Sightlines · a viewing thread

Strangers Who Walk and Talk

Watch these back to back for the particular magic of two people, a city, and a few borrowed hours of talk that may not outlast the night.

Mostly beloved and easy to fall for — Before Sunrise, Once, and Lost in Translation are date-night canon — with Chungking Express and Akerman held in reserve for when you want something more searching.

Before Sunrise (1995)
Before Midnight (2013)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Once (2007)
Chungking Express (1994)
Columbus (2017)
sex, lies, and videotape (1989)
Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the '60s in Brussels (1994)
Before Sunset (2004) — The one you can't believe isn't already here — nine years after Vienna, Jesse and Céline walk Paris in real time, and if Before Sunrise landed this is the essential next borrowed hour to finally pull down.
Night on Earth (1991) — The overlooked Jarmusch that rhymes with these on pure form — five taxis in five cities, each a stranger and a driver given the length of one ride to connect before the night lets them go.
Sidewalls (2011) — The under-seen Buenos Aires two-hander to finally watch — two lonely city-dwellers almost crossing paths across a great indifferent city, aching with the same near-miss tenderness as Lost in Translation.
Alice in the Cities (1974) — The Wenders road film these all quietly descend from — a drifting journalist and a stranded girl wandering city after city, an accidental bond forming in borrowed hours, the ur-text for Before Sunrise's whole sensibility.
Victoria (2015) — The one-take Berlin night you forgot you saved — a lonely newcomer falls in with strangers at four a.m., and it's this thread's promise ('a few borrowed hours that may not outlast the night') pushed to its most literal and devastating extreme.
Jab We Met (2007) — The exuberant Bollywood cousin to Before Sunrise's train meeting — a numb stranger and a nonstop-talking woman collide on a night train and talk each other back to life, if you want the joyful end of this thread.