"Still here ... Still here ... Still here ... Gone"

Before Midnight is the third in director Richard Linklater's stunning series about Jesse and Celine, the pair that met in 1994's Before Sunrise, then re-met in 2004's Before Sunset. Each of these films has been individually great, but together as a trilogy (and hopefully more) they amount to a masterpiece of sustained filmmaking.

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy now get writing credits for these films (they didn't for the first one), so I'm assuming they are partly responsible for the dialogue. Both performances are perfect, and what is amazing is how much each have consistently embodied these complex, not-always-likable people through all three films. They are Celine and Jesse, and what they say and how they act is entirely born from this fiction.

But it's one thing to write and act pitch-perfect dialogue, it is another that the dialogue is so fascinating. Before Midnight is a sad film, and maybe even a breakup film (one of the delights of this series is that all the films leave the viewer in a state of suspense), but even though Jesse and Celine might be ending, they are still electric to watch.

I hope this isn't just a trilogy, and that we get to see these characters at 50 and 59 and 68 ...

Postscript: Celine, during a walk through the Greek ruins, mentions that she is reminded of a film she saw as a child about a couple that visit Pompeii. She is undoubtedly referring to Journey to Italy, the Rossellini film from 1954 that has recently been restored and re-released into theaters. I caught it at The Brattle a few weeks ago, and it was terrific, a poetic and visual look at a fraying marriage starring George Sanders and Ingrid Bergman.

Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939)

The only Moto film in the public domain so I watched it on Netflix. I've only seen a couple of these films but I definitely like them. Despite the silliness/offensiveness of having Peter Lorre play the Japanese detective (international detective, he actually has a card), I really love watching Lorre play a hero. He manages to exude both intelligence and kindness. The story itself in this one was pure pulp. Moto takes on an international spy ring, filled with B actors doing crazy accents, like George Sanders who was, I think, supposed to be French, and Ricardo Cortez, the head baddie, and a ventriloquist!

I love this production still from the film below.

The Village of the Damned (1960)

A creepy little horror flick from England based on John Wyndham's 1957 novel The Midwich Cuckoos. In the village of Midwich all the inhabitants inexplicably blackout for a period of five hours. They wake up unharmed except that every fertile woman in the village is impregnated. When the children are born they turn out to be creepy little blonde Nazis with the ability to read minds and the ability to control adults. George Sanders plays a man initially curious and supportive of the other-worldly children, but also the man who must eventually save the day. All in all, a suspenseful film, and a great example of the stiff-upper-lip British horror film. While these children are ravaging the village, the villagers always dress impeccably, drink tea at the proper hour, and thoroughly and calmly analyze the situation.