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Wednesday, Nov 25, 2009
At one point in "Before Sunset," Jesse, talking about the problems he has with his wife, laments, "Love has to be about more than commitment." I think that's a revolutionary statement. Particularly in this country, people are fixated on relationships as hard work. And while they do require some work, the prevailing notion is, "If you're having too good a time, you must be doing something wrong."
It seems like an offshoot of our workaholic culture: You have these commitments, and you've gotta stick by 'em and work. It's all work, work, work. And then you get into a relationship, and it's all work and no fun. You spend all your time fixing things -- just abiding by your commitment, and that sounds like a job in itself.
And then people who aren't married, who are in their 30s, 40s or 50s, get, "Oh, you're commitment-phobic! You have commitment issues." Someone told me that, because I'm not married. But I have three kids. I just had twins, six weeks ago! So people will say, "Oh, you're commitment-phobic." And I say, "Am I?" I'm really committed to things in my life. I'm committed to my kids, I'm committed to what I do -- I feel like I'm pretty committed in this world. Just because I'm not married doesn't mean I have some huge flaw.
And of course, technically, people are committed to someone until they're not -- and then they're committed to someone else. Many of us live serially -- we have serial marriages, we're serially monogamous.
At the end of "Before Sunrise," we see shots of the places where the characters have been -- the streets they walked, the cafes where they sat. And they seem so empty and lonely.
It's like instant nostalgia! Less than a day later.
Jacques Demy uses a similar device in another great romantic movie, "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg." Was that a conscious homage or a felicitous coincidence?
It wasn't conscious. People have sometimes brought up similarities with Antonioni. Montage is nothing new in cinema. And at the end of "Before Sunrise," it had everything to do with Celine and Jesse as ships passing in the night. They were ghosts in this town. They were just passing through. Life goes on. They were just inhabiting this space. But as Celine said earlier about the Seurat exhibit that they missed [in the movie, the couple walk past a poster for a Seurat exhibit that has just closed], people are transitory. We're just transitory. You feel that way when you're in Vienna, or Paris. It's like, Wow, we are just floating through.
That's what I like about the U.S. There's some sort of lame architecture that you know will be gone in 40 years. We as individuals take precedence over our buildings! And there [in Europe], you're just a speck in a long history of beautiful cities. That's one good American thing -- we promote the individual, I think, by our lack of history. You feel kind of small there. You're overwhelmed by the beauty -- it's so much bigger than you. You can't really feel that way about a strip mall.
