In the fall of 1989, Richard Linklater, the director of Before Sunrise, had a chance encounter with a young woman in a Philadelphia store. This brief but meaningful encounter immediately sparked his intention to create a film about what he had experienced that night.
June 16, 1994 is an unforgettable date for fans of Before dawn . That day, Jesse (Ethan Hawke), a young American, and Celine (Julie Delpy), a young French woman met on a train from Budapest to Vienna.
After an immediate connection, they decide to spend the night together while wandering aimlessly around the city and having intimate conversations.
A year after this meeting, the film directed by Richard Linklater is officially released on screens. Since then, it has become one of the most important romantic films in cinema.
Linklater, the creative mind behind the film and its sequels, before sunset And Before midnightbegan training as a filmmaker in Austin, Texas, in the 1980s. In that city, he managed to found the Austin Film Society, with which he began making independent films.
After his first jobs, in particular Lazy And Dazed and confusedLinklater managed to get director Rob Reiner’s production company, Castle Rock, to give him $2.5 million to make the next film he had in mind: the story of two young people who talk, walk around the Austrian capital and, somehow, end up falling in love within a few hours.
What many do not know is that this story was not pure fiction, since A significant part of it was born from a real experience he himself had in his youth that ended tragically.
The story that inspired Before Sunrise
In the fall of 1989, Linklater had a brief but pivotal encounter that, unbeknownst to him, would later serve as the inspiration for one of his most acclaimed works of cinema.
While visiting his sister in Philadelphia, the filmmaker happened to see a woman named Amy Lehrhaupt. He was 29 years old and had just finished recording the film. Lazywhen Lehrhaupt was 20 years old.
After meeting in a toy store, the filmmaker dared to leave him a note. “I’m going to be alone in town tonight, in case you want to do something later,” he wrote.
The couple eventually reunited and had a romantic night, even though they had only met a few hours before. As Linklater himself admitted in an interview, they discussed “art, science, movies, the whole gamut” and flirted.
Linklater realized he wanted to capture that feeling and not make it fleeting, so he commented on his intentions to bring it to the big screen. “I’m going to make a movie about it.” he suggested to Lehrhaupt.
“She was like, ‘What is it? What are you talking about?’ And I was like, ‘Just this. This feeling. ‘This thing that’s happening between us.'” the director would admit to the podcast The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith.
A similar moment is experienced during the film, when Celine comments to Jesse: “I think if God exists, he’s not inside anyone. Not in you or me, but in this space between us.
From midnight to six in the morning they wandered around the city. Although they shared several romantic moments, Linklater chose to leave some details private.
However, unlike what happens with Jesse and Celine, who come to an agreement to meet again six months later at the same place, Linklater and Lehrhaupt decided to exchange numbers while they returned to their respective lives. This, since he resided in Austin and she in New York.
They called each other a few times, but over time, the distance eventually made them lose touch.
This did not prevent Linklater from continuing his film project. He changed some details since in the film Jesse and Celine meet in Vienna and not in Philadelphia, but he was careful to preserve others, such as the moment when the characters listen Come here by Kath Bloom in a vinyl store. They had done the same thing on that magical night in 1989.
Although Lehrhaupt no longer returned his calls or messages, Linklater hoped to reconnect with her through the film. Not because he had romantic intentions again: at the time, he was in a relationship with Christina Harrison, whom he later married. Rather, he wanted to end his story with her, which he felt had remained unfinished.
The director even waited for the young New York woman to appear at one of the film’s screenings. “She never did. But I kept expecting her to say, ‘Oh, hi, I’m Amy. Do you remember me?’ “That would be very strange,” he said.
What I didn’t know at the time was that Lehrhaupt died in a motorcycle accident on May 9, 1994. before he turned 25 and just when the recordings of Before dawn They will start in Vienna.
It was only in 2010, 16 years after the young woman’s death, that Linklater learned the terrible news. A friend of his, who knew about the meeting, saw the film and noticed the similarities between the two stories. So he decided to send a letter to Linklater to inform him of Lehrhaupt’s death.
“It couldn’t have been sadder” the filmmaker confessed The times where he mentions for the first time the departure of women.
In Before midnightThe final part of the trilogy released in 2013, Linklater decided to pay tribute to Lehrhaupt in the closing credits. “Who knows what impact we have on each other’s lives. But she is an inspiration in that.” he said on another occasion.
Before sunrise (its original English title) is available for streaming via Max. .
Source: Latercera
I am David Jack and I have been working in the news industry for over 10 years. As an experienced journalist, I specialize in covering sports news with a focus on golf. My articles have been published by some of the most respected publications in the world including The New York Times and Sports Illustrated.
