The "Before" Trilogy: An independent love story
Not many love stories in cinema history have captivated viewers as deeply as the one starring Julie Delpy (Céline) and Ethan Hawke (Jesse) in the independent franchise of three films known as The “Before…” trilogy, comprising "Before Sunrise" (1995), "Before Sunset" (2004) and "Before Midnight" (2013), all directed by Richard Linklater. The first and the third part of the trilogy made the premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 1995 and 2013, respectively. The whole trilogy has won multiple international awards and received many nominations, and it fits perfectly in our "Feelms" theme.
The formula of shooting three films on the evolution of a romantic relationship in the real course of 18 years (with two periods of 9 years) has allowed viewers of a generation to feel tremendously identified with the couple. We have witnessed it all: their first teenage encounter; their conversations about love, experiences, politics, religion, work and many other issues; their doubts and insecurities; the confirmation of their mutual feelings; their fights; their moments of intimacy; their parenthood times; that is, their entire life together. Céline and Jesse are already part of our cinematic life. And we love it.
I'll now analyze the trilogy from the historical and social perspective of its times, studying what was happening in the world in the respective release years of each of the films, since many of the attitudes and dialogues of the leads are a reflection of the context of their particular times. Later on, already in the production process, I will delve into the interesting evolution of the trilogy’s funding models, closely connected to the film industry’s funding trends. Finally, I will focus on some of the marketing techniques used to further attract audiences to theaters.
Children of their time
“Before Sunrise” (1995).- In the mid-‘90s, the global concept of culture was passing through a crisis: those were the years where Kurt Cobain died and the X-generation cult movie Reality Bites came out (also starring Ethan Hawke, precisely). A sense of rebellion against the meaninglessness of culture was floating in the air. It was against this background that Before Sunrise was set. This context helped the idealistic teenage characters to express this discomfort even more forcefully than expected for their age, both through their conversations and their attitudes towards life.
“Before Sunset” (2004).- The sequel Before Sunset was perfect in the post-9/11 world. Reunited in Paris after nine years, Jesse and Celine weren’t strangers on a train anymore but two people with history, their faces now wrinkled with regret and 30-something weariness. More mature and sprinkled with disillusion, the movie is mainly about the ideal life passing you by, never to return, and being forced to face with what you are left with.
“Before Midnight” (2013).- This (for now) latest installment of the saga is the most intense of them all. We attended the still of Céline and Jesse’s marriage experience, in a naked and realistic way. This film portrayed as none of the previous ones some of the most characteristic features of contemporary society, such as new ways of relating (e.g. conversation about social networking with young couple during lunchtime), the concerns with the perfect image (e.g. when Céline asks Jesse if he'd pick her up on a train again, since she’s a “fat-ass, middle-aged mom, losing her hair”) or the male and female roles in marriage i.e. women raise children, whereas men work (e.g. bitter discussion in hotel room, a powerful climax that gives us goosebumps). This masterpiece comes to show that, relationships-wise, getting together is the easy part; staying together is definitely the tougher one.
Mirroring the industry financing trends
The “Before…” trilogy has proved to be one of the highest-grossing trilogies of all times. These small budget films (about $ 3 million for each of the chapters), have obtained profits worldwide which represent nearly four times the investments, which makes the trilogy one of the most profitable ever produced.
Part of the success is due to Richard Linklater’s clever strategy to start getting funding from a major. In 1995, Columbia Pictures (through Castle Rock Entertainment), agreed to finance and distribute a 2.7 million dollars budget film entitled “Before Sunrise”, which had opened the Sundance Film Festival earlier that year. Surely, Sundance’s success helped in order to win the big studio support for wide distribution. However, we will never know if the trilogy had existed had it not been for this first important collaboration with Columbia Pictures and Castle Rock Entertainment.
"Before Sunset" was also produced by Castle Rock Entertainment, but distributed by the indie division of a large study (the now-shuttered Warner Independent Pictures). Although the distributor underestimated the power of call of releasing the film the weekend of July 4, the box office was compensated by large numbers worldwide ($10.2 million). The director later acknowledged that, partially thanks to these global numbers, he could position more comfortably to obtain funding for the third installment.
Finally, "Before Midnight" was entirely privately financed, without participation of the industry whatsoever, and subsequently their US and UK distribution rights were acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for mid-seven figures at Sundance Festival 2013, making one of the biggest deals closed at the Festival that year.
To sum up, we can see how, in spite of using different financing models, the box office returns were successful in all of the cases. However, the most interesting feature about the changing financing models of the trilogy is that they clearly mirror the evolution of the film industry itself over the last 18 years. That is, they exemplify the major studios’ investment policies changes (e.g. their current preference for higher-budget productions) and demonstrate the necessary emergence of new trends for private financing. In Richard Linklater’s words on “Before Sunrise” being a studio production back in 1995: “It is a statement of how the industry has changed. (…). The fact that a studio would even bother with something like that now is just laughable.
Marketing tools
The “Before…” franchise caught the audience’s eye from its very first chapter, basically thanks to its carefully elaborated and absolutely believable scripts, its proximity to the viewer, the truth that exudes every pore of the dialogues or the outstanding work of its director and actors in introducing us into human relationships from a privileged seat. In other words, it turned out to be clear that investing in costly marketing campaigns was not necessary in this particular case to get people to like and going to watch the movies; they alone were worthy enough to pay the ticket without too much previous advertising efforts, mainly the traditional word-of-mouth seemed to work in this case.
Of course, the fact that the first (above all) and third installments successfully premiered at Sundance was definitely a major thrust in terms of marketing, given the great impact of this Film Festival on the US and global independent film circuit.
Apart from this powerful Sundance start, we could argue that the following actions helped making the movies even more appealing to the audience, as subtle marketing tricks.
1) While it is true that each of the films stands alone, leaving the endings open helps preserve the mystery of what will happen next, i.e. whether or not the couple will reunite and continue their love affair. This definitely precipitates the public’s interest.
2) On the other hand, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke collaborated with director Linklater in developing the scripts of "Before Sunset" and "Before Midnight", a fruitful collaboration that earned them multiple nominations (including Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, twice), as well as several awards. The fact that the actors were involved in the writing denotes their strong involvement in the films and it represents an indirect marketing technique, in the sense that it spreads to the public the actors’ passion for these movies, besides making us feel part of their “big family” in a very intimate way, which is actually very connected to the trilogy’s atmosphere.
3) But perhaps the most original marketing gimmick was to bring to light the real source of inspiration for the director to create the series: a girl with whom he had a brief but intense encounter in Philadelphia in 1989, also for the same time lapse (one day) that the leading roles of our trilogy. But unlike them, the real story was not successful because of the distance. In 2010, Linklater learned that the girl had died in a motorcycle accident shortly before the start of the filming of "Before Sunrise". The filmmaker has always been very discreet about it, but during the promoting of "Before Midnight" finally revealed her name. What is more, the film that closes the series is dedicated to her, the person who inspired the series. A sad but beautiful highlight to one of the more realistic and endearing love stories ever brought to the big screen.
After having analyzed the undeniable huge success of the “Before…” trilogy, we can draw the following conclusions from this particular case: if the story is catchy and well-written and has its target audience clearly defined so that the public can feel identified with it AND if the team apply a smart strategy to get funding so they can bring the movie to the screen in a cost-efficient manner and with professionalism, there is a high probability not only to convince the viewers, but also that the box office and profits are substantial, all that having saved a lot of money in big marketing campaigns.
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