Love, dialectics and cinema

When Richard Linklater, director and creator of the "trilogy before", entered one day in 1989 at a toy store in Philadelphia, he did not know that he was going to spend that night walking and talking around the city with a woman he would meet fortuitously in that same store. When Jesse and Céline sat in the same train carriage that left from Budapest to Vienna, they were not aware that they had a stranger by their side with whom they were going to live the most romantic and magical night of their lives. When it premiered Before the Sunrise (Before sunrise) at the 1995 Sundance Festival, it could not be presaged that an independent, low-budget film would rise in Berlin with the Silver Bear to the best direction. Nor that this small work of two characters walking, knowing each other, talking about the transcendental and the prosaic ... would be the beginning of the best romantic trilogy in the history of cinema.

The time between films is fundamental to understand the transcendence of the trilogy. Nine years after the first film came Before sunset (Before sunset, 2004), the sequel that took the story of Jesse and Céline for so many years after that night in Vienna. The eighteen years that pass between Before the dawn (Before sunrise, 1995) and Before the evening (Before midnight, 2013) is the necessary time for the characters to grow and develop in real time. It is as if the camera were witness to the first encounter and the birth of love and every nine years we got close to see how they are doing, in what vital point they are and in what state their relationship is. In this way, the viewer has evolved between movies at the same pace as the characters in the fiction; I may even find parallels between history and his life or maybe not; he will have fallen in love, married, divorced, disappointed, he will have had a thousand adventures or he will not have known love; In any case, the viewer has grown at the same time that the characters and their life experience can be compared, even if it is not similar.

Identification with the spectator and respect for real time are the two pillars on which the love of Jesse and Céline is built in fiction. A relationship with characteristics conducive to a study that, with the appropriate theoretical framework, helps us to understand a little more the couple and love. But ... Can a film trilogy aspire to be a universal example of love? Can we understand relationships if we look at Jesse and Céline? Do we have the right tools for that analysis? Although they are purposes that far exceed the ambition of a criticism, the occasion deserves at least to try. If the "trilogy before" is the example, Hegel's dialectic is the tool to analyze it. Getting into flour and in basic terms, the Hegelian dialectic establishes three moments: thesis, antithesis and synthesis. That is, the affirmation (thesis), the opposition to the affirmation (antithesis) and the conclusion of that confrontation (synthesis). This dialectic is very useful for its application in various fields and is what Gerald Cohen uses to apply it, for example, to relationships.

Cohen establishes three stages (similar to Hegel): undifferentiated unity (thesis), differentiated disunity (antithesis) and differentiated unity (synthesis); which can be applied directly to relationships and in particular to Jesse and Céline. The undifferentiated unity is falling in love, both people renounce their individual freedom to merge into one, leave aside the "I" to become strong as a whole. It is what is popularly known as passionate love, the renunciation of logic and reasoning, is what happens that Viennese night in Before the Dawn (Before sunrise, 1995). Differentiated disunity is the phase in which the couple enters when the passion is over / reduced, autonomy and intellectual objectivity are regained, the strength of the "I" destabilizes the relationship, that is, they put their feet on the ground and looks for self-interest; it is the stage in which the majority of the ruptures happen when wanting to recover individual freedom. In this case it is the time and space itself that introduces the relationship of the protagonists in this stage; they have no contact for nine years, the period of time that passes until they reach Before sunset (Before sunset, 2004). When the second phase is overcome, if it is achieved, we arrive at the differentiated unit, where the appearance of two "I's" is saved to obtain balance through respect and learning, it is the point at which they reach the end of the second movie. But just as in the dialectic of Hegel, the attainment of differentiated unity (the synthesis) is not the end of the path. As we can see in the last movie - Before nightfall (Before midnight, 2013) - the relationship is constantly changing; the dialectic to the circular being causes that the synthesis becomes thesis and begins again the process, in the same way that Jesse and Céline cross different tessituras and have to return to find the balance between their individual liberties to maintain the love in the couple .

Jean Cocteau argued that cinema was "filming death doing its job", beyond that we can dare to say that Linklater in the process has also filmed love. Or at least one of the cycles of that dialectic continues. The "trilogy before" is many things. It is a fleeting and nocturnal romance, it is a reencounter against the clock and it is a stay of disagreements and reflection. It is dialogue, walks and traveling. It's a train, a bookshop and a hotel. It's Austria, France and Greece. It's Julie Delpy, it's Ethan Hawke and it's Richard Linklater. It's philosophy, dialectics and cinema. It is love, freedom and balance. It is thesis, antithesis and synthesis. It's a sunrise, a sunset and an evening.

This trilogy is unique, it is very different from any romantic movie, it is one of my favorites by far, for those who have not seen it and have their doubts about watching a romantic movie, believe me that this is an excellent option, it is a very real, with very good dialogues; besides that it is simple, one feels part of the conversation of the protagonists, I love it and whenever I can I see some, everyone have a good day and thanks for reading!

Raquel დ