Before Sunrise, 1995

Leaf 296 – Art Inspired

 

Before Sunrise (1995) IMDb

When the film ‘Before Sunrise’ (1995) came out, I deliberately decided not to go and see it. And I’m glad I didn’t. I only saw it for the first time a few years ago, and it is now one of my favourite movies. I’ve seen it several times since. The reason I chose not to see it at the time was simple. It sounded far too close to the life I was living at that moment. A close friend and I used to haunt London’s Southbank together. Idly wandering along the Thames and across the city. In and out of pubs, cafes, art galleries and cinemas. Killing time by sharing our idle thoughts in idle chats. Randomly roving wherever we wanted to go. Following our feet, following our whims. We were both students skipping lectures just to be together. She was an artist and I was a poet. We were filled with all the dreams and aspirations of two frustrated kids going nowhere with hardly any money. Watching ‘Before Sunrise’ now takes me straight back to those long and endless lazy days, right in the middle of the 1990s. Before the internet, before mobile phones. I can hear the two of us mirrored in those wandering, aimless conversations; caught by the movie in that cherished moment of time. It could so easily have been written about us. I’m so glad I saved that film for now, for the nostalgia. Thinking of all the lives we could have led, I’m glad that for a short moment at least, that was exactly the one we were able to live together. Even if it wasn’t to last.

 

 

BEFORE SUNRISE, 1995

 

Going round and round in circles:

 

            idle days

            idle thoughts

            idle chats.

 

 

 

 

Alexandra Buckle - Southbank Puddles (2018)