Opening in limited release this weekend is one of the best films you’re going to see this year: Before Midnight, director Richard Linklater’s follow-up to Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.  The new film takes place 18 years after Before Sunrise and 9 years after Before Sunset, and sees Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) navigating married life on a trip to Greece.  Like the previous films, it’s a lot of walking and talking, but it absolutely works because of the intimate and lived-in chemistry between the lead actors, who also co-wrote the film with Linklater.  I can honestly say this is one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time, and even if you haven’t seen the previous films, you should see it when it comes to a theater near you.

The other day, I landed an video interview with Hawke and Delpy here in Los Angeles.  We talked about whether they were more nervous writing the 3rd installment than the previous films due to fan expectations, deleted scenes, how they once tried to improvise and failed miserably, did they make any radical changes to the story during the writing process, the reasons why they filmed the sequel with little fanfare, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

And if you missed my fifteen minute interview with Linklater where we talked about his other projects, click here to watch it.

Richard Linklater:

  • Were they more nervous writing the 3rd installment than the previous films due to fan expectations.  Talks about how they wanted to make a movie with real characters.
  • Talks about their writing process
  • Any deleted scenes in all three films
  • They filmed in Greece.  Did they ever talk about filming in another location
  • Did they always intend to film the sequel with no fanfare and publicity

before-midnight-poster