As Before Sunrise turns 30, how Richard Linklater’s movie captures young and free spirit
Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy star in this 1995 tale of strangers who meet on a train and spend a romantic evening in Vienna
This is the latest instalment in our From the Vault feature series, in which we reflect on culturally significant movies celebrating notable anniversaries.
Many directors, even the great ones, remake the same film over and over again. Since his 1990 debut Slacker, American auteur Richard Linklater has turned his hand to everything from animation to adult comedy, but he keeps returning to the same main theme: the passing of time.
Often it seems to happen before our eyes. Filmed over 12 years, his 2014 coming-of-age drama Boyhood shows its young actors growing up on screen. Meanwhile, his forthcoming musical Merrily We Roll Along will shoot on and off until around 2040 when star Paul Mescal will be 44.
But perhaps his greatest feat of time travel is 1995’s Before Sunrise, which turns 30 this month, because it returns us all to the intensity of our first loves.
On a train to Budapest, American traveller Jesse (Linklater regular Ethan Hawke) strikes up a conversation with French student Celine (Julie Delpy). He convinces her to get off at Vienna, where they spend one beautiful, borrowed night together, wandering the streets and gradually falling for one another.
