Before Sunrise Reflections

Before Sunrise was a uniquely beautiful film, which may have restored my faith in the romantic comedy genre by being so different then all the other fluff that is out there. While that isn't supposed to be a jab sat the film industry the statement holds some truth, after all you rarely see a romantic film left with such an open end, and in this particular film the open ending where the lovers vow to reunite in 6 months could reinterpret the entire film in a different way depending on how the viewer feels. For example lets say the viewer is a hopeless romantic and believes that unlike Celine's summer love that she and Jesse will reunite because they have something meaningful, the film now endures as a romantic love type movie. On the other hand the viewer could be more of a skeptic and interpret their romance as a fling like Celine predicted in the park and decide that they will not meet again in 6 months because the encounter was not meaningful enough for them to overcome their own pride/doubts. In the case of the later the film would be better classified as a study of sudden desire and passions that struck two people so violently that they were able to escape the reality of their lives for 24 hours and indulge themselves. However leaving the overall interpretation of the film aside there are many other themes throughout the story that relate to love and desire but on a more subconscious level, one of these themes is setting. The setting of the film caught my attention, it takes place in Vienna, which fun fact is the 9th largest city in Europe yet the pair always manage to be intimately alone in the most public of spaces (public transportation, shops, outdoor venues, restaurants, etc). These places emphasize that the two lovers aren't really experiencing reality for 24 hours, its something more akin to a dream, after all it is pretty sensational to ask a complete stranger to explore a city with you, develop feelings, have sex, and promise to meet again. The intimacy provided by the traditionally none intimate settings produces an overall feeling for the audience akin to a heightened sense of closeness, so that not only does it seem like the two characters are closer then they should be but that you feel the spontaneous connection that could be interpreted as love at first sight. Now that being said this film is not an example of love at first sight which I would characterize as  an infatuation based on appearances but instead it stresses the concept of love through conversation. The entire film is based on these two people having an amazingly open flow of communication which at times makes them rather vulnerable but ultimately it brings them closer together in the short time span that they do share. A prime example of this is the restaurant scene where the first few shots are panning the crowed environment zooming in on people connecting through speaking to each other rather then physical actions, and it is in this scene that Jesse and Celine hold their mock phone call. The mock phone call exercise was one of the most interesting focal points of the film because they use role play, pretending that the other is an impartial friend and use it as a sounding board for any doubts that they are harboring about their budding feelings. By voicing their hidden fears so publicly they are almost freed from the conventions of general romancing and they also manage to use each other to learn more about themselves. While everyone is searching for fulfillment through another person Jesse and Celine find some form of self discovery through their chance meeting because they almost dare themselves to be brutally honest because they quite frankly don't care what a stranger thinks and by being so honest and voicing it aloud for the first time they gain insight on themselves. I think this method of self discovery is like a critique of your work, while you may have worked out every angle and kink to your piece and thought of every weak point to defend actually having someone there to scrutinize your product creates the ultimate critic out of yourself because you realize vantage points that you may not have ever considered until that very moment. Unfortunately for modern romance lovers cannot seem to see that the risks of being this honest are outweighed by all the benefits that can come from it, and it is because of this sense of eternal vulnerability that relationships constantly suffer from lack of communication.