For me, the best part of traveling are the hints of possibility. You visit plenty of places and form so many bonds that you can't help but imagine new realities. "I could live here", "I've made lifelong friends", "I've found the one". While these thoughts seem certain for a time, they're often fleeting. Constantly replaced by new prospects.
I explained this epiphany to a literary running mate in Florence, "If every new experience is a dream. The one I never wake from must be my life". In the coming days I would score an extended stay in Italy through hostel mafia connects. My weeks during Carnevale were spent shepherding tourists and couriering furniture through the labyrinth of Venice. In reality most of my days were spent torturously waiting. It was in this period that I wrote poems, the end of my first month in my yearlong EuroTrip. The only time I was compelled to.
I feel this was because it was early in my trip and I was enamored by the potential that lay ahead of me. As the synchronicities piled up and the stories came and went, the wonder and investment diminished. The experiences remained great but as often in life it became about chasing that original high (or maybe just chasing the next one?)
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| Jesse (Ethan Hawke) with an offer Celine (Julie Delpy) can't refuse |
Before Sunrise (1995)Like most of my favorite things, I stumbled onto 'Before Sunrise'. It was the midday movie during a university off-day. I was compelled by this quote in the opening scene and I've been a big Linklater fan ever since. I told everyone about the movie and gave several VHS tapes as gifts. Several years later there were rumours of a sequel born from its cult following and affection for the characters. I watched the Premiere at the Dendy Quays with my then girlfriend and cousin.
Jesse: Alright, alright. Think of it like this: jump ahead, ten, twenty years, okay, and you're married. Only your marriage doesn't have that same energy that it used to have, y'know. You start to blame your husband. You start to think about all those guys you've met in your life and what might have happened if you'd picked up with one of them, right? Well, I'm one of those guys. That's me y'know, so think of this as time travel, from then, to now, to find out what you're missing out on...
The first movie will always be the most uplifting as it captures the promise of youth, each subsequent movie can only get darker as it mirrors the cynicism and weight that comes with age and experience. Whilst 'Before Sunrise' pondered a canvas of possibility, 'Before Sunset' contemplates a filled page. The oppression of history. I'm bracing myself for what 'Before Midnight' has in store. I'm lucky to have discovered the movie the way I did, the anticipation for the films mimics the distance Jesse and Celine have apart. In the intervening time (9yrs between each), viewers would have accumulated their own life experience which will inform their perspective of life and love as they revisit these characters.
To me the movies are about the magic of wonder and how it's important to appreciate the life that is rather than an ideal that's never been. You caution from extrapolating an existence based on "One Fine Day" whilst hoping life could be just that. This was the closing stanza of my first poem in Venezia.
A poem in two parts. ''Travel = Movement/Time'' by Loz in Transit
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To live well one should enjoy the wonder of each moment.
For like a bubble, trying to contain it would be the surest way to lose it.
Over time, our moments become memories.
And longer still our memories turn into madness.
VIDEO: 'Before Midnight' (2013) Official Trailer
I've avoided the trailer and any spoilers which should be no surprise.
'Before Midnight', the beloved trilogy finale will be screening at the State Theatre, 9:30pm June 8 as part of the Sydney Film Festival Program.
Find other posts that reference 'Before Sunrise'
- 'Loz in Transit' on the radio: Talking 'Waking Life' and existentialism
- Trigger: A Memento year - The first 100 days
- Home Movies: 'Before Sunrise' - "I've never been anywhere" quote
