Imperfect but real, life, marriage and love, Reivew on Before Midnight

The third installment in the "Love" series.

If we say that the first part is an exquisite romantic love film for young people; the second part is the tangled choice between marriage and true love for first-time married and mature middle-aged people; then the third part is about experiencing a beautiful first encounter , What does the imperfect but real life, marriage and love look like for middle-aged people who continue to live together.

In the third part, a lot of characters have been added, and the themes of dialogue are also very rich. The dialogue scene changes again and again. I selected five dialogue themes that I felt the most deeply, and added some miscellaneous thoughts after the original dialogues of the lines in the film.

(Reminder: This article is about 7,000 words, and it takes about 15 minutes to read it)

1. Look at struggle and growth at different stages of life

Jesse and Celine took their children on a one-and-a-half-month holiday in a small Greek village. Towards the end of the holiday, they asked a local friend to help take care of the children, and the two sneaked into the city for a day on a date.

Celine: Remember that letter you showed me? That letter you wrote to your 40-year-old self when you were 20.

Jesse: Of course, I still remember the first sentence: Dear 40 year old Jesse, I hope you don’t get divorced…

Celine: I don't remember that part, I meant to say that there were other things in that letter. You are still the same you, we always feel that we will grow, but we cannot change much.

Jesse: You know how I feel about my change? When I was younger, I always wished time could go by faster, because then I could be myself, free from all the constraints of my parents and school. I wish I could close my eyes and become an adult when I open them. Now everything has become a reality as I wish, but I wish time could stop.

Celine: It's weird, I've had this feeling all my life. It seems like a real memory, but also like a dream.

Jesse: I know you feel that way all the time. Me too, like, is this really my life? Is this all happening now? Every year, I feel more pressure and blows, things I never understand.

Celine: That's what I keep telling you, you don't know anything.

Jesse: I know, I've woken up.

Celine: Actually, knowing nothing is not as bad as you might think. The key is to keep finding, finding, and staying hungry.

Jesse: I just wanted to keep things simple. It is to maintain a certain enthusiasm, everything is so logical. Remember when I was younger, my group of writer friends, we could feel we were doing something important. As if it belonged to our era. When we grow up, we gradually lose the enthusiasm, creativity and ambition of the original, I think it is better to be young and frivolous.

Celine: Young people are like this. They constantly compare themselves to others. They have a lot of criteria for self-judgment. You were like this before.

Jesse: What's wrong with me, what do you mean?

Celine: Like Balzac wrote it at 17, and Scott Fitzgerald wrote it at 30, (Jesse also added a joke) Balzac creates a work every day before breakfast...

Celine: Yes, but women don't think that way. We just have nothing to compare with. Most accomplished women are in their 50s when you first hear about them. Because before this, it was too difficult for women to gain a certain social status. They either struggled for 30 years, or they were stuck at home, husband and child, before they could do what they wanted to do. You know, it's actually kind of liberating. We don't have to be busy comparing Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Tolstoy every day.

Jesse: What about Joan of Arc? She was a little girl who saved France.

Celine: Who wants to be Joan of Arc? Forget France. She was burned alive at the stake, and she was still a virgin. I don't want that, okay, what a great sentiment!

Celine is a very talented woman. I still remember the first part of "Love Is", when they were both in their early 20s and the night they met for the first time, a fortune-telling woman read Celine's palmistry and said that she would be a very outstanding woman in the future. , she and Jesse are both stardust. At the age of 20, she is well-informed, sharp in words, pinpoints the current and wrong, breaks free from all restraints, and her shining appearance is still vivid in my eyes.

And now, in their early 40s, Jesse is a well-known literary writer, and Celine has a small career, but compared to her husband, she obviously spends more time and energy on taking care of the family and gives up to a certain extent. some career opportunities. At this moment, the life and appearance of her 40-year-old is something she could never imagine 20 years ago.

Regarding the attitude of growth, Celine still maintains a high-spirited state, while Jesse is a little relaxed. He wants to live a simpler life. I guess, it is probably such a state - growth does not need to be deliberate, and it comes naturally after more experience. Happened, even if there is no growth at times, stop, it's okay, keep a certain enthusiasm for life, it's good.

2. The state of couples experiencing long-term family life

(Following the topic of Joan of Arc above, after a few seconds of silence)

Celine: Omg...this is so weird.

Jesse: What's wrong?

Celine: Just like that, we walked and talked about everything that wasn't related to diet work.

Jesse: We really haven't been like this in a long time.

Celine: I heard something, can you hear it?

Jesse: The sound of the sea?

Celine: No.

Jesse: What... oh, I get it (holds Celine's hand), no trifling voice. Nothing has been overturned, nothing needs to be cleaned up, and nothing injustice has happened.

Celine: Yeah, when was the last time?

Jesse: When we have nowhere to go.

Celine: Yeah.

Jesse: Remember when we were in the Jardin du Luxembourg? I beat you down on the concrete ping pong table~

Celine: Congratulations! I even beat a pregnant woman with twins! Gentle enough!

Jesse: It's better than losing to a pregnant woman with twins~

Celine: Oh god...

Jesse: You know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking, from the moment we leave our parents until we have kids, and only then, your life is completely yours. It's been about ten years since those days, which is really good. It's like a long wandering, every day, like a long wandering, every day, a week, a year, it doesn't make much difference.

Celine: No...I used to spend my time with my work and my boyfriends, but now I can tell every little thing that happened to my kids over the past seven years.

Jesse: Well... that's right.

Celine: Are you too?

Jesse: Yeah... (touches his nose) I mean, if really divide the time.

Celine: I can't believe it, you even remember? Well... a quiz. Come on, quiz you~ (Jesse smiles and shakes his head helplessly) In August 2009, what happened then?

Jesse: We were on vacation with your parents, Nina got chickenpox, and Ira…

Celine: I didn't expect it.

Jesse: Can you reward me with a five-pointed star?

Celine: Can be considered.

Celine: Can I ask you a question?

Jesse: Of course.

Celine: (holds Jesse's arm, they stop) If we met on a train for the first time today, would you be attracted to me?

Jesse: Of course.

Celine: No, I mean the way I am now. Will you start chatting with me? Will you invite me to get off the train with you?

Jesse: These questions of yours are hypothetical. I mean, I just want to know what my life would be like, in theory.

Celine: (turns around and starts walking) Why don't you just say you're attracted to me?

Jesse: I said (trying to grab Celine's hand but didn't)…

Celine: I just wanted something romantic, but you ruined it all.

Jesse: Well...if I see you on the train, my eyes will be drawn to you, and after that, I'll slowly walk up to you (hold Celine's waist) and say to you, baby, you make me Got a goat struggling with lust... (starts making out with Celine)

Celine: (pushes Jesse away) Shut up, you're so disgusting...the fact that you didn't pass the test (Jesse laughs) and you don't even talk to me on the train, you don't even look at me, a fat man A middle-aged mother with hip hair loss.

Jesse: Alright (continues laughing)…

Celine: Yeah, that's me.

Jesse: You forced me to...

Celine: Yes, that's right. (Can't help but laugh)

Jesse: But in the real world, bald, that day, I did strike up a conversation with you on the train (approaching Celine) I did, and it was the best thing I've ever done...

Celine: Look, goat, how are you (greeting to goat).

(the two look at each other and smile)

Jesse: You know, that's not a good question, the real question is if I invite you to get off with me, will you get off? (Body spreads some distance)

Celine: No, of course not…

Jesse: I'll just say it.

Celine: There are still people waiting for me. You know, a 41-year-old male goat in heat, so scary, I got goosebumps all over, help~ (laughs)

(the two approached again)

Jesse: I can't believe it, I'm 41.

Celine: I can't believe you are so old. I never thought I'd sleep with someone in their 40s.

(The two are separated again)

Jesse: Yeah.

Celine: You know what? You're the oldest person I've ever slept with.

Jesse: Is it? But I know I'm not the oldest guy you ever turned down. That meeting in Warsaw...

(started to eat aged vinegar)

In fact, at the beginning of the film, Jesse and Celine's family are in Greece in the car returning to their holiday home. The two daughters fell asleep in the back seat. Jesse and Celine were chatting about work and family chores, and it happened Disputes, it is almost impossible to speak out about the divorce.

The above interesting, playful and somewhat profound conversation took place after having lunch with local friends, leaving the children aside and entering the short-lived two-person world with only two people alone.

The atmosphere of this conversation is very relaxed and relaxed. The distance between the two is sometimes pushed apart and sometimes narrowed, and there are some parts that need to be taken seriously and are tedious.

This is the ordinary life of a long-running stream. There will be bumps and stumblings, and romance and passion sometimes occur inadvertently. In short, the tone is very natural, and everything is advancing naturally.

3. Assumptions about the rest of your life with your partner

Jesse's grandmother just passed away, a year after her grandfather's death. They have been married for 74 years.

Celine: How old would it be if we also lived together for 74 years.

Jesse: So how long do we start counting?

Celine: I think it should be from when we first met.

Jesse: That should be 1994…

Celine: That's 56 years...

Jesse: We were both 98 then.

Celine: My God, can you put up with me for 56 years? I have to figure out if I can endure you for that long myself.

(both laughing)

Jesse: I also want to know...

Celine: When I was young, I was a little sick. I thought it was very romantic to die with the person I loved.

Jesse: So are you willing to die with me now?

Celine: Maybe, if it's... our first night together, maybe. But that was a long time ago, now... I choose to live~

Jesse: (Disgusting face, Celine approaches him with a smile) I wanted something romantic too, but you screwed up too!

Celine: When we're both 98, you can ask me again. But now... I'm sorry~

(Then Jesse quickly changes the subject)

Can you go on with your partner for the rest of your life? Are you willing to face death with your partner?

When Jesse and Celine were young, in those passionate years, the answers to these answers were all in the affirmative. When the two reached middle age, they had experienced several years of family life together, raising children, thinking about work, worrying about a lot of practical things, and they didn't have time to be too romantic, so they couldn't put the other half in the first place all the time.

But they seem to be able to see further. When they get old, their children leave home and they retire on their own. Slowly, their health is getting worse and worse, and many hobbies and hobbies can no longer be pursued... The rest around me, Only his wife. At this time, 98 years old, maybe not yet 98 years old, ask your wife again:

-Will you die with me and our ashes buried together?

--OK.

4. The ups and downs of life with a partner

Celine: If we were to live together for another 56 years, what would you like me to change?

Jesse: That's another wrong question, and I'm not going to be fooled.

Celine: What do you mean? Is there nothing in me that you want to change? I'm so perfect?

Jesse: Well, actually… just one. If you can change one place, I hope you don't try to change me again.

Celine: You're a manipulative manipulator.

Jesse: Hit you right now. I know your routine.

Celine: Do you think so?

Jesse: Of course. I know everything about you. At least you are the person I know best in the world. But that probably doesn't mean much.

Celine: That's fine now. I feel very close to you. But sometimes, I feel like you're breathing helium and I'm breathing oxygen.

(laughs over)

Jesse and Celine have things they don't like each other and they want each other to change.

Then, the contradictions of the two people's life together broke out on the night they went to the hotel.

It was supposed to be a harmonious and sweet night, but after a phone call from Jesse and his ex-wife's son, the conflict began.

Jesse and Celine counted each other's misdeeds in their daily lives, quarreling, easing up, continuing to quarrel, easing, arguing...Celine slammed the door and left, and immediately came back, crying to her husband to accuse her husband of being for the family And sacrificing her own personal development opportunities, having no time to pick up her beloved guitar after the child was born, and facing the grievances of her two children crying alone when her husband was not at home, Jesse held her hand distressedly, and the atmosphere changed. It eased up, but after a while, the quarrel resumed, and the words of the two were very hurtful. Celine slammed the door again, and soon came back again, but this time she slapped the room card on the table and said—

Celine: Do you know what happened? Simple. I think I don't love you anymore.

Jesse was silent for a while. Looking at the door, she seemed to be expecting her to open the door for the third time and come in. But the door did not move for a long time. He looked around the room again. There were well-done wine, fresh fruit, and a messy bed... It was supposed to be a sweet and beautiful night. Will she leave after this night? Are they over for good? ...

Celine sat alone by the resort's small lake and meditated. The whispering of the lovers around, the hilarity of the children, the high-level talk among the partners... All the noise seems to be separated from her by an invisible but tangible protective film.

The back of a man walked towards him, getting closer and closer until it passed through the protective film. It's Jesse. He walked across to Celine and sat down, playing a small game of imitating a stranger's approach to Celine, picking up the conversation with her. After Celine refused, he played the game of "a time traveler traveled from the future in a time machine to find Celine".

Jesse: I'm here to deliver, I'm from the future. I met you at 82 and she asked me to read this letter to you. So here I am.

Celine: Am I still alive at 80?

Jesse: Yes.

Celine: How is my figure?

Jesse: Great.

Celine: I don't care what I've become.

Jesse: More lovable than you are now.

Celine: All right.

Jesse: Do you want me to read it to you?

Celine: Do I still have a choice?

Jesse: I won't read it if you're not interested.

Celine: No, you read it.

Jesse: Listen up then. Dear Celine, I send this young man to you. He'll be your escort, he's got a lot wrong, and he's spent his life trying to be close to the people he loves the most. He's terribly sorry about that, but you're his only hope. Celine, my advice to you is that you have entered the best years of your life, and looking back at my age, it was only slightly harder than when you were dancing at 12. Celine, you'll be fine, your daughters will grow up to be role models for the feminist movement... Btw, the best experience of my life was a night in the southern Peloponnese...

Celine: Stop the game, Jesse, did you hear what I just said back in the room?

Jesse: Yes, I heard that. don't you love me? I thought you didn't mean that, but if you mean that... you know what? You are like a little girl, hoping that everyone around you lives in fairy tales, I am here to save you, you know? I tell you that I love you unconditionally, I tell you that you are beautiful, I tell you that your figure is still the same at 80 years old... I try my best to make you laugh.

Celine: All right.

Jesse: I put up with a lot of your bad temper, and if you think I'm a dog and keep coming back to you, you're wrong. But if you want true love, that's love...that's life, imperfect but real. If you can't see, you are blind. Well, I gave up.

Jesse turned his head and sighed, maybe he was too tired, really hopeless, and about to give up.

Celine was silent for a while, the originally solemn expression on her face seemed to move, and finally raised her eyes slightly.

Celine: What is a time machine like?

Jesse: What do you mean?

Celine: How does it work?

Jesse: It's complicated.

Celine: Can't you wear clothes during the operation?

Jesse: Yes, if you wear clothes, the clothes can't pass through the space-time continuum smoothly.

Celine: (worshiping ecstatic eyes) Wow, you're so smart, Jesse…

Jesse: (laughs) You know I'm thinking about your letter, you said you lived in the southern Peloponnese, and we're in the southern Peloponnese.

Celine: Hmm.

Jesse: Are you saying tonight is going to be the night you still remember when you were 80?

Celine: Well...it's going to be a great night for sure.

(The camera zooms out gradually, finally.)

Jesse and Celine have been together for nearly 20 years since they first met.

The two met in their early 20s on a train in Western Europe and had a wonderful night in Vienna. After that, the two did not leave any contact information, and agreed to meet again in half a year, but by accident, the agreement could not be realized.

Nine years later, the two met again in Paris due to chance and a little desire to see each other. In the long-term unsatisfactory situation of their respective marriages and emotional lives, the two people who have been obsessed with each other for many years have a long-lost soul collision in the conversation, and sparked a spark of love. In the end, they broke through the barriers of reality, such as geographical restrictions and legal status, and lived together.

After Celine married Jesse, she moved from her native France to Jesse's home in the United States, where she lived for two years in a foreign country. After her daughters were born, she completely transformed from a staunch egalitarian, intellectual and artistic young French woman to an ordinary middle-aged woman who was busy taking care of her children and her husband. While suffering from the headache of being controlled by her maternal instinct, she gritted her teeth and took care of her two twin daughters alone when her husband was on frequent business trips, and even pushed her baby stroller around the block after many times to put her daughters to sleep. One time in the middle of the night, I was almost raped by a drunk. In this way, she has become a dream and her determination has gradually lost. She only has time to think when she is squatting in the WC. She makes Greek salad like a magician, washes her husband's smelly socks, applies sunscreen to the children... ...the sultry charm of the past is still the same, the sharp edge has been dulled, and there are some middle-aged mothers with fat buttocks and hair loss.

Jesse has written several books about his story with Celine, who moved from the US to France after the birth of their daughter in order to take care of her and her daughters. This stay is a full 7 years. He misses his eldest son with his ex-wife, and takes his son to France every year for a holiday with Celine and the others. He tolerated his wife's bad temper and sometimes extremely penetrating offensive words. After quickly digesting a moment's emotion, he used witty and humorous one-liners to bypass and resolve conflicts. When his wife left with harsh words, he slowed down, got up to look for her, thought up words that would make her happy and appease her while walking, came to her side, and looked into her eyes firmly and patiently. The free, casual and romantic American boy has become a slow-tempered, gentle yet humorous, lazy escapist from housework... a middle-aged uncle with a beer belly.

After the first meeting, they separated. After 9 years of separation, we meet again and finally live together. Another 9 years have passed. How many 9 years can there be in life? It's such a deep love, a hard-won marriage, and there are moments when it's on the verge of shattering.

Between continuing and ending, there is such a soft heart, a word to the other side of the stairs, a recovery action, and a little persistence. In the future life, what will change, where will it go... Often just a thought.

5. In the long river of time, see encounter, acquaintance, and companionship

In the film, an old woman misses her deceased husband at the banquet:

—When I think of my husband, I miss him so much at night lying next to me.

Sometimes he would put his arm across my chest and I would not be able to move, even holding my breath.

But I feel... at ease, complete.

I miss him too, the way he walks down the street whistling.

Every time I do something, I think about what he does. It's cold and I have to put on a scarf...

But after that, I gradually forgot the details, the memory kept fading, and I started to forget him.

It's like...

I lost him again.

So sometimes, I try to recall every part of his face, the color of his eyes, the look of his lips and teeth, the touch of his skin and hair... all of these memories flow away with time.

But sometimes, every now and then, just occasionally, I can see him so clearly, it's like I'm pulling out the clouds and he's there, and I can almost touch him.

Suddenly, the truth came back to him, and he disappeared again.

Once upon a time, every morning, at dawn, I would see him. But for some reason, he would disappear into the sun again.

He appears and disappears, like sunrise and sunset, everything is so fleeting.

Like our lives, we appear and disappear, we are important to some people, but we are just passing through.

- Regards, pass by (Cheers)

If you look at your life in the later years of your life, maybe every experience is very short, even if it is the experience of living with your partner for decades. Whether it is the sudden heartbeat when we first met, the joy and pain and tangle in love, the tedious troubles and surprises of having a baby, the ordinary and calm of chai, rice, oil and salt, the occasional romantic joy and sweetness, the collapse and rebirth when encountering rough winds and waves ...these details, events, stages, appear even more ephemeral.

Right now, we are constantly worrying about what is happening right now. He hasn't replied to my message for a long time, it's too much; she's getting angry again over trivial matters, so annoying; he's busy with work again, and the whole planned vacation has gone to waste; she's taking care of this and that, I'm not free...

At the same time, worry about what might happen in the future. If we are with this person, will we often have disputes and conflicts, and will we break up? If we are to marry this person, will the other party affect my career development and who will take care of our family? Second child, whether the other party is willing or not, whether our economy can afford it, whether our energy can bear it...

And if we look back at the age of seventy or eighty, all these worries and worries seem to have become a small microcosm of life. It's like, let's look at the self 10 or 20 years ago now. I was afraid of being separated from my parents in the shopping mall. I was taught by my teacher for not writing homework, and my parents were invited to fight with my classmates. I carefully prepared holiday gifts for my crush. I didn't dare to send it out. My roommate always wakes up early and goes to bed late, making noises that affect sleep... It was annoying at the time, but now I think about it and laugh, it's such a small thing.

This, is not perfect, but real, life, marriage and love.

Love for a person also seems like sunrise and sunset. Appears like a sunrise, sometimes like a sunset, falling little by little, gradually being eroded by the sea horizon and disappearing...