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Before Sunrise (1995)
In Richard Linklater's sweet romance:
- the initial chance meeting between two young tourists
on a train bound for Paris: American Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and French
Celine (Julie Delpy), and their lengthy existential ruminations
(that started in the dining car) on life, death, love, past lives,
success, parents, relationships, religion, etc.
- the scenes of their roaming around Vienna (and taking
public transportation) throughout the night
- the wonderfully-subtle scene of their first realization
of a romantic attraction for each other in a record booth while listening
to a 33 rpm recording of Kath Bloom's "Come Here," making
shy eye contact and nervously shifting
- their first kiss on the famous Viennese Ferris wheel
the Riesenrad [the location of the famous "cuckoo clock" speech
and scene in The Third Man (1949)]
when she asked: "Are you trying to say you want to kiss me?" after
which she hugged him closely and tenderly rested her head on his
shoulder
- also, their encounter with various Viennese personalities
- such as a palm reader (Erni Mangold) who told them they both were
composed of stardust ("You're an adventurer, a seeker...You
need to resign yourself to the awkwardness of life...You're both
stars, don't forget, and the stars exploded billions of years ago
to form everything that is this world. Everything we know is stardust.
So don't forget. You are stardust. Ha, ha!"); also their encounter
with a strange vagrant street poet (Dominic Castell) who rapidly
wrote poems with any random word given to him ("milkshake")
and presented them with the poem Delusion Angel (written
for the film by the poet David Jewell): ("...See what you mean
to me / Sweet-cakes and milkshakes / I'm a delusion angel / I'm a
fantasy parade...")
- the concluding heartbreaking goodbye scene in the
train station when they hastily parted with a few final kisses and
embraces: (Celine: "OK, I guess this is it, no?...Have a great
life. Have fun with everything you're gonna do!"), and vowed
to see each other again in exactly six months at the same location;
as she boarded the train and he caught a bus to the airport (and
each reflected upon their time together during the closing montage
as the film returned to the locations they had visited which were
now empty) - to the sound of Bach's Andante from Sonata No. 1
in G Major for Viola
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Meeting on Train
Celine and Jesse in Music Booth ("Come Here")
First Kiss on Ferris Wheel
Goodbye Kiss
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