With love being such a universal theme, many romance films throughout the history of filmmaking have used complex and dramatic love story tropes to keep viewers engaged. Some use heavy plots where lovers battle against the world, while others use comedy to develop the romance between two persons. Whatever the trope may be, most romance films will include some difficult conflict where the entire love story will revolve. But among the many romance films, Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise” dares to be different and take a new direction. Whereas most romance films choose to have a happy or tragic ending, “Before Sunrise” tells a bittersweet cliffhanger by grounding its love story between fantasy and reality. With its simplicity but well-thought dialogue and cinematography, “Before Sunrise” effectively delivers the complexities of human thoughts and emotions to its viewers—making it worthy of being called a timeless masterpiece.

On the surface level, Jesse and Celine mostly seemed to talk while traveling around Vienna throughout the film. However, on a deeper level, most of their conversations are intelligent and thought-provoking. Jesse and Celine’s banter covers a wide range of topics—from quirky anecdotes about their respective personal experiences and cultural upbringing to guessing answers to existential questions and social issues. By listening to what each character says (whether in starting a topic or just responding to the other), viewers do not feel the need to look for the “show, don’t tell” factor that is most commonly used to portray character development. In “Before Sunrise,” “telling” is just as important as “showing” because it lets viewers feel the tension in building connections between two perfect strangers. For example, Jesse and Celine’s first conversation at the train’s restaurant already mentions the topic of stereotyped expectations based on their country of origin, such as Jesse’s self-depreciation from not speaking any other language besides English because he’s an American. Celine also talks about how she feels about her family always converting her dreams into something more “practical” and her constant fear of death. Such conversations are delivered by the actors naturally and effortlessly because they are simple. But at the same time, the topics within those conversations are complex enough to make viewers enjoy the dialogue and reflect on their respective points of view. “Before Sunrise” relies on the simple delivery of complex topics to make intelligent conversations. These conversations make both Jesse and Celine’s characters develop as the film progresses, and it is what also makes the romantic chemistry build between them.

The film’s cinematography elements are also simple, yet they are vital to the film’s advancement of the love story between Jesse and Celine. In particular, the shot selections, camera movements, and scene transitions promote the natural growth of romantic tensions between the characters. These elements mainly focus on maintaining subtlety so viewers can focus better on the characters’ development as individuals and as a couple as the film progresses. 

The film mostly uses two-shot framing with Jesse and Celine to show they are on the same page in their one-day romantic adventure. From the bus scene up to the train station scene, right before they say goodbye to each other, Jesse and Celine are mostly always together in one frame. There are only some different scenes, such as the over-the-shoulder (OTS) shots at the train, the Ferris wheel, and the riverboat café scenes. The OTS shots in these scenes help emphasize more intimate moments like the thrill of adventure, romantic tension, and dramatic conflict, respectively.

Similarly, the film uses minimal camera movements to maintain the subtleness of the romance between the characters despite its plot being centered on a one-day love story. With the established time limit of less than a day for love to grow between Jesse and Celine, the camera movements aimed to contradict that seemingly fast-paced timeframe and build as much romantic development as possible. As the film’s love story is on a symbolic race against time, the camera movements are intentionally minimized to emphasize the idea that while Jesse and Celine want to slow down time, they also understand that it cannot happen because they already know that everything will end before sunrise. The cemetery scene features a slow panning, the carnival scene has a slow upward tilt, and the street exotic dancer scene also features a slow tracking shot. These camera pans, tilts and tracking shots were done subtly and slowly to ensure that viewers understand the characters’ feeling of wanting to enjoy every moment for as long as they can.

Finally, scene transitions also help maintain the spontaneity and naturalness of the characters’ romantic development. The film primarily uses basic and J and L cuts to make the conversations between Jesse and Celine look more naturally connected and at the moment. With these transitions, viewers are able to feel the realness of conversations between the characters because they get to hear their banter continuously while seeing the visual aspect of face-to-face conversations at different camera angles.

These cinematography elements are subtle and simple, yet they significantly impact how “Before Sunrise” delivers the complexities of human life and love to its viewers. With simple framing, movement, and transitions in the scenes, Jesse and Celine’s love story seemed to be perfectly balanced between fantasy and reality.

Likewise, the intelligent yet straightforward dialogue in the film became the very foundation of the love story between Jesse and Celine. Because of these well-thought-out conversations, viewers feel love and romance in its rawest form and think about the complexities that come with finding, defining, and keeping love and romance. Even if the film leaves the viewers to speculate on whether Jesse and Celine will see each other again in six months, it will always remind them that the journey of love they saw in the characters was more worth remembering than their endgame.

Before Sunrise. Directed by Richard Linklater, performances by Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy. Columbia Pictures, 1995.