Before Sunset

Nine years have passed since Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) spent a random single evening together roving and chatting in Vienna in the intoxicating Before Sunrise. Jesse is now a successful novelist, and the two estranged lovers meet again in France during his last stop on an international book tour. Jesse and Celine sort of pick up the conversation where they left off, in a sublime talkathon about love and life that escorts us through Paris while Jesse’s flight departure time creeps up on them. The screenplay, which Hawke and Delpy co-wrote with director Richard Linklater, and a song performed by Delpy both deserve Oscar nominations. This film, like its predecessor and such oddities as My Dinner With Andre, resurrect and reinforce the art and potency of and need for candid conversation. M.H.