The Cinematheque

“Astounding … In its bitterness, complication, and psychological revelation, [Before Midnight] recalls episodes from Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage.”

David Denby, The New Yorker

If nine years apart for Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) tested the strength of a memory, the nine years together that precede Before Midnight suggest a test of something much harder to romanticize: familial bonds and lingering questions of commitment. It’s the end of summer for the couple, vacationing in Greece near a circle of friends. No longer isolated in one-on-one dialogues, the two must negotiate interruptions and different points of view. (Greek filmmakers Athina Rachel Tsangari and Ariane Labed are among the cast members who articulate their views on love and the traps of traditions.) Linklater presents Celine and Jesse as changed by their combined history, and capable of both ironic and vindictive score-settling. It’s possible to see shades of all three films come out in their probing, playful, and devastating talk, which searches for that most difficult thing—reinvention using a shared language.

One of the Best Films of 2013
A.V. Club (#1), Film Comment (#3)

“Though possessed of their own, unique merits, the [Before] films work best in concert … Just as this latest entry draws much of its power from its relationship to Sunrise and Sunset, those previous chapters gain new poignancy in retrospective.”

A.A. Dowd, A.V. Club