Richard Linklater's Before trilogy is one of cinema's most unusual experiments in real-time intimacy, three films made nine years apart that follow the same couple aging alongside their actors. Before Sunrise (1995) is a single night in Vienna between two strangers. Before Sunset (2004) is a fleeting Paris reunion. Before Midnight (2013) finds them years into a shared, complicated life.
This is a film-only series, and its method is its meaning. By revisiting Jesse and Celine across two decades, it captures how love changes from spark to comfort to friction. The throughline is conversation: long, wandering, honest talk, with the gaps between films doing the quiet work of showing time pass.
The The Before Trilogy franchise spans 3 movies in the CrossBinge catalog.
Movies
Key people
- Richard Linklater (Director)
- Julie Delpy (Actor)
- Ethan Hawke (Actor)
- John Sloss (Actor)