Sightlines · reception
How Before Midnight was received
2013 · Richard Linklater · Before Midnight on Sightlines
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
- 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.