Before Sunset (2004)
94%RT Audience Score: 92%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 1 Oscar
9 wins & 32 nominations total
Filled with engaging dialogue, Before Sunset is a witty, poignant romance, with natural chemistry between Hawke and Delpy.
Before Sunset is the perfect movie for anyone who loves a good conversation. It’s like eavesdropping on two old friends catching up, except these friends happen to be incredibly charming and insightful. The film effortlessly expands on the original, and the chemistry between Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy is electric. Sure, there’s a lot of walking and talking, but it’s the kind of walking and talking that makes you wish you were right there with them. It’s a rare gem in a sea of blockbusters, and a must-watch for anyone who believes in the power of connection.
Production Company(ies)
Warner Independent Pictures, Castle Rock Entertainment, Detour Filmproduction
Distributor
Warner Independent
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Seine River, Paris, France
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for language and sexual references
Year of Release
2004
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:DTS Dolby Digital SDDS
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:1h 20m
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Language(s):English, French
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Feb 10, 2004 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 27, 2005
Genre(s)
Romance/Drama
Keyword(s)
Worldwide gross: $15,936,507
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $25,139,623
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,621
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 2,741,507
US/Canada gross: $5,820,649
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $9,181,995
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,637
US/Canada opening weekend: $219,425
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $346,140
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,494
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $2,700,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $4,259,213
Production budget ranking: 1,936
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $2,293,586
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $18,586,824
ROI to date (est.): 284%
ROI ranking: 478
Ethan Hawke – Jesse
Julie Delpy – Celine
Vernon Dobtcheff – Book Store Manager
Louise Lemoine Torres – Journalist
Rodolphe Pauly – Journalist
Mariane Plasteig – Waitress
Director – Richard Linklater
Producer – Anne Walker-McBay
Writers – Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan
Director(s)
Richard Linklater
Writer(s)
Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan
Producer(s)
Anne Walker-McBay
Film Festivals
Cannes
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 1 Oscar
9 wins & 32 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees
All Critics (176) | Top Critics (53) | Fresh (166) | Rotten (10)
It’s a lovely, beguiling little film a rare treat during this overheated season of blockbusters. It’s also an unusual example of a follow-up that doesn’t seem forced, but expands effortlessly on the original.
August 8, 2012
Christy Lemire
Associated Press
TOP CRITIC
The reunion has some lively moments, but a great deal of slow walking and fatuous talking about love, married life and sex.
August 8, 2012
Joe Morgenstern
Wall Street Journal
TOP CRITIC
Shooting in long takes, Linklater and his actors (who get co-screenwriting credit) allow the conversation to curlicue effortlessly from literate banter to matters of the heart, and sometimes to places in between.
August 8, 2012
Scott Tobias
AV Club
TOP CRITIC
Charming, talky romance for older teens and adults.
December 22, 2010 | Rating: 4/5
Nell Minow
Common Sense Media
TOP CRITIC
Before Sunset retains most of what was engaging about the first movie: it has its gentleness, its romanticism and, most importantly, its idealism. What it has lost is the sense of mystery.
August 25, 2007 | Rating: 4/5
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are a rare case of two movies that rightfully demand yet another sequel.
August 1, 2004
David Denby
New Yorker
TOP CRITIC
One of the difficulties is that the film makes no distinction between the inevitable, natural processes of aging and change and the ways in which people are worn down by man-made circumstances.
February 15, 2021
David Walsh
World Socialist Web Site
This middle segment ends up being the least invigorating… Before Sunset feels a bit less substantial. Jesse and Celine play less easily off one another, their interactions clouded by adulthood, responsibility, etc.
September 15, 2020 | Rating: 3.5/5
Nicholas Bell
IONCINEMA.com
Before Sunset is a joy to behold.
September 2, 2020 | Rating: 3.0/4.0
Richard Propes
TheIndependentCritic.com
Before Sunset is proof that practice can make perfect. Linklater not only tackles loose ends of the original with imaginative aplomb, but he also works hard to make the movie work as a standalone essay…
April 18, 2019 | Rating: 4/5
Kaleem Aftab
The List
Before Sunset is a great film, great for the ways it transforms and enlarges the conceit of the single night together to allow for years of elapsed time.
March 13, 2019
Dan Chiasson
The New York Review of Books
…a superior sequel that accomplishes everything that one might’ve hoped…
July 22, 2013 | Rating: 4/4
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews…
Plot
Early thirty-something American Jesse Wallace is in a Paris bookstore, the last stop on a tour to promote his best selling book, This Time. Although he is vague to reporters about the source material for the book, it is about his chance encounter nine years earlier on June 15-16, 1994 with a Parisienne named Celine, and the memorable and romantic day and evening they spent together in Vienna. At the end of their encounter at the Vienna train station, which is also how the book ends, they, not providing contact information to the other, vowed to meet each other again in exactly six months at that very spot. As the media scrum at the bookstore nears its conclusion, Jesse spots Celine in the crowd, she who only found out about the book when she earlier saw his photograph promoting this public appearance. Much like their previous encounter, Jesse and Celine, who is now an environmental activist, decide to spend time together until he is supposed to catch his flight back to New York, this time only being about an hour. Beyond the issue of the six month meeting, what has happened in their lives in the intervening nine years, and their current lives, they once again talk about their philosophies of life and love, this time with the knowledge of their day together and how it shaped what has happened to them.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
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