"The cornerstone of director Richard Linklater's career-long exploration of cinematic time, this celebrated three-part romance captures a relationship as it begins, begins again, deepens, and strains over the course of almost two decades. Chronicling the love of Celine and Jesse, from their first meeting as idealistic twentysomethings to the disillusionment they face together in middle age, The Before Trilogy also serves as a document of a boundary-pushing and extraordinarily intimate collaboration between director and actors, as Delpy and Hawke imbue their characters with a sense of lived-in experience, and age on-screen along with them. Attuned to the sweeping grandeur of time-s passage as well as the evanescence of individual moments, the Before films chart the progress of romantic destiny as it navigates the vicissitudes of ordinary life."--Set container.

"An exquisitely understated ode to the thrill of romantic possibility, the inaugural installment of The Before Trilogy opens with a chance encounter between two solitary young strangers. After they hit it off on a train bound for Vienna, the Paris university student Celine and the scrappy American tourist Jesse impulsively decide to spend a day together before he returns to the U.S. the next morning. As the pair roam the streets of the stately city, Richard Linklater's tenderly observant gaze captures the uncertainty and intoxication of young love, from the first awkward stirrings of attraction to the hopeful promise that Celine and Jesse make upon their inevitable parting."--Provided by publisher.

Notes

Originally released as a motion picture in 1995.

Special features: New, restored 2K digital transfer, approved by director Richard Linklater, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack ; The space in between, a new piece in which Linklater and actor-cowriters Juie Delpy and Ethan Hawke discuss the trilogy, moderated by critic Ken Jones ; 3x2, a new conversation between scholars Dave Johnson and Rob Stone about Linklater's work ; behind-the-scenes footage from the film's production.