One could make a strong case that the greatest trilogy of films is The Lord of the Rings, or the original Star Wars episodes, or perhaps Christopher Nolan's three Batman movies. All revolve around a mix of fantasy or science-fiction elements in an epic scale wrapped around classic hero's journey storytelling. They're great, yes. But I recently watched a triad of movies that absolutely floored me.
Richard Linklater's Before trilogy is a masterpiece, unlike any other trilogy. Each entry captures a day in the life of Jesse and Celine in a gorgeous European city. Their serendipitious meeting happens in Vienna 1994 where they have a one night stand; nine years later, they encounter each other in a bookstore in Paris; nine years after that, they are married and vacationing in Greece with their children.
Where other trilogies rely on Hollywood storytelling to create big stakes, epic characters, and action-packed visuals, the Before movies show us what filmmaking can do when stripped down to its raw, bare essentials.
A story that follows its characters in real time during a day that's both typical and significant is not new – James Joyce's Ulysses (1920), Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway (1925), Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962). Not only does each movie execute on this format, which is difficult to pull off, perfectly, the movies connect to each other in wonderfully rich ways.
Making an entire movie about conversation is a bold choice since it means a minimal number of filmmaking elements support the entire enterprise. To keep our interest, the dialogue, both at the sentence level and the topic level, needs to be compelling and the acting has to feel genuine. Pacing is also key.
Despite the fact that nothing really happens in each movie except conversation, it's hard not to feel entranced by the screen. The camera almost always focuses on the couple rather than the lovely scenery behind them. It says, "sure, the background is interesting, but what's more interesting is human connection through speech." What we see is Linklater capturing a set of painfully and delightfully human interactions.
For example, one throughline in Before Sunset has to do with how Jesse and Celine's relationship is more complex now. Firstly because Jesse wrote a book effectively about their one night stand, which now puts a private moment in Celine's life on display. Secondly because Jesse actually flew to Vienna to meet Celine, who never showed up. Finally because Jesse is married and has a kid now. There's a scene in Before Sunset where Jesse and Celine are in a car and you can see one try to give the other a gentle touch but then hesitate. Even though both of them have done nothing but talk, there is still a gap between them because neither one can be fully comfortable with the other.
I love the fact that the movies are separated by nine years both diegetically and in real life. We get the sense that these characters are living a full life, and we just happen to be dropping in and watching a particularly interesting day for them. The fact that Jesse got married is not simply a detail to add some color to his character – it's a real logistical and emotional problem for them in Before Midnight.
I've never seen a trilogy of movies centered around romance and psychology and existentialism. I was afraid that each movie wouldn't live up to the previous one, but they all somehow exceed each other. They exist individually, and yet I cannot reason about one without thinking about its place in the trilogy. It's daring and fresh and reminds me that film is still a nascent art form that has a long way to go.