Before Trilogy

Description

The Before Trilogy (Criterion Collection) 1995, 2004, 2013The cornerstone of the career-long exploration of cinematic time by director Richard Linklater (Boyhood), this celebrated three-part romance captures a relationship as it begins, begins again, deepens, strains, and settles over the course of almost two decades. Chronicling the love of Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke), from their first meeting as idealistic twentysomethings to the disillusionment they face together in middle age, The Before Trilogy also serves as a document of a boundary-pushing and extraordinarily intimate collaboration between director and actors, as Delpy and Hawke, who cowrote two of the films, imbue their characters with a sense of raw, lived-in experience, and as they age on-screen along with them. Attuned to the sweeping grandeur of time’s passage as well as the evanescence of individual moments, the Before films chart the progress of romantic destiny as it navigates the vicissitudes of ordinary life.Before SunriseBefore Sunrise - Richard Linklater 1995 - An exquisitely understated ode to the thrill of romantic possibility, the inaugural installment of The Before Trilogy opens with a chance encounter between two solitary young strangers.Before SunsetBefore Sunset - Richard Linklater 2004 - Impelled by an urgent sense of the transience of human connection, Before Sunset remains Richard Linklater’s most seductive experiment with time’s inexorable passage and the way love can seem to stop it in its tracks.Before MidnightBefore Midnight - Richard Linklater 2013 - The conclusion of The Before Trilogy grapples with the complexities of long-term intimacy, and asks what becomes of love when it has no recourse to its past illusions.DIRECTOR-APPROVED THREE-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURESNew, restored 2K digital transfers of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset and a 2K digital master of Before Midnight, approved by director Richard Linklater, with 2.0 surroundDTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on Before Sunrise and 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks on Before Sunset and Before MidnightNew discussion featuring Linklater and actors Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, moderated by critic Kent JonesBehind-the-scenes footage and interviews from the productions of Before Sunrise and Before SunsetAudio commentary on Before Midnight by Delpy, Linklater, and HawkeDream Is Destiny, a 2016 feature-length documentary about Linklater by Louis Black and Karen BernsteinNew documentary about the making of Before Midnight in Greece by filmmaker Athina Rachel TsangariPLUS: An essay on the trilogy by critic Dennis Lim"DIRECTOR: Richard LinklaterACTORS: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke4 3/4 hrs. Total.Widescreen;Soundtrack: English DTS HD 5.1 Master AudioSubtitles: English (SDH)audio commentarybonus documentary "Dream is Destiny (2016)featurettes; behind-the-scenes footage. Review: Fantastic collection of three fantastic films Review: My favourite trilogy ever, and that includes the Godfather, Star Wars or Star Trek 2-4 and I very much like those movies. Boyhood did one story over 12 years, but Linklater, Delpy and Hawke have created two characters being revisted 9 years later twice. First meeting on a train and a romantic night in Vienna, then in the sequel remeeting after novelist Jesse (Hawke) writes a novel about the night in Vienna and Celine (Delpy) goes to the Shakespeare Book store where he's doing a book signing, and they spend eighty minutes reconnecting before Jesse is supposed to catch his flight home. The third is (spoiler alert) after they've stayed together in Paris, and the natural issues in a long term relationship. It's primarily dialogue thoughts on love, relationships, death, life in general. Great dialogue, performances and some very funny lines. And the extras in the Criterion Collection are entertaining, informative about Director Linklater and his work, and the film transfers to Blu-Ray, beautiful. I highly recommend this.