Repost: Before Midnight (September 14th and 15th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[BEFORE MIDNIGHT screens Saturday September 14th at 9:30 pm and Sunday September 15th at 6:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Pamela Zoslov

In the 1995 film BEFORE SUNRISE, Céline, the young woman played by Julie Delpy, tells Jesse, the young man she has met on a train in Europe, that her mother always regretted not pursuing a relationship with a certain young man she had loved. Jesse (Ethan Hawke), the realist to Céline's idealist, remarks that Céline mère would only have regretted it later – real life could never measure up to her fantasy.

Jesse's statement presages BEFORE MIDNIGHT, the third in Richard Linklater's romantic trilogy (after BEFORE SUNRISE and its 2004 follow-up, BEFORE SUNSET). The films are dialogue-heavy duets set in foreign locales, in which the two principals talk about philosophy, literature, religion, sex, and everything under the sun. Alongside their conversation – sometimes captivating, other times insufferable – the pair enact a tentative, growing intimacy. Strangers when they met – when Jesse impulsively talked the bright, pretty French Céline into getting off the train with him to spend a memorable day in Vienna -- they are by now a couple, having reunited in Paris in BEFORE SUNSET. Jesse, now a successful novelist, has divorced the wife he married in the interregnum and decamped to Paris to join Céline and raise the adorable Raphaelite twin daughters conceived during their reunion. The exotic locale in BEFORE MIDNIGHT is a Greek island where Jesse and Céline have spent the summer with friends and his teenage son, Hank, from a former marriage.

Before Midnight

Review by Pamela Zoslov

In the 1995 film BEFORE SUNRISE, Céline, the young woman played by Julie Delpy, tells Jesse, the young man she has met on a train in Europe, that her mother always regretted not pursuing a relationship with a certain young man she had loved. Jesse (Ethan Hawke), the realist to Céline's idealist, remarks that Céline mère would only have regretted it later – real life could never measure up to her fantasy.

Jesse's statement presages BEFORE MIDNIGHT, the third in Richard Linklater's romantic trilogy (after BEFORE SUNRISE and its 2004 follow-up, BEFORE SUNSET). The films are dialogue-heavy duets set in foreign locales, in which the two principals talk about philosophy, literature, religion, sex, and everything under the sun. Alongside their conversation – sometimes captivating, other times insufferable – the pair enact a tentative, growing intimacy. Strangers when they met – when Jesse impulsively talked the bright, pretty French Céline into getting off the train with him to spend a memorable day in Vienna -- they are by now a couple, having reunited in Paris in BEFORE SUNSET. Jesse, now a successful novelist, has divorced the wife he married in the interregnum and decamped to Paris to join Céline and raise the adorable Raphaelite twin daughters conceived during their reunion. The exotic locale in BEFORE MIDNIGHT is a Greek island where Jesse and Céline have spent the summer with friends and his teenage son, Hank, from a former marriage.

2 Days in New York (opens August 31st at the Cedar Lee Theatre)

[2 DAYS IN NEW YORK opens in Cleveland on Friday August 31st exclusively at the Cedar Lee Theatre.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

“There just aren't enough quirky indie films about self-absorbed artist types living in New York,” said no sane person ever. Nonetheless, star/co-writer/director Julie Delpy has made another one with 2 DAYS IN NEW YORK, a sequel to her 2007 film 2 DAYS IN PARIS. Don't worry if you missed the prior 2 DAYS; everything you need to know is capsulized in a puppet show introduction.

The film is essentially an arthouse version of something like MEET THE PARENTS. Fine art photographer Marion (Delpy), her live-in writer/talk radio host boyfriend Mingus (Chris Rock), and their two children (each from previous relationships) are preparing to host a visit by Marion's family who have flown in from France: her widower father Jeannot (Albert Delpy), her sister Rose (Alexia Landeau), and, unexpectedly, Manu (Alexandre Nahon), a past boyfriend of Marion's who is now dating Rose.