purple.light

Thursday, May 27, 2004

Before Sunset 

The concept of fate has always intrigued me.

Of course, the modern man would argue that fate is not something that is pre-ordained but in our hands. We control the paths that we take, we decide who and what we want to be. On the other hand, there are people in the other camp who say that everything we do, every road we trudge has already been etched in our books of destiny long before we were born.

Fate, to me, is such a simple word and yet such a complex concept to grasp. I'm a product of technology and modern science, should I believe in something so abstract? But I'm a student of the Arts, a romantic, an imaginative idealist - I like to believe that as much as we make our own decisions in life, Fate plays a part too.

Let's take love. Can we decide who we love and leave? Why is it that of the hundreds, thousands of people we meet in the course of our lives, we only spark with a certain few individuals and not the rest?

While looking through movie trailers on iTunes, one particular film stood out.

It's called Before Sunset, starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. The movie is based on a very interesting premise - What if you had a second chance with the one who got away?

This is actually a sequel to 1995's Before Sunrise. In it, Hawke's Jesse and Celine, played by Delpy met on the Eurail train and spent 14 beautiful hours together in Vienna. It ended with them swearing to meet again six months later. Now, nine years have passed since that last meeting. They see each other again at a bookstore in Paris, where he's doing a book reading of the novel he wrote on their night together, and where she lives. They spend the limited time they have before he catches his flight back to New York. Although both are in committed relationships now, they discover that the magical and powerful feelings they had shared nine years ago were still present.

The heavy question of "what if?" hangs over the entire film, similar to 1998's Sliding Doors, starring Gwyneth Paltrow. The idea that it could have ended differently is a very poignant thought. But you are grounded by the fact that this is how the ending goes in reality, there is no fairy tale. Or is there?

I never did watch Before Sunrise. At that age, romantic love was not something that concerned me. But if I have the chance to do so now, I would. And so far, reviews for Before Sunset have been enthusiastic. I'll definitely be catching it when it arrives. In the meantime, here's the trailer.




What's Playing on iTunes
100 Years from "The Battle for Everything" by Five For Fighting

yAnn at 5/27/2004 02:30:00 AM