Before Midnight

This most unlikely of threequels returns to the story of Jesse (Hawke) and Céline (Delpy), 18 years after they first met on a train and fell in love. The latest instalment restores many elements of the original two films – minimal plot, unfussy camerawork, real-time action, and long uninterrupted scenes of keenly observed quasi-intellectual dialogue between the pair, pontificating on love, life, and happiness.

But where the encounters of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset were spontaneous and romantic, Before Midnight joins the couple – now married – in the midst of a family holiday and a relationship losing its fizz. Young twins and a messy divorce with an ex-wife have suppressed any last slivers of romance, and, with its extended sequences of passive-aggressive bickering (he’s accused of being a “closet macho”, she of being “fucking insane”), the film is a rather more pessimistic take on relationships. Yet it remains as engaging, illuminating, honest and funny as its predecessor; here’s hoping we revisit Jesse and Céline in another decade or so. [John Nugent]