Aug 19, 2026 · 1 hr 12 min · 9 segments
Bienvenue to Cinema in Seconds! This week, Ian and Dan traverse the continent of Europe, or at least look at movie moments that are set there. So grab your Eurail pass and come join us! Ciao! Before…
which is the setting of Richard Linklater's Before Sunset, which is of course the sequel to Before Sunrise, the famous nine years apart sequel trilogy here that he's got going on.
And actually the fact that it's a sequel is pretty important to the moment I want to talk about.
So it's right at the beginning of the film and there's this little bookstore in Paris where he's doing a book reading.
Jesse, the main character played by Ethan Hawke, is doing a book reading and At this point, that's the first scene, basically.
Like, they've shown little clips of different places in Paris to get the setting, but now this is the first actual scene.
And he's doing a book signing because he actually is a successful writer at this point.
And the reporters are talking to him.
I think they're reporters, or they're at least...
Or maybe they're not.
Maybe they're just patrons of the bookstore.
I was actually...
I don't actually know.
Anyway...
They're asking him about the book, which he wrote, which is essentially he wrote about the first movie, about meeting Selene at the train station and spending the night together.
And the book even has the ending of the movie, which is where they plan to meet again in six months, even though we don't know whether that's the case.
And these three people are trying to basically get him to tell them if that's based on a true story.
And...
What happened? Did they actually meet again in six months? Now, at this point, you and I have seen this movie a number of times.
But if you put yourself into the mindset of somebody who hasn't seen this one yet, but has seen the first movie, you also don't know the answer to that question yet.
And it's very interesting.
And he's, of course, avoiding giving an answer to that.
And he actually says when they say like, well, did you meet? And he says, well, it kind of depends on how you feel.
If you're romantic, you probably believe that we did.
If you're a cynic, you probably think that we didn't or you might be in the middle and you want hope that they did, but you didn't know.
which is the setting of Richard Linklater's Before Sunset, which is of course the sequel to Before Sunrise, the famous nine years apart sequel trilogy here that he's got going on.
And actually the fact that it's a sequel is pretty important to the moment I want to talk about.
So it's right at the beginning of the film and there's this little bookstore in Paris where he's doing a book reading.
Jesse, the main character played by Ethan Hawke, is doing a book reading and At this point, that's the first scene, basically.
Like, they've shown little clips of different places in Paris to get the setting, but now this is the first actual scene.
And he's doing a book signing because he actually is a successful writer at this point.
And the reporters are talking to him.
I think they're reporters, or they're at least...
Or maybe they're not.
Maybe they're just patrons of the bookstore.
I was actually...
I don't actually know.
Anyway...
They're asking him about the book, which he wrote, which is essentially he wrote about the first movie, about meeting Selene at the train station and spending the night together.
And the book even has the ending of the movie, which is where they plan to meet again in six months, even though we don't know whether that's the case.
And these three people are trying to basically get him to tell them if that's based on a true story.
And...
What happened? Did they actually meet again in six months? Now, at this point, you and I have seen this movie a number of times.
But if you put yourself into the mindset of somebody who hasn't seen this one yet, but has seen the first movie, you also don't know the answer to that question yet.
And it's very interesting.
And he's, of course, avoiding giving an answer to that.
And he actually says when they say like, well, did you meet? And he says, well, it kind of depends on how you feel.
If you're romantic, you probably believe that we did.
If you're a cynic, you probably think that we didn't or you might be in the middle and you want hope that they did, but you didn't know.
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