' ' Cinema Romantico: It's The Final Countdown

Thursday, May 30, 2013

It's The Final Countdown


Tomorrow's the day. Finally. Uh, at least for us Chicagoans (my apologies to others). "Before Midnight." Jesse & Celine. One more time. I thought about pontificating yet again about these two characters and their two movies, these two characters and their two movies that have meant such an absurd amount to me for the last fifteen years. But then I thought.....nah. Not today. Not before tomorrow.

Today Jesse & Celine should just speak for themselves.

Celine: "When I was a little girl, my mom told me that I was always late to school. One day she followed me to see why. I was looking at chestnuts falling from the trees rolling on the sidewalk, ants crossing the road, the way a leaf casts a shadow on a tree trunk, little things. I think it's the same with people. I see little details so specific to each of them that move me and that I miss and will always miss. You can never replace anyone, because everyone is made of such beautiful specific details. Like I remember the way your beard has a little bit of red in it. And how the sun was making it glow that morning right before you left. I remember that and I missed it! I'm really crazy, right?"
Jesse: "All right, now I know for sure. You wanna know why I wrote that stupid book?"
Celine: "Why?"
Jesse: "So that you might come to a reading in Paris, and I could walk up to you and ask, 'Where the fuck were you?'"
Celine: "No, you think I'd be here today?"
Jesse: "I'm serious, I think I wrote it in a way to try to find you."
Celine: "OK, that's... I know that's not true, but that's sweet of you to say it."
Jesse: "I think it is true. What do you think the chances were of us ever meeting again?"
Celine: "After that December I'd say almost zero. If we're not real anyway, right? We're just characters in that old lady's dream. She's on her death bed fantasizing about her youth...so of course we have to meet again."
Jesse: "Oh, God. Why weren't you there in Vienna?"
Celine: "I told you why."
Jesse: "No, I know. I just... I wish you would've been. Our lives might have been so much different."
Celine: "You think so?"
Jesse: "I actually do."
Celine: "Maybe not. Maybe we would have hated each other eventually."
Jesse: "Oh, what, like we hate each other now?"
Celine: "You know, maybe we're only good at brief encounters, walking around in European cities in warm climate."
Jesse: "Why didn't we exchange phone numbers and stuff? Why didn't we do that?
Celine: "Because we were young and stupid?"
Jesse: "You think we still are?"

2 comments:

Lexi said...

Perfect!

Alex Withrow said...

Seeing it Sunday. Can't wait.