DBACK: Thanks for the reply re: Before Surnise & Sunset - nicely stated. Didn't Ethan & Julie also get screenplay credits for the films? I wonder how much was improv - it sure felt that way, to its credit.
Before Sunset. wow. finally saw it last fall, and was completely in awe. and in love with julie deply. definitely one of the most overlooked films of the past few years. (both in terms of much of the public seeing it, and also awards recognition. i think julie made some critics lists, but to get shut out of the oscars was a crime.)
i never saw the original and this worked fine on its own, though i imagine it would have been even better with the first one, and the long wait.
ethan hawke was the main reason for the delay. i've never liked the guy: something about his manner turns me off, and that wispy facial hair looks like he's 14, trying to grow something--a huge physical turnoff.
but this film turned him around for me. he was very good, and yes, they both got writing credits, and from what i read most of it was ad-libbed/collaborated between the three. wow. they are some fucking smart people. because even most really smart people i know what be boring as hell to watch converse on their good days. and not nearly so full of great ideas.
i wrote on and on about this film on my blog when i saw it. (just looked it up and prefer this description of ethan: "I don't mind looking at him anymore, even if he would be infinitely more pleasing without all that wispy kudzu he can't really grow creeping around his mouth."
hehehe
i thought i had capture two dozen of my favorite moments there, but apparently i scribbled them down in the margin of a newspaper beside me and never got around to typing them in. i think it's still around somewhere, filed somewhere. but i did summarize my favorite:
OK, my favorite was his sudden lament, late in the game, when he started unveiling more of the truth, that his sex life was abysmal, like one of those Trappist monks he'd been talking about, ten times in four years, maybe, and she starts laughing at him, and he's a little hurt--"you think that's funny?"--and she explains no, no, I'm not laughing at your sex life, I'm just wondering where these monks are who get to have sex ten times every four years.
hehehe
http://blogs.salon.com/0001137/2005/09/15.html#a1673