Love Hurts, a Lot — The True Story Behind Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy Is One of the Saddest Things You’ll Ever Hear -

The Before trilogy, consisting of three romantic dramas by Richard Linklater, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight, tracks a relationship between two lovers across three decades, from their initial meet-cute as idyllic and hopelessly romantic twentysomethings to their tumultuous marriage as middle-aged people. Each film, told with poetic and elegant storytelling, utilizing time and place with emotional resonance, is equally brilliant, and all together, they make up what is arguably the finest trilogy in cinematic history. The true magic behind this triptych love story starring Ethan Hawke as Jesse and Julie Delpy as Céline is its sense of the ordinary. While deeply philosophical and probing, nothing about this fantastical meeting of two strangers who strike a romance in Vienna is Hollywood-ized. Linklater based the first movie from 1995 on an actual occasion where he serendipitously met the woman of his dreams, but this beautiful moment ended on a shockingly somber note.

Richard Linklater Experienced ‘Before Sunrise’ in Real Life

As movies were getting more high-octane, Richard Linklater emerged onto the scene with indie dramas depicting a slice of life, framing his stories around people talking about life, from trivial matters to aching existential questions. In many ways, the Before trilogy, taking place within a rigid timeframe and relying solely on long-form discussions and monologues to fill up the runtime, is a radical experiment, especially since these non-franchise films are meant to connect with each other. The premise of Before Sunrise, two young romantics touring through Vienna on an evening of sightseeing and ruminating, could read like a parody of a hackneyed student film, but Linklater’s sense of tackling weighty ideas through an accessible lens makes it both charming and profoundly moving.

The capstone of the trilogy, Before Midnight, the least romanticized and most bitterly grounded portrait of a struggling relationship, is dedicated to Amy Lehrhaupt, a woman who Linklater, like Jesse in Before Sunrise, randomly met and spent a night with, a blissful moment that inspired the writer-director to conceive the first movie. As documented by Slate, the encounter between the real 29-year-old Linklater and the 20-year-old Lehraupt in Philadelphia in 1989 closely resembles the narrative arc of Before Sunrise. Linklater, who had just finished shooting his debut film, Slacker, and was visiting his sister, met Lehraupt in a toy shop, and from midnight until six in the morning, they traversed through the city, discussing art, science, movies, and the whole nine yards, all with a touch of flirtatiousness. Whether this brief counter became something more intimate and beyond the platonic stage was left ambiguous by the director.

Why Richard Linklater Was Never Able to See Amy Lehrhaupt Again

Amid this scenic, magical moment pulled right out of a romance novel, Linklater knew he had to capture this feeling of love and reflection on the screen, going so far as to mention the idea for a movie that would become Before Sunrise to Lehrhaupt. He needed to re-create the ineffable quality of this night, which he described as “this thing that’s going on between us,” to his ephemeral lover. Despite being such a talky series, the Before trilogy emphasizes the unshakable power of things that can’t be articulated, as Jesse and Céline are constantly feeling aimless even when holding down steady careers.

Unfortunately for Linklater, he and Amy Lehrhaupt did not experience their own Before Sunset. Although the two tried to establish a long-distance relationship, it eventually fizzled out, and they never saw each other again. At the very least, he hoped she would make a surprise appearance at a screening of Sunrise or any of his films. In retrospect, Sunset could be read as wishful thinking on Linklater’s part, as the story is set into motion when Céline shows up to a reading of Jesse’s book in Paris. In a shocking and tragic turn of events, Lehrhaupt was never able to see any Linklater films because she died in a motorcycle accident in 1994, one year before Sunrise was released. Linklater discovered this around 2010, and he dedicated Before Midnight to her.

“Who knows how we reverberate through each other’s lives,” Linklater reflected. The sad profundity of Linklater being inspired to write and direct a film about a brief romantic encounter, only to discover decades later that the individual responsible for this creative manifestation had died while making two movies about this unique experience must have been unfathomable for the writer-director. The Before trilogy explores time and evolution, and how life zips past us without realizing it. This whole time, Linklater pondered over the late Amy Lehrhaupt as he became a beloved filmmaker, without even knowing about her true, bleak fate. Now that we know Linklater was trying to communicate with a lost soul, the Before trilogy takes on a spiritual component.

The emotional intimacy and sincerity of the Before trilogy always seemed to have tapped into an unforgettable, lived-in experience. These films proved to be more than just autobiographies by Richard Linklater, as they reckoned with the tragedy of never being able to see that one special person again, while also appreciating the transient beauty of life.