Great Character: Celine (“Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset,” “Before Midnight”
This month’s theme: Attractor characters. Today: Celine from the trilogy Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight.
Between 1995 to 2004, then from 2004 to 2013, director and co-writer Richard Linklater essentially provided audiences with an international love affair that unfolded in real time. Ethan Hawke played Jesse, the laidback Texas American and Julie Delpy emerged as Celine, the passionate French European that turn “love at first sight” into a picturesque spontaneous pursuit — every nine years.
In Linklater’s “Before Trilogy,” this cosmically compelling couple meet on a train to Vienna, reunite nine years later in Paris then return to us married on a writer’s retreat in Greece after another nine calendars. Celine is not only the guiding light in the trilogy that attracts Jesse, but her ever-evolving character arch provides much of the crucial conflict that makes Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013) timeless examinations of that “nothing else matters” sensation of mutual love.
Before Sunrise IMDB:
A young man and woman meet on a train in Europe, and wind up spending one evening together in Vienna. Unfortunately, both know that this will probably be their only night together.
Celine’s whimsical golden beauty is the initial magnetic force at work, conquering Jesse’s attention span. But as their intimate Austrian outing unfolds, it is her contagious sense of idealism that anchors into his wavelength. She matches wits with his studious intellectualism with her own brand of PHD-worthy emotional brainstorming.
CELINE (“BEFORE SUNRISE”): If there’s any kind of magic in this world… it must be in the attempt of understanding someone, sharing something.
Celine speaks and glides with the effortlessness of a young woman who is aware that she has her entire life ahead of her, ready to grow — in real time — with each new interaction. No kids, no strings attached, and no worries — anything is possible. University is in her present tense, and the world as her personal stage awaits her ambition in the future. But she also has the burning desire to share that stage as a duo.
CELINE (“BEFORE SUNRISE”): “Isn’t everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?
All three “Before” films feature a passive confession scene where Celine and Jesse proclaim their attraction for each other through a playful performance spoken in a third party point-of-view, to protect their feelings from embarrassment. In Before Sunrise, this American-French connection is expressed through a hypothetical phone conversation where they imagine what their friends would think of their seemingly random union.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPXf3Fz6DTM
In part 2, Before Sunset, we find out that Celine’s fairy tale idealism has now been draped in rusty regrets and empty relationships after missing out on nine years of potential romance with Jesse.
Before Sunset IMDB:
Nine years after Jesse and Celine first met, they encounter each other again on the French leg of Jesse’s book tour.
Time has seemed to have played a dirty trick on Celine, poking holes in her previous soul mate soliloquies.
CELINE (“BEFORE SUNSET”): I was having this awful nightmare that I was 32. And then I woke up and I was 23. So relieved. And then I woke up for real, and I was 32.
Not only does she have a long distance relationship that she prefers over any local one, but she also reconvenes with Jesse at a time when he happens to be married with a son.
CELINE (“BEFORE SUNSET”): Even being alone it’s better than sitting next to your lover and feeling lonely.
Celine still glistens with her ephemeral wisdom, but it sounds much more lived-in and melancholy than before. Jesse has clearly never left her mind, even with continents between them.
CELINE (“BEFORE SUNSET”): You can never replace anyone because everyone is made up of such beautiful specific details.
She was changed for the better by their encounter nine years prior, but its sterile climax has evolved into a breeding ground for sad internal surveillance.
CELINE (“BEFORE SUNSET”): Memories are wonderful things, if you don’t have to deal with the past.
Instead of directly confessing her undying love to Jesse, which is something most real people would also be too self-conscience to do, Celine admits her suspended savoring of him in a song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhRkUhY8MlQ
Celine’s ambitious career track that also provided her with a fulfilling distraction for her underserved heart seems to have been flung into limbo in part 3 — Before Midnight.
Before Midnight IMDB:
We meet Jesse and Celine nine years on in Greece. Almost two decades have passed since their first meeting on that train bound for Vienna.
Marriage to Jesse and twin daughters that are totally her “Mini-Me’s” suddenly doesn’t seem enough for Celine. She is pondering a government job that puts her environmental advocacy desires in jeopardy, Jesse’s ex-wife has become her sworn enemy and she is dead set against Jesse even considering that they might move to the United States to spend more time with his distant son.
CELINE (“BEFORE MIDNIGHT”): But sometimes, I don’t know? I feel like you’re breathing helium and I’m breathing oxygen.
Celine’s idealism and romanticism are now both in the gutter. But is it because of Jesse, or is it her mid-life crisis?
CELINE (“BEFORE MIDNIGHT): One of the perks of being over 35 is that you don’t get raped as much.
Celine is questioning her matured beauty, the extra pounds that have merged curves onto her body and her own mortality. Life goals seem to have gone unmet, while no longer having her whole life to get around to them. For Celine and Jesse’s third confessional performance, Celine reluctantly plays along with Jesse’s time machine tale for reconciliation after a heated spat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq7pALCCP3Q
For her spunky journeys through her fluctuating emotions, her poetic interpretation of life through personal philosophies and her willingness to treat the fantasy that she co-created with Jesse as their real world reality — Celine is one classically GREAT CHARACTER.
An excellent overview of this complex character spanning a narrative arc over three movies. If you haven’t seen these three movies, hopefully Jason’s analysis will inspire you to do so.
Thank you, Jason, for this post. You may follow Jason on Twitter: @A2Jason.
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