9 Years Later...
Age/Youth
9 years after their night in Vienna, Jesse and Celine finally meet up again at Jesse's book signing in Paris. At the end of Before Sunrise they agreed to meet up at Vienna 6 months later which we find out never happened. After his signing Jesse and Celine decide to go get coffee and talk a bit, basically catch up. At first it was very formal and polite but as they continue to talk it eventually becomes less formal, however the way they would talk to each other was still very different from Sunrise. That's most likely because they are simply older. They constantly talk about how their lives have changed and how they have responsibilities. Jesse even says "I feel like I'm running a nursery with someone I used to date". Celine has become an advocate for the environment while dating a long distant photojournalist. The problem is they don't open up to each other until nearly the end of the movie. I believe one of the reasons for this is that they have become adults who are less likely to trust in someone they barely know. However I also believe its because they know each other. In Before Sunrise they had nothing to lose, they could be honest because they would most likely never see each other again. Now that they have actually met again the difficulty being honest is there just like they feared would happen if they promised to meet again. However they eventually open up and get to return to their youth and enjoy the moment.
Time
Linklater's use of real time was what this movie so great. This movie seemed to be one super long shot. The actors had a major part to play in this aspect. LInklater could basically leave a camera in front of them and the actors would do the rest; Ethan Hawke and Julia Delpy did take part in writing their own scripts but they had to make it seem "natural and spontaneous" for really long periods of time. The audience could connect to the film extremely easily because the movie literally takes 1 hour and 20 min and the characters seemingly have the exact same time pace. I talked about pace in my post about Before Sunrise yet its even more important in this one because its seeming live. Like the audience was watching every single step of the way.