Before Sunrise: Eternal conversations in a fleeting summer.

One of the films that most remind me of the summer feeling are those that reflect the ephemeral nature of what the concept of summer embodies in our lives. There are summers that do not need heat or calendars. Summers that do not occur on a beach or under a scorching sun, but in the way a night stretches out, in how two people decide to break with the logic of the world and simply let themselves go. Before Sunrise is just that: an emotional summer. One that is not measured by the season of the year, but by the spirit in which it is lived.

Jesse and Céline weren't looking for anything. They met by chance on a train, as if the universe opened up for a second to allow something improbable and powerful to happen, the spark of fleeting but intense love. That is the energy of summer: a pause in the routine where everything seems possible. Where decisions are made without too much thought. Where one dares to talk to a stranger, to get off in a strange city, to walk aimlessly just because.

In that freedom there is something profoundly youthful, but not in the sense of age, but in the desire to live intensely, if only for a moment. Youth, like summer, has an expiration date. And maybe that's why it feels so urgent, so precious. Jesse and Céline know, even if they don't say it all the time, that theirs will last only a few hours, a single night. But far from repressing them, that certainty drives them. Because the temporary, when embraced without fear, can become eternal.That state of mind - of improvisation, risk and surrender - is what makes Before Sunrise evoke summer even without mentioning it. Be it in its long conversations, its reflections, its walks or the same vivid shots that permeate our protagonists in their story through Vienna. No matter what season the screen shows: what matters is what you breathe. And what you breathe in this film is the feeling of living something unrepeatable. Something as ephemeral as a night on June 16, 1994, which never seems to want to end.The city as the setting for an intimate summer

There are cities that do not have to speak to become unforgettable. In Before Sunrise, Vienna is not just the background of a story; it is a living, silent presence that is there uncut. A city that doesn't ask to be the center of attention but that ͏marks all the memories you are witnessing. Like those places where one day we were happy without noticing it ͏completely.

The Viennese night is warm, melancholic, almost dreamlike. There are no great illuminated monuments or tourist shots: there are empty squares, closed shop windows, dim lights that seem to keep secrets. Every space Jesse and Céline pass through, be it a record booth, a bohemian café or a silent park, becomes an intimate corner, a fleeting refuge where they can continue to discover each other, continue to adopt part of each other's essence and make it seem that love will always look the way they see it. Everything seems arranged just for them, as if the city welcomes them into its nocturnal embrace without asking questions.

That atmosphere is profoundly summery. Not because of the weather, but because of the sensation of inhabiting an unknown space with the lightness of someone who is passing through, but allows himself to connect with the environment, the experiences and the people. In summer we travel, we walk through new cities with our eyes open, with our soul exposed. We become vulnerable to the landscape, to unexpected beauty. And sometimes a random street can stick in the memory more than a monument.That is what Vienna generates in this particular and beautiful story. It becomes an emotional map. It is not the tourist city that we remember, but the shared city. The one that becomes the scene of a conversation that changes everything. The one that, without saying a word, keeps forever the story of two strangers who met by chance and chose to stay a little longer.Maybe we all have a city like that. A place that reminds us of an intimate summer, real or imagined, that reminds us of a person, smells, landscapes or experiences. A place where we were others for a while, where we could turn off the brain and let it be free for a few moments of life. And every time we remember it, we become ourselves again for a moment.

Conversations that transcend time and the screen: love as an eternal experience.

One detail to note that I recently discovered, which I love about this trilogy in general, is the fact that, actually, Before Sunrise is not original, it is a remake of a date, the date with Amy. You might ask yourself; "Who's Amy? She's not in the movie." And yes, she is in the movie, she's in the credits.

Amy was a 20 year old girl who walked into a toy store in Philadelphia and changed our lives forever. There she met Rick by chance. Yes, our Rick. Richard Linklater, the director of the Before trilogy.

They spent the night together, just as Céline and Jesse did. They walked the streets, talked about their lives, about art, about religion, listened to a record in a record store (Yes, they listened to the same Kath Bloom record that appears in the movie) and even kissed. Late in the evening, Richard, told her a phrase without which these movies could not exist:

- I'm going to make a movie of this.

About this? asked Amy.

- Yes, of this. Of this night, of these conversations, of this thing that's happening between the two of us.

And six years later he did, and Before Sunrise was born. But Amy didn't know that. Linklater and Amy had tried to maintain a long-distance relationship, but it hadn't worked. And over time they had lost track of each other. Linklater had several showings in Philadelphia, the city where they dated, and expected Amy to show up, not to resume anything. Simply to see each other. But Amy still didn't show up.

So Linklater made it all more obvious in the second film. A writer writing about the night he spent with a girl I can't forget. And he leaves this sentence: "I wrote the book as a way to find you" However, there was no news about Amy. It wasn't until 2010, when he was beginning to consider the third film, that he received a letter from a friend of Amy's. Amy had died 16 years earlier in a car accident. Amy had died 16 years earlier in a car accident. Only 3 months before he started shooting Before Sunrise.

Linklater suffered a lot with the news, he still hoped to meet her somewhere and reconnect. Even if it wasn't as a couple anymore, maybe just knowing how the time had passed for her.

That's why I like this story and everything Linklater did so much, because like a good screenwriter, he adapted his story to the screen, his summer, his reality, his own story and his desires, to immortalize it.

There are loves that ͏last for years and leave almost no mark. And there are others that come in just ͏ ͏ ͏one night, but ͏stay with us forever. B͏efo͏re ͏Sunrise falls into that second group. Jess͏e and Céline are barely together for a few hours, but what they build in that short time is very͏ strong and rejects any rule of time. Because it's not about how long something lasts, but how we live it.

The bond between them is born without expectations. There is no plan, no promises, no assured future. And maybe that's why it blossoms so strongly. It is the same kind of connection that can emerge in a summer: when everything is lighter, when there are no routines to interfere, when one gives oneself without knowing if the next day one will see the other again. That feeling that time does not exist, only the now, that is what gives depth to what they share.

The most beautiful thing about this film is that affection is not shown with great actions, but in something simpler and stronger: the talk. The way they listen to each other, ask questions, reveal. I consider that this film, despite being a constant conversation, is not only about that, but also about glances, light touches, smiles, small details. Every word they say is a way of closeness. You fall in love by talking, discovering who you are in front of each other. When you allow yourself to be you, without masks, because you know that moment will not be repeated.
Many of us remember a specific summer with a mixture of nostalgia and gratitude. Not for what happened, but for how it made us feel. For how it ͏changed us, however short. What Before Sunrise catches with a strong ͏dolor is that quick is not always shallow and sometimes a few hours of chats are enough to alter the path͏ of a human being. Jesse and Céline are not sure if they will see each other again. But what they went through͏that night is something they will never forget, because the most ephemeral summer sensation of their life is the one that transcended into the eternity of their love.