Film

Before Sunset

Name: Before Sunset
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: 2004
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Vernon Dobtcheff, Louise Lemoine Torrès, Rodolphe Pauly

Romantic drama
Drama
Slow-burning

Nine years after their one night in Vienna, Jesse and Céline get eighty minutes together in Paris, before his flight, and the film unfolds in something close to real time. It's almost all walking and talking — no plot twists, just two people circling the truth about what they wanted and what they settled for. Small, funny, and quietly devastating.

TMDb rating

3.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy talky, restless conversation between two people who once made an impression on each other, where the romance lives in what goes unsaid and the Paris streets do half the talking.

Skip it if you want plot, stakes or escalation; little happens beyond two people talking as they walk, and the wistfulness can feel indulgent.

What it asks of you: Eighty minutes of mostly unhurried talk in near real time, so it rewards close listening and asks you to sit with silences rather than wait for events.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Before Sunrise1995

The night that started it all — two strangers meet on a train, get off in Vienna, and talk until dawn. Watching it after Sunset shows you exactly how much time and disappointment reshape people.

But Younger, more idealistic, more talk-about-life-in-general than the specific ache of the sequel — some find it slighter.

Before Midnight2013

The trilogy's final word: same couple, same walking-and-talking rhythm, now married with kids and grievances. The most brutal and honest entry if you want to know how the story actually turns out.

But It trades yearning for real marital conflict — if you want the romance kept intact, this one complicates it hard.

Lost in Translation2003

Two lonely people adrift in a foreign city, a connection charged precisely because nothing can come of it, and a soundtrack that aches the same way this film does.

But Tokyo instead of Paris, jet lag instead of a train schedule, and a slower, more atmospheric pace than Linklater's dialogue-driven style.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Before Sunset

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Brief Encounter1945

Same structural engine as Sunset: two people, a ticking clock, a choice about whether unresolved longing gets acted on — except here the era answers the question for them before they can.

The original 'we have almost no time and everything to lose' romance — a married woman and a married doctor fall for each other in railway station tearooms, and duty wins the fight romance is losing.

But Black-and-white, stiff-upper-lip 1940s restraint — the emotions are enormous but delivered in whispers and clipped understatement.

My Dinner with Andre1981

Two men, one dinner table, ninety-some minutes of pure conversation — proof that talk alone can be riveting cinema, which is basically the Before trilogy's whole philosophy.

But No romance, no city walk, no ticking-flight urgency — just two guys and their ideas, which isn't for everyone.

45 Years2015

A long marriage cracked open by a secret from before it began — quiet and devastating, obsessed with the same question as Sunset: what do we owe the people we almost chose instead?

But Slow-burn British drama about a couple in their seventies — a very different tempo and far less warmth.

One Day2011

Two people, one relationship, watched across decades via a single date each year — the same fascination with how time reshapes a maybe-romance, told with more plot and more tears.

But More conventional and more manipulative with its structure and its ending than anything Linklater would allow himself.

Certified Copy2010

A woman and a man wander an Italian town talking, and the film never confirms whether they're strangers or a long-married couple performing intimacy — a puzzle-box cousin to Jesse and Céline's ambiguity.

But Deliberately unresolved and slippery in a way that frustrates viewers wanting clear answers about who these people are.

In Search of a Midnight Kiss2007

Low-budget, black-and-white, one long night of two strangers walking Los Angeles and talking themselves toward or away from each other — the mumblecore cousin of the Before films.

But Rougher and cheaper, with none of the movie-star chemistry — it's got the bones of Linklater's idea but not the polish.

Weekend2011

Two men meet, spend a weekend together before one of them leaves the country, and talk with the same unguarded honesty Jesse and Céline manage — tender, specific, quietly heartbreaking.

But A gay romance with its own concerns about coming out and belonging — the parallel is structural more than thematic.

5 Centimeters per Second2007

Trades live-action walk-and-talk for animation and hours for years, but it's the same meditation on time eroding a connection that was never properly finished.

An animated triptych about a boy and girl whose lives keep drifting apart across years and distance — gorgeous, aching, and obsessed with exactly the question Sunset asks: what happens to feelings that never get resolved.

But Animated and Japanese, with a sadder, more resigned ending than Linklater allows his characters — bring tissues, not hope.

Sherman's March1986

Same obsession with roads not taken and people you can't stop wondering about, filtered through real life and a filmmaker willing to embarrass himself on camera.

A documentarian sets out to film General Sherman's Civil War march and instead ends up chasing ex-girlfriends and near-misses across the American South — funny, rambling, and surprisingly moving about romantic what-ifs.

But Nearly three hours of shaggy, self-narrated documentary — no actors, no script, and a very different kind of patience required.