I am compelled to write this. no, this is not the first time that i feel like writing about a movie but i can't just let it go like that. i saw these movie titles in some "100 best movies that people have not seen" sort of a list on IMDB...and I just made no delay in downloading them ....so glad that i did !....because now they wont ever leave my memory...inside me and inside my computer.
It is so hard to believe that "before sunrise ' was made in 1995 and "before sunset" in 2004 , exactly 9 years later....and the characters actually breath into these two movies just like they would have breathed in real life ...living exactly the same 9 years of their life....such an amazing coincidence...because i have never seen sequels made like that...where each of the actors still remain the same characters they played in a film made 9 long years ago with everything about them remaining exactly the same...their mannerisms, their style, their chemistry...c'mon gimme one example and I will bow to you...but you wont find any...because right now,...whatever i am saying feels so unreal !
Imagine ..there was no sequel and i had seen this movie way back in '95 with no hint that i would have to wait 9 long years to see what happens to these characters from the point onwards where the movie ends...it is so touching...it is so thoughful...it is so full of potential !....the viewer is left with so many options!!!!
and what if i actually saw the sequel in 2004...wow...that would have been an amazing and special feeling...to have actually watched it then.
Nevertheless, this is 2011...so having got the privelege to watch both these movies in quick succession is like watching 2 different episodes of a daily soap!
Each movie , with around one hour and half length looks like a walk in the park...the camera never leaves the two lead actors...as they sit, stand, walk, run, jump, laugh, smile, cry or lie down....the viewer is just there...with both of them..at a very close distance..hearing all their conversation, their laughter, their antics, their eyes ....what an experience...as if you actually spend that hour and half meeting those meeting like a silent spectator and feeling every bit of their actions and reactions without the melodrama, without the sound and show, without the larger than life cinematic experience ....everything is just so so real and natural...it thrills you like a joyride where you are nowhere but still there...omnipresent..surreal.
I think its a major cinematic achievement to make a film in this manner where the camera keeps rolling and rolling without shifting the frame from the central characters and actually walking with them on the street , in the park, on a bridge, inside a pub, inside a restaurant...never giving the viewer a chance to get distracted by the environment, the cinematography or the scenic beauty of the place where the characters are...wow...and the best part is that it never strikes you..it never makes you feel for something else...quite contrary you get so fixed and drawn into the conversations of the characters...that you would feel like joining them and speak your mind !
And what an amazing conversations...wow...such frantic dialogues..such natural ease..such topical discussions..such a free flowing interaction...wow...as if a it was a candid talk show and those two actors were having their own sweet time !
And that is what steals the heart...the "sweet time"...because it really is so short and sweet that you wished it just continued ..that you had just a bit more of it...wish that it would remain still...would never pass..would never go...because when it does passes by...your heart skips a thousand beats.
In "Sunrise" , the actor has to catch a plane...and we are shown the time spent before he flies....exactly nine years later in "sunset"....the situation is same but "time" is different....and the way it passes by...o lord...you are down ...deep into it...the slow sweet passage...there is an uncanny excitement and poignance...matchless...priceless...timeless.
