Before Sunset

Pas kemarin googling-googling, saya nemu sebuah kisah tentang latar belakang trilogi Before ini. Ternyata film yang dibuat setiap 9 tahun sekali ini adalah proyek seumur hidup dari sutradaranya, Richard Linklater. Film pertama, Before Sunrise merupakan kisah dari sang sutradara itu sendiri ketika itu dia bertemu seorang gadis bernama Amy dan kemudian mereka menghabiskan satu hari bersama. Sayangnya Richard mendengar kabar kalau Amy telah meninggal karena kecelakaan bertahun-tahun setelah Before Sunrise rilis. Duh, sebuah film yang didekasikan untuk seorang gadis yang hanya bersamanya sehari. Isn’t it romantic?

Jujur, ekspektasi saya pada sekuelnya, Before Sunset benar-benar tinggi entah mengapa. Dan setelah menonton sekuelnya, saya memang lebih suka film kedua ini! :D

Hmm... kenapa ya? Mungkin karena saya lebih menyukai usia-usia di akhir 20-an atau di awal-awal 30-an. Usia dimana kita bisa saja telah menjadi dewasa dalam segala hal (meskipun saya tidak yakin kita akan dewasa dalam masalah cinta). Dan memang dialog di dalam film keduanya ini jauh lebih ‘manusiawi’. Lebih realistis. Jika di film pertama mereka lebih banyak bercerita tentang romantisme, tentang mimpi, tentang pemikiran-pemikiran mereka, di film kedua ini mereka akan lebih banyak bercerita tengtang realitas, tentang semua hal-hal nyata yang terjadi di sekitar mereka. Suka, suka, suka. Pokoknya suka!

Sama seperti Before Sunrise, sepanjang film Before Sunset hanyalah dialog-dialog yang dilakukan oleh Celine dan Jesse setelah 9 tahun tak bertemu, maka saya hanya akan menulis quote-quote favorit dari film ini dan mungkin seluruh dialognya adalah quote favorit saya :D

The story, the idea, is that there's this guy, right....and he's totally depressed. His great dream was to be a lover, an adventurer, you know... riding motorcycles through South America. And instead he's sitting at a marble table eating lobster. He's got a good job and a beautiful wife, right, but that everything that he needs. But that doesn't matter because what he wants is to fight for meaning. You know? Happiness is in the doing, right? Not in the getting what you want. –Jesse-

So I decided what I really wanted to do was to find things that could be fixed and try to fix them, you know? – Celine –

Okay... I know your book is selling, which is great, I'm very happy for you. But let me break the news to you : the world is a mess right now. From a Western view, things are getting a bit better. We're moving industry to developing nations where we can get cheap labor free of any environmental laws. The weapon industry is booming. Five million people die a year from preventable water disease. How is the world getting better? – Celine –

I realize that there are a lot of serious problems in the world. Look, all I'm saying is there's more awareness. People are gonna fight back. The world might be getting better because people like you are educated and speaking out. – Jesse –

Now I'm older and my problems are deeper but I'm more equipped to handle them. – Jesse –

I remember as a teenager I went to Warsaw when it was still a strict communist regime. Which I don't approve of at all. Anyway, something about being there was very interesting. After a couple of weeks, something changed in me. The city was quite gloomy and gray but after a while, my brain seemed clearer. I was writing more in my journal ideas I'd never thought of before. It took me a while to figure out why I felt so different. One day, as I was walking through the Jewish cemetery... I don't know why, but it occurred to me there. I realized that I had spent the last two weeks away from most of my habits. TV was in a language I didn't understand... there was nothing to buy, no advertisements anywhere. So all I'd been doing was walk around, think, and write. My brain felt like it was at rest free from the consuming frenzy. It was almost like a natural high. I felt so peaceful inside. No strange urge to be somewhere else to shop. It could have seemed like boredom at first... but it became very, very soulful. – Celine –

I see the people that do the real work, and what's really sad is that the people that are the most giving, hardworking and capable of making this world better usually don't have the ego and ambition to be a leader. They don't see any interest in superficial rewards. They don't care if their name ever appear  in the press. They actually enjoy the process of helping others. – Celine –

It's okay to want things, as long as you aren't pissed off if you don't get them. Life's hard. It's supposed to be. If we didn't suffer, we wouldn't learn a thing, you know? – Jesse –

Memory is a wonderful thing if you don't have to deal with the past. – Celine –

There's an Einstein quote I really, really like. He said, "If you don't believe in  any kind of magic or mystery you're basically as good as dead." – Celine –

I think that book that I wrote was like building something so that I wouldn't forget the details of the time that we spent together. You know, like, just as a reminder, that once, we really did meet. You know, that this was real, this happened. –Jesse–

I'm happy you're saying that, because.. I mean, I always feel like a freak because I'm never able to move on like this. People just have an affair, or even entire relationships... they break up and they forget. They move on like they would have changed brand of cereals. – Celine –

I feel I was never able to forget anyone I've been with because each person had their own specific qualities. You can never replace anyone. What is lost is lost. Each relationship, when it ends, really damages me. I never fully recover. That's why I'm very careful with getting involved because it hurts too much. Even getting laid, I actually don't do that because I will miss of the person the most mundane things. Like I'm obsessed with little things. – Celine –

Maybe I'm crazy, but 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 or 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 in them 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 bit of red in it and how the sun was making it glow that morning right before you left. I remembered that, and I missed it. – Celine –

The past is the past. It was meant to be that way. – Celine –

I'm a strong, independent woman in my professional life. I don't need a man to feed me but I still need a man to love me and that I could love. – Celine –

Even being alone, it's better than sitting next to a lover and feeling lonely. – Celine –

I was fine until I read your fucking book. It reminded me how genuinely romantic I was. How I had so much hope in things and now it's like I don't believe in anything that relates to love. I don't feel things for people anymore. In a way, I put all my romanticism into that one night and I was never able to feel all this again. Like, somehow this night took things away from me and I expressed them to you, and you took them with you. It made me feel cold, like love wasn't for me. – Celine –

You know what? Reality and love are almost contradictory for me. It's funny, every single of my exes, they're now married. Men go out with me, we break up, and then they get married. And later they call me to thank me for teaching them what love is and that I taught them to care and respect women. I want to kill them! Why didn't they ask me? I would have said no, but they could have asked! I know it's my fault because I never felt it was the right man. Never. But what does it mean, the right man, the love of your life? The concept is absurd. We can only be complete with another person. It's evil, right? – Celine –

I guess I've been heartbroken too many times and then I recovered. So now, you know, from the starts, I make no effort. I know it's not gonna work out. – Celine –

All right, you know what, I'm just happy to see you. Even if you've become an angry, manic-depressive activist, I still like you, I still enjoy being around you. – Jesse –

Sepertinya saya nyaris menuliskan seluruh dialog film itu disini. Haha. Benar-benar suka dengan Celine. Caranya berpikir, tentang segala hal detail, benar-benar ‘menurut-saya-saya-banget’. Percakapan keduanya mengalir sepanjang perjalanan pulang menuju apartemen Celine. And that’s all I want. Someone to talk to like Celine and Jesse.

10.22 AM

UPS Soho