by the memory of Celine's and Jesse's presence and words. The sequel opens similarly, with a series of places in Paris. As the film progresses, these places are filled in with the strolling figures of Jesse and Celine. They're in a narrow walkway, heading to a cafe, entering a garden path. It's also the second film speaking to the first one, saying that it remembers, and, let's begin again.

Edge of the Ocean - Ivy

This is what they've really been thinking and feeling for the nine years they didn't spend with each other.

Roger Ebert's reviews say it best - "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset."

Posted by Monoceros at February 15, 2008 8:15 PM