Before Sunrise

Richard Linklater wrote and directed (along with Kim Krizan) this charming film concerning two young people who meet briefly on a train traveling through Europe who enjoy talking to each other so much that they decide to spend a few hours together until they depart for different destinations. Linklater, in the style of Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette, assumes intelligence on both the part of his characters and his audience, content in his belief that idle conversation between a man and a woman is more of a turn-on than sex. Jess (Ethan Hawke), an American traveling through Europe, meets the French beauty Celine (Julie Delpy) on a train. Jesse is headed to Vienna, where he is flying back to America the next morning. Celine, for her part, is heading off to Paris, where she is starting classes at the Sorbonne. From the moment they catch each other's eye they are immediately attracted to each other. They have a meal in the lounge car and enjoy each other's conversation so much that when they arrive in Vienna, Jesse convinces Celine to accompany him and wander the Vienna streets until the time for his plane to depart. And as they talk and walk through Vienna, they fall in love.