Fans of The Big Lebowski will be gathering in Austin, Texas this week for Lebowski Fest Austin.  Lebowski Fest is an annual gathering of all things Lebowski featuring film screenings, bowling, celebrity appearances, and, of course, White Russians.  Later this year, in September, Louisville, Kentucky will be hosting their sixth annual festival.  Other locations for Lebowski festivals include Los Angeles, California and New York, New York.

http://www.lebowskifest.com/

After my last posting about Before Sunset, the sequel to Before Sunrise, I read a posting on FilmFiler.com about the upcoming Rocky VI sequel. Then today TBS has been playing Rocky I through Rocky IV. I liked the Rocky movies and look forward to Rocky VI.

I started thinking about which sequels I wouldn’t want to see. There are lots, but I thought it might be funny to work up a promo for a sequel I really wouldn’t want to see, like I used to do back in my Fark photoshopping days.  Here’s one I came up with.

American History X2 - X Squared: Suburban Angst

Please add your suggestions for bad sequels in the comments section.

When it comes to movies, I’m a sucker for a good romance. I think most guys will admit they are even though the perception often is that men shun all emotional movies; guys like guy flicks with huge explosions, car chases, and hand-to-hand combat, and we don’t like chick flicks and we have to be bribed to go see one. That’s a lot of garbage. Most guys I’ve met respect a good tear-jerker. Like the scene in Field of Dreams when Kevin Costner is about to just walk away from his chance to spend time with his long-since dead father, but stops and turns, and says, “Dad? Wanna have a catch?” Or at the end of Saving Private Ryan when Private James Francis Ryan, now an old, retired grandfather, stands over grave of Tom Hanks’ character, Captain Miller and salutes. Sure, Field of Dreams is a sports movie and Saving Private Ryan has both explosions and hand-to-hand combat, but no doubt both movies hit guys in the soft spot and we like it.

An particularly sentimental movie that I really like is Before Sunrise starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. I’ve written about Ethan Hawke before when I wrote about Gattaca; he made Before Sunrise two years before that film. Julie Delpy is a beautiful French actress who was fantastic as the titular call girl/bank employee in the Quentin Tarantino-produced film Killing Zoe with Eric Stoltz. In this film, she stars as Celine, a passionate French girl who is traveling home by train when she meets a young American, Jesse, played by Hawke, who has one last day in Europe before heading home. Sparks fly between the two and on impulse, Jesse asks Celine to get off the train in Vienna and spend the day with him. She thinks for a moment but then agrees, or otherwise we wouldn’t have a movie, and the couple head off to love and adventure before sunrise comes and Jesse has to leave.

WARNING: SPOILER. If you have not seen this movie and are interested in it, do not read further.

As the young couple walks through the streets of Vienna, locked in conversation, we learn how each has been affected by the world and how they affect their own lives. We see their flaws and their strengths as they discuss their passions and desires. Celine is a dreamer with a big heart who is passionate about fighting against injustice. Jesse is a sarcastic, doubting Thomas who we learn has recently been dumped by his girlfriend after having travelled to Italy to surprise her at school. It seems the more the couple talk, the more they fall in love, and the more we want to see them be together. It is to both Hawke’s and Delpy’s credit that they created two characters who appear to be so much in love. The writer, Richard Linklater of Dazed and Confused fame, weaves a strong love story mixed with doubt. We can see how Jesse’s cynicism toward ever seeing Celine again frees him to gamble with their emotions while Celine’s passion and heart keep her from truly opening up for fear of being crushed by the inevitable separation. Eventually, love overcomes Celine and the two end the night by making love in the park. After all, this is a guy’s romance so a one-night stand with a hot French chick on the hero’s last night in Europe was inevitable all along.

When the movie ends, the couple decides to agree to meet again, but as the two walk away, we’re left with the question of whether it will really happen. At least that was the case until Linklater made the sequel, Before Sunset, 9 years later. I love Before Sunset for its own value, but I love it more because it finally answers that question… sort of. Very rarely does a sequel come when one is needed as it did with this one. Some sequels were written by design, as was the case with the Matrix trilogy; some were written contingent on the success of the first, as evidenced by the addition of “To Be Continued...” to the ending of the VHS release of Back to the Future; some were written as simply an inferior rehash of the original, like with Grease 2; and others simply because the producers knew they could milk yet more money out of the public, as is the case with Rambo III which although third in the series is technically only the second Rambo film, the first being named First Blood. It’s not often that a sequel is written because the original story left a hole that people wanted to see filled. Rocky II, another Sly Stallone sequel, is probably the most noteworthy among these types of sequels, but I’d also include Eddie and the Cruisers 2: Eddie Lives! and Before Sunset, both written and released years after their originals.

When the movie begins, we find that two have not been spending the past nine years together and in fact have not seen or heard from one another all these years. Jesse has become a writer who’s popular novel is, surprise, written about his encounter with a young French woman on a train and their one day together. The opening scene features a mature Jesse hosting a Q&A with curious reporters and various literati in a bookstore in France during a European promotional tour. The questions and Jesse’s answers quickly get us up to speed and sum up all the debates fans of the original may have had. At the conclusion of the talk Jesse holds back on revealing whether or not the book is based on a true story and breaks away from the group, when who should walk in, but Celine herself. Thankfully, a Linklater film seldom holds back and just gives us the good stuff.

WARNING: SPOILER. If you have not seen this movie and are interested in it, do not read further.

As the movie plays out, we come to find out that Jesse did in fact fly back to meet Celine only to have his heart broken when she never appeared. Celine explains that she tried to attend, but her grandmother, about whom she had talked to Jesse in the first movie, had died and the funeral was held on that very day. Along with Jesse, we want to believe Celine, but there are nagging doubts and questions about whether she really loved Jesse then or could still today. However, while the couple converse, as much and as often as in the first movie, we learn that little has changed about their minds or their passion for each other. A particularly risque scene features the two talking on a park bench about the particular words they like to hear in the bedroom. When Jesse enthusiastically agrees to Celine’s offer of the word “pussy”, she squirms with hunger and desire; however Jesse misses the reaction and although we have a clue to her current feelings, he remains trepidacious.

For good measure, Linklater throws another hurdle between the two lovers when it is revealed that Jesse is married and has a child. Jesse’s admission that he is unhappy in his marriage and wishes that things had turned out differently for the two does little to cause Celine to open her heart once again to him. In the years between that one day with Jesse she has become despondent and pessimistic about love, and has built emotional walls to insulate herself from the pain of lost love. Jesse perseveres through his own doubt and continues to work on Celine before sunset arrives and he once more has to leave on a plane.

Throughout the film, I had a sinking feeling that things were not going to work out between Jesse and Celine. As difficult as it is to recognize that their union would mean the end of a family, it’s equally difficult to think of a world where these two could not be together. It is once again to Hawke’s and Delpy’s credit that the two portray love so convincingly that we could hope for such a thing. By the end of the film, I was absolutely certain that it would end with Jesse leaving, but then to my pleasant surprise, Jesse opted to miss his flight home and explore a relationship with Celine. Although Linklater still left the ending open to some interpretation, we can at least have solace that Jesse and Celine were going to give it a try. And if for no other reason than for that satisfaction, this movie also makes it into my list of favorites.

"I think that if I could just accept the fact that my life is supposed to be difficult, you know, that’s what’s to be expected, then I might not get so pissed-off about it and I’ll just be glad when something nice happens.”
Ethan Hawke as Jesse, Before Sunrise