Before Midnight

Before Midnight is a 2013 American romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. The sequel to Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004), it is the third installment in the Before trilogy. The film follows Jesse (Hawke) and Céline (Delpy), now a couple, as they spend a summer vacation in Greece with their children.

For other uses, see Before Midnight (disambiguation).

Before Midnight
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRichard Linklater
Written byRichard Linklater
Ethan Hawke
Julie Delpy
Based onCharacters
by Richard Linklater
and Kim Krizan
Produced byRichard Linklater
Christos V. Konstantakopoulos
Sara Woodhatch
StarringEthan Hawke
Julie Delpy
CinematographyChristos Voudouris
Edited bySandra Adair
Music byGraham Reynolds
Production
companies
Distributed bySony Pictures Classics
Release dates
  • January 20, 2013 (2013-01-20) (Sundance)
  • May 24, 2013 (2013-05-24) (United States)
Running time
109 minutes[1]
CountriesUnited States
Greece
LanguageEnglish
Budget$3 million[2]
Box office$23.3 million[3]

Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy began developing a third film in 2011, wishing to replicate the nine-year gap between the first two installments. Principal photography began in August 2012, and took place entirely on the Peloponnese coast in Southern Greece, including the Kardamyli home once owned by author Patrick Leigh Fermor. Like its predecessors, Before Midnight has a minimal plot, with considerable screentime devoted to extended conversations between the characters.

Before Midnight premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2013. It began a domestic limited release on May 24, 2013, and went on general release on June 14, 2013. It grossed $23 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film in the trilogy. It received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for its exploration of romance and age, its screenplay, Linklater's direction, and acting performances. The film garnered many accolades and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for Delpy.

Plot

Nine years since rekindling their relationship,[N 1] Jesse and Céline have become parents to twin girls. Jesse reflects on his inability to maintain his relationship with his teenage son, Hank. Hank flies home to Chicago after vacationing with the couple and their children on the Greek Peloponnese peninsula, and lives with his mother, Jesse's ex-wife.

Jesse is a successful novelist, while Céline is at a career crossroads, considering a job with the French government. The couple discuss their concerns over Hank, as well as Céline's career, and reflect on love and life over dinner with friends. Their friends pay for a hotel room for the couple; while walking to the hotel, Jesse and Céline reminisce about their initial meetings, and wonder if they would become a couple if they met in their present state.

After reaching the hotel, they begin to get intimate but are interrupted by a phone call from Hank, who seems to have bonded with Céline more than Jesse. They eventually have a fierce argument, expressing fears about the strength of their relationship. Jesse wants them to consider moving to Chicago so he can be closer to Hank, which Céline thinks will cost her any chance of a career outside her family. During the argument, Céline leaves and returns twice. Then she tells Jesse she thinks she no longer loves him.

Céline leaves their room the third time and sits alone in the hotel's outdoor restaurant. Jesse joins her and jokes that he is a time traveler (referencing their first meeting),[N 2] bringing her a letter from her 82-year-old self, describing this night as one of the best of their lives. Unamused, Céline says their fantasies will never match the imperfect reality. Jesse says while their love may be imperfect, it is real. After a moment, Céline joins in Jesse's joke, and the two reconcile.

Cast

Production

Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, and Julie Delpy had all discussed doing a sequel to Before Sunset (or the third in a trilogy). In November 2011, Hawke said that he, Delpy and Linklater

"have been talking a lot in the last six months. All three of us have been having similar feelings, that we're kind of ready to revisit those characters. There's nine years between the first two movies and, if we made the film next summer, it would be nine years again, so we started thinking that would be a good thing to do. So we're going to try and write it this year."[4][5]

In June 2012, Hawke confirmed that the sequel to Before Sunset would be filmed that summer.[6] Soon after, Delpy denied filming would take place that year.[7] By that August, numerous reports emerged from Messenia, Greece, that the film was being shot there.[8] The completion of the sequel, Before Midnight, was announced on September 5, 2012.[9] Linklater said that, after ten weeks of writing and rehearsing, the film was made in 15 days for less than $3 million.[2] He announced plans to premiere the film at a festival in early 2013.[10]

Release

Before Midnight premiered on January 20, 2013, at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.[11] It had its international premiere out of competition at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.[12]

The film opened to general audiences on May 24, 2013, at five theaters in New York, Los Angeles, and Austin, Texas.[13] It was released wide in 897 theaters on June 14, 2013.[14]

Box office

The film grossed $8,110,621 domestically and $15,141,309 internationally, for a worldwide gross of $23,251,930.[3]

Critical reception

Like the previous entry of the trilogy, Before Midnight received widespread critical acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 98% based on 207 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Building on the first two installments in Richard Linklater's well-crafted Before trilogy, Before Midnight offers intelligent, powerfully acted perspectives on love, marriage, and long-term commitment."[15] Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 94 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[16] It was listed as the third-best film of the year after 12 Years a Slave and Gravity.[17] It was the second-best reviewed film of 2013 according to Rotten Tomatoes, after Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity.[18]

According to Total Film's Philip Kemp, "As with its two predecessors — and with the films of French New Wave director Éric Rohmer, presiding deity of this kind of cinema—Midnight's essentially a film about people talking. But when the talk's this good, this absorbing and revealing and witty and true, who's going to complain?... [It's a] more-than-worthy, expectation-exceeding chapter in one of modern cinema's finest love stories. As honest, convincing, funny, intimate and natural as its predecessors."[19]

Perry Seibert of AllMovie also praised the film, writing: "The screenwriting trio fill the movie with long, discursive conversations (there are only two scenes in the first 20 minutes) that feel utterly improvised when they are performed, but are far too deftly structured to be anything other than the work of consummate artists."[20] Eric Kohn, from Indiewire, gave the film a rave review, adding it to his list of Top 10 Films of 2013. He wrote that "With Before Midnight, Richard Linklater has completed one of the finest movie trilogies of all time."[21] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called the film "intimate and intelligent".[22]

Accolades
Award / Film Festival Date Category Recipients Result
Academy Awards[23] March 2, 2014 Best Adapted Screenplay Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke Nominated
AARP Annual Movies for Grownups Awards[24] January 6, 2014 Best Screenwriter Richard Linklater (with Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke) Won
Austin Film Critics Association Awards[25][26] December 17, 2013 Best Film Before Midnight Nominated
Best Austin Film Richard Linklater Won
Bodil Awards[27] February 1, 2014 Best US Feature Richard Linklater Nominated
Boston Online Film Critics Association[28] December 8, 2013 Ten Best Films of the Year Before Midnight Won
Best Screenplay Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Won
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards[29][30] December 16, 2013 Best Screenplay: Adapted Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Nominated
Critics' Choice Awards[31][32] January 16, 2014 Best Adapted Screenplay Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Nominated
Louis XIII Genius Award Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Won
Denver Film Critics Society[33][34] January 13, 2014 Best Adapted Screenplay Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Nominated
Detroit Film Critics Society[35] December 13, 2013 Best Film Before Midnight Nominated
Best Actress Julie Delpy Nominated
Best Screenplay Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Nominated
Golden Globe Awards[36] January 12, 2014 Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Julie Delpy Nominated
Gotham Awards[37] December 2, 2013 Best Film Before Midnight Nominated
Hollywood Film Festival[38] October 17, 2013 Screenwriter(s) of the Year Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Won
Houston Film Critics Society Awards[39] December 15, 2013 Best Picture Before Midnight Nominated
Best Screenplay Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Nominated
Indiana Film Critics Association[40] December 16, 2013 Best Film Before Midnight Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Won
Independent Spirit Awards[41][42] March 1, 2014 Best Screenplay Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Nominated
Best Female Lead Julie Delpy Nominated
Los Angeles Film Critics Association[43] December 8, 2013 Best Screenplay Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Won
National Society of Film Critics[44] January 4, 2014 Best Actress Julie Delpy Nominated
Best Screenplay Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Won
New York Film Critics Online[45] December 8, 2013 Best Picture Before Midnight Nominated
Best Films of 2013 Before Midnight Won
Online Film Critics Society Awards[46] December 16, 2013 Best Film Before Midnight Nominated
Best Actress Julie Delpy Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Nominated
San Diego Film Critics Society[47] December 11, 2013 Best Adapted Screenplay Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Won
San Francisco Film Critics Circle[48] December 13, 2013 Best Adapted Screenplay Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Nominated
Satellite Awards[49][50] February 23, 2014 Best Adapted Screenplay Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Nominated
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards[51][52] December 16, 2013 Best Adapted Screenplay Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Nominated
Best Art-House or Festival Film Before Midnight Nominated
Toronto Film Critics Association[53][54] December 16, 2013 Best Adapted Screenplay Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Nominated
Best Actress Julie Delpy Nominated
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards[55] December 9, 2013 Best Adapted Screenplay Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Nominated
Women Film Critics Circle[56] December 16, 2013 Screenwriting Award Julie Delpy Won
Best Equality of Sexes Before Midnight Won
Best Screen Couple Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke Won
Writers Guild of America Award[57] February 1, 2014 Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Nominated

^[I] Each date is linked to the article about the awards held that year.

Top ten lists

According to Metacritic, the film appeared on the following critics' top 10 lists of 2013.[58]

The A.V. Club film critics named "The fight" scene the Scene of the Year.[77]

Notes
  1. As depicted in Before Sunset (2004)
  2. As depicted in Before Sunrise (1995)

Footnote
  1. ^ The "Castle Rock Entertainment" logo does not appear in this film's opening.

References
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