Richard Linklater | 77 mins | DVD | 15 / R
Nine years on, Jesse and Celine meet again in Paris…
It’s as simple a premise as Sunrise, and in many ways is very similar: it’s essentially two people talking, laughing and philosophising. It’s an odd sort of sequel — it doesn’t just take the same characters into a new story, or directly continue the original. These are the same people, but they’re older and changed. It’s very reflective; it’s almost about the first film, from a different perspective. You also don’t miss a thing — its in real time from beginning to end, showing us every second the characters spend together.
Personally I didn’t think it was as good as Sunrise — it’s not as funny and it sadly closes off some of the original’s beautiful ambiguities. Part of the problem may be that I’m close to the character’s ages in the first film but a good decade out here (though, I hasten to add, that’s not solely it). In the end, it works quite nicely as a companion piece, but (perhaps) not as a film in its own right.
Recently, Sunset beat Sunrise by a noteworthy number of places in Empire’s 500 Greatest Movies poll, which was an interesting result. I stand by my assertion that the first one’s better, and can only theorize that the second installment gains something if you had to wait a decade for it and, perhaps, were closer in age to the characters — the latter I believe is a fairly important aspect in what you get from films of this nature.
Two 20-somethings meet on a train from Budapest to Paris, get off in Vienna and spend the night there until one of them has to fly out in the morning. A simple premise, though you may wonder how it sustains 95 minutes.
I thought I’d seen Gone With the Wind but, watching it again, it’s clear I hadn’t properly.
Period drama focusing on the friendship between Queen Victoria and her Highland servant John Brown, alongside political threats faced by the British monarchy in the 1860s.
Another of Empire’s best films of last year (this one was 21st).
Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard star in the classic romantic drama from highly acclaimed writer Noel Coward and highly acclaimed director David Lean.
Largely improvised Britcom, shot in a documentary style, about three couples trying to win a most original wedding competition.
A host of familiar British faces turn up in this Oscar-winning adaptation of the Austen-novel-with-the-name-like-Pride-and-Prejudice-only-not. Fans of any of the following will love this film: Jane Austen, costume drama in general, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, Kate Winslet.
Gentle, silly humour abound in this comedy, the third in the Road to… series. If you remember those plays that Morecambe & Wise used to do you’ll have a fair idea what this feels like, although with a couple of added musical numbers (and pretty good ones at that). It’s not ‘great cinema’ and it won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it makes for a light, fun way to spend not much more than an hour.
“Everything’s free in America,” goes the famous line; but this film is probably more accurately summed up in its following line: “For a small fee in America”.
100Films.co.uk 