Before Midnight · reception & legacy

2013 · Richard Linklater

How Before Midnight has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Acclaimed on arrival at Sundance 2013 as the trilogy's bravest chapter, it's since hardened into the consensus pick for the series' best — the entry that retroactively made the whole project look like a masterpiece in three movements.

What's debated

The eternal fan fight: whose side are you on in that hotel-room argument — Jesse's or Céline's — with everyone convinced the film agrees with them.

Its footprint

Céline's 'Still there... still there... gone' at sunset became one of the trilogy's most quoted moments, and the series' nine-year rhythm turned 2022 into a collective fan vigil for a fourth film that never came.

Where it stands

A Letterboxd sacred text — the capstone of cinephilia's most beloved trilogy, a fixture on best-of-the-2010s lists, and the standard rebuttal to 'sequels are never as good.'

★ Did you know? Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke were Oscar-nominated for Best ADAPTED Screenplay — the Academy ruled the script an adaptation because it's based on characters from the earlier films.

Named by the director

Influences Richard Linklater has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

Journey to Italy (1954) — Rossellini's marriage-in-crisis-on-Mediterranean-holiday film was the acknowledged touchstone — it even gets name-checked in the movie itself.
Scenes from a Marriage (1973) — Hawke said in a 2013 Lincoln Center interview that 'our bar should be Scenes From A Marriage,' with Linklater agreeing that Bergman set the standard.