Greatest Film Scenes
and Moments



Before Sunrise (1995)

 



Written by Tim Dirks

Title Screen
Movie Title/Year and Scene Descriptions
Screenshots

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


Meeting on Train

Celine and Jesse in Music Booth ("Come Here")

First Kiss on Ferris Wheel

Goodbye Kiss

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